Splitting The Difference: Is Partition The Endgame In Canada, U.S.?
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The bumper sticker in Utah is brutally succinct. It shows the donkey image of the Democratic Party with the words, “If you’re going to vote like an ass go back to California.”
You can probably find a similar sentiment, if not bumper sticker, in places like PEI, rural Ontario, Florida, North Carolina, Montana or Texas. The urban elites are fleeing to them from the choked swamp of liberal big cities. They’re looking for lower taxes, lower real estate prices and lower crime rates. But they want to bring their Woke politics with them.
If there’s been one accomplishment of the Biden presidency it has been closing the Woke information loop. Nothing gets into the Progressive Castle to disturb the inhabitants. They listen, but they don’t hear. And their new neighbours want none of it. They don’t want people infected with imported Woke politics infecting their systems.
The latest flash-point example in both nations was the recent SCOTUS decision repealing the sacred liberal signpost of Roe v. Wade. In effect, the justices made no decision on abortion restrictions. They instead stated it was not a matter for the federal government to decide. It should be decided by voters, not judged, in the 50 U.S. states individually.
The Left in both countries predictably went ballistic, claiming SCOTUS overreach. Without reading the decision they insisted that women were again relegated to backrooms and coat hangars. Celebrities and Democrats placeholders made their usual noises to the Media Party about scrapping the Supreme Court or the Constitution if they can’t keep unlimited abortion. Justin Trudeau promised abortion mills for American women seeking to end pregnancies.
What they conveniently hide is that polls in the U.S. show that 37 percent would ban abortion entirely with only rape and incest exceptions, 49 percent support an abortion ban after 6 weeks and 72 percent support abortion ban after 15 weeks. In short the media/ Hollywood consensus— where people like Whoopi Goldberg boast of having seven abortions— represent just 28 percent of those polled. Not that these numbers will ever make it to MSNBC or CBC.
Along with guns, climate change, energy policy, information privacy and higher taxes, the Roe v. Wade fight illustrates the schism that has grown in postmodern society. Where finding compromise and accepting free speech were the bedrock of democratic societies in the U.S. and Canada, today finds warring camps unable and unwilling to agree on any major policy initiatives besides printing more money.
The Supreme Court and the political process are now used to punish opponents. The result? “America is more divided culturally and politically than at any time since the 1850’s. Real and authentic dialogue does not occur, and violence and the threat of violence increase daily. We are on a precarious path with potentially dangerous outcomes.”
Canada is undergoing a similar catharsis, driven by the ideological Justin Trudeau whose fealty to The Great Reset outstrips his interest in gas prices or runaway inflation at home. His attack on privacy and rights— aided by a compliant media— is epitomized by the current persecution of Tamara Lich, the Freedom Convoy coordinator. As a result, weary Canadians are dispersing across the nation to find cities or provinces agreeable to their politics.
The question is, have we reached a point at which citizens, disaffected by their states and provinces, begin moving en masse to entities that suit their politics? Already California is haemorhaging people and companies, with 119,000 citizens leaving the Golden State’s tax rolls in 2021 for places like Utah, Idaho, Texas or Tennessee. The state’s population has now shrunk to 2016 levels, despite the huge flow of illegal migrants into its midst. Republican-leaning red states gained the most residents — led by Florida, Texas, and North Carolina — while the blue states of California, New York, and Illinois were the biggest migratory losers.
In Canada, Toronto’s outward exodus is shielded by the huge influx of immigrants to the GTA. But the real-estate price spikes in smaller communities across the country speaks to the massive outflow of money and talent from the gridlocked city and its unrepentant Boomer values.
With no appetite for compromise from the current governments and their massive bureaucracies could we see something like the exit of the United Empire Loyalists after the American Revolutionary War in the 1780s? Those loyal to the Crown emigrated to pre-Confederation Canada to continue to enjoy the protection of the King. Those supporting the new and untested United States gravitated to the fledgling nation.
In that spirit will we see liberals and progressives who believe in unlimited abortion, gender fluidity, gun seizures, high taxes and draconian climate policies hive in “blue” states while those with contrary opinions gravitate to “red” states such as Texas, Florida, Tennessee or Utah? The re-election of Donald Trump in 2024 would further exacerbate the tensions— and threats— about schism.
In Canada, where provinces have fewer powers than U.S. states in deciding their own policies, could we see a similar schism as the West tries to chart a course different from that of Ontario, Quebec and B.C.’s lower mainland? And if those rejecting the progressive emerging Washington to Ottawa are forcibly made to kneel, surrender guns and acquiesce to state control in their everyday lives could we see violence?
Is it possible that, instead of a relatively peaceful departure of the Loyalists post Revolutionary War, we instead get the partition nightmare experienced by India in 1947. With the British Crown withdrawing from the sub-continent leaving a Hindu India and a new Muslim Pakistan, millions migrated to tribal protections. In the process millions were slaughtered in sectarian fighting.
Today, both possessing atomic weapons, the nations glare menacingly at each other, punctuated by border skirmishes. They remain more isolated than before from the former countryman under the Raj. Driven by idealogues, North America is perched precariously on such a philosophical partition. One that could easily become a physical partition. The Great Compromise of 2022 is waiting by the door, waiting to make its entrance. It will not be a grand entrance.
Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster (http://www.notthepublicbroadcaster.com). The best-selling author was nominated for the BBN Business Book award of 2020 for Personal Account with Tony Comper. A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada's top television sports broadcaster, he’s also a regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. His new book with his son Evan Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History is now available on http://brucedowbigginbooks.ca/book-personalaccount.aspx