https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-mark-carney-is-a-threat-to-national-unity/
“Preston Manning is the former leader of the Reform Party of Canada and a former leader of the Opposition.

Because of the vastness of Canada’s territory, the differing interests of its various regions, the abundance of competing economic and social interests, and the weakened state of democratic instruments for reconciling conflicting interests, national unity will be a perpetual challenge for whomever we choose to form our national government.

Recent polling by Pollara Strategic Insights shows a temporary decline in support for secession in Quebec but, paradoxically, support for the separatist Parti Québécois remains high. Were the PQ to win the next provincial election in Quebec as predicted, it has promised to hold another referendum on secession. And so the next federal government, no matter who forms it, will be faced yet again with a challenge to national unity on the Quebec front.

But whether politicians, the media, or voters in central Canada realize it or not, the greatest future threat to national unity is emerging not from Quebec, but on the Western front – again, revealed by the recent Pollara survey.

On account of the mismanagement of national affairs for the past decade by the Liberal government, and its consistent failure to address those issues of greatest concern to Western Canadians, large numbers of Westerners simply will not stand for another four years of Liberal government, no matter who leads it. The support for Western secession is therefore growing, unabated and even fuelled by Liberal promises to reverse many of their previous positions. Such promises of expediency simply don’t ring true in the West. Who, except the most politically naive, would believe Mark Carney’s promises to reverse the Liberal positions on everything from east-west pipelines to identity politics and climate change, when standing behind him is a cabinet of 23 MPs who, just a month ago, were advocating for the very opposite and have done so for years?

The bottom-up support for Western secession – another one of those populist movements that central Canada has never anticipated or understood – is currently centred on Alberta and Saskatchewan. But it has the potential to spread to most of B.C., Manitoba and the adjacent territories depending on how it is organized and led. And this time, unlike the late 1980s, there is no Reform Party to redirect that populist energy in a “West Wants In” direction.

So what can be done? Here are two suggested actions, the first by voters in central and Atlantic Canada, and the second by Western political leaders.

Voters, particularly in central and Atlantic Canada, need to recognize that a vote for the Carney Liberals is a vote for Western secession – a vote for the breakup of Canada as we know it. If you couldn’t care less about the concerns or actions of Western Canada, then ignore this unsolicited advice. But understand that separation of the resources-based economic engine of Western Canada from what’s left of the rest of Canada will have dire economic and social consequences for the latter.

Secondly, Western political leaders need to provide a mechanism for recognizing and addressing the growing support for Western secession in an orderly and democratic manner, so that its support and leadership are not surrendered to extremists or eccentrics for lack of thoughtful consideration of how best to proceed. Initially, this mechanism need not be a Western secession party after the Quebec model of the Parti or Bloc Québécois, but rather a democratic forum to first consider various alternative courses of action.

For example, consideration should be given to organizing a “Canada West Constitutional Conference” as soon as possible after the federal election, with a flexible agenda and the backing of at least one provincial government.

If there is a genuinely new federal government after April 28, then the agenda of that conference should be twofold: first, to constructively address ways and means of co-operating with that government to redress the damage done to Western Canada by a decade of Liberal neglect and misrule and, second, to consider how best to negotiate new and better Canada-U.S. trade relations.

But if the Liberals, employing the fear of U.S. President Donald Trump to secure the support of easily frightened voters, should be returned to office, then the agenda of the conference should be to consider ways and means of peacefully seceding.

The next prime minister of Canada, if it remains Mark Carney, would then be identified in the history books, tragically and needlessly, as the last prime minister of a united Canada.”