Trudeau must pay attention to west

Prime Minister Trudeau on election night made a claim that Canadians overwhelmingly supported his vision for the future of Canada.
But before making that statement and cutting Scheer off, he should have looked at the electoral map of Canada and the voting totals.
If ever there was clear indication that we live in a divided Canada, the map clearly indicated that.
The Liberal party also received fewer votes Canada-wide than did the Conservative party.
The Liberal party’s mandate came from Quebec, Ontario and the Maritimes. West of Manitoba to the centre of BC, the Liberals do not have a single person representing that geographic area and its population in their caucus.
Trudeau only made a single midnight stop in Alberta completely disregarding Alberta voters and the voters of Saskatchewan. Yet he spent countless hours in Quebec working to shore up ridings.
Mario Beaulieu the Bloc Quebecois leader noted that he would only support legislation that was beneficial to Quebec and clearly rejected any idea that pipelines should be built in Canada and especially in Quebec.
Perhaps he had forgotten that the natural gas delivered to homes, businesses voters in the election and industries in Montreal and Quebec City arrived at those locations via pipelines.
He should also be reminded that the gasoline, jet fuel that supports the airports in Montreal comes to that city by pipeline or rail.
He appeared ready to talk about separation again if the Liberals questioned any legislation developed by the provincial legislation.
The voters in the west are mad. Unemployment is highest in Alberta.
When the rest of the country was hemorrhaging in the 2008 market crash, Alberta was booming and supporting Canada.
Yet following the downturn in 2013, both Saskatchewan and Alberta are continuing to suffer without any recovery and the NDP, Green Party and the Liberals seem to have failed to assist the economies in those two provinces.
After this election, two-thirds of Canada voted for the environment and three parties clearly oppose pipelines.
Now in the west, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and a great deal of British Columbia, a new movement is forming called “Wexit” that calls for at least two provinces to separate from Canada.
Both Alberta premier Jason Kenney and Saskatchewan premier Scott Moe have indicated that they are prepared to work with this new Liberal government provided that they see action on supporting the economies of both provinces.
That will involve building the Trans Mountain Pipeline and restoring grain markets in China. Both provinces economies are hurting from those issues.
In addition, the two provinces want a renewed deal on transfer payments between provinces.
Quebec is continuing to receive payments from Alberta although their economy is booming and Alberta’s economy if hurting.
The reason is that Quebec does not have to include their electric energy revenue generated by Hydro Quebec, but Alberta has to include the revenues generated by the oil patch as does Saskatchewan.
That change would put billions back into the economy of Alberta and provide the provincial government there of opportunities to diversify the economy.
One receives a completely different perspective on Canada when you read and listen to commentators in Western Canada.
In Rainy River District, we often feel that we are not heard in Toronto or Ottawa.
Imagine what it looks like across three provinces to feel that you are not heard in the nation’s capital.
Perhaps Justin Trudeau should begin his first month by spending a great deal of time meeting with the premiers of the western provinces, developing a strategy to overcome the dissatisfaction of the voters in those three provinces.
Failing to take those steps could make “Wexit” a more likely reality.