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Geoff Russ: Quebec and Alberta separatists don't hate Canada

They are disenfranchised by a country that looks down on them, their economies and their culture

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Taking the anger and dissatisfaction in Quebec and Alberta at face value is the easiest way to misunderstand both. Both provinces are restless and chronically at odds with the federal government. They both produce a wide array of autonomists, nationalists and outright separatists with a talent for twisting Ottawa’s arm.

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However, Derek Fildebrandt, publisher of the Western Standard, described the impulses of his fellow Albertans very well: “They do not hate Canada. They do not hate her proud history and achievements. They hate what Canada has become and where Canada is going. And they do not want to go down with the ship.”

Geoff Russ: Quebec and Alberta separatists don't hate Canada Back to video

Despite what many people may say, neither Alberta nor Quebec’s anti-Ottawa tendencies are inherently anti-Canadian. Rather, they are rebellions in defence of two unmistakable but scorned traits of the Canadian character.

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