Talk of the western provinces separating from the rest of Canada is a “tired trope” that needs to stop, British Columbia Premier David Eby says.
Eby told a news conference Thursday he doesn’t think there’s any credible threat to Canadian unity and accused people like former Reform Party leader Preston Manning of “seeking clicks and playing to a political base” that is disavowed by the vast majority of Canadians.
“It is a tired trope. It is a waste of time, and it is an attack on the unity that we have right now as a country standing up to the Trump administration, for political, partisan gains,” Eby said, referring to Canada’s ongoing tariff fight with U.S. President Donald Trump.
“I hate it. I think it’s awful. I want them to stop.”
Manning wrote in an op-ed in the Globe and Mail newspaper this month that a vote for a Liberal government in the federal election equals a vote for Western secession.
Eby has previously raised concerns about B.C.’s share of federal funding, accusing Ottawa last year of ‘showering’ eastern provinces with cash, while the West gets less.
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On Thursday, he reiterated that benefits from Ottawa need to be equally distributed across the country based on population size.
He said a “significant source of the fuel” used by people who call for separation is that funding is not distributed fairly, and his advice for the next prime minister would be “to do the basic fairness things” to address those concerns.
“There are special programs for Ontario and Quebec that are not delivered to other provinces. And when that happens, it gives these opportunists the chance to get on Facebook and say, ‘Yeah, let’s separate from the rest of Canada,’” Eby said.
“It’s nonsense, but it feeds that fire.”
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