Duck! (no...chicken)

Avoidance during the campaign is not a bad strategy

Former Reform Party leader Preston Manning (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

I’m a chicken.

Yes, I cover my eyes during really tense parts in a movie and find an excuse to check the laundry if I’m at home watching Homeland (again).

I’m not sure why actually. Am I afraid of the outcome? Will it stir an unbridled emotion I’ve been suppressing for years?

Or perhaps I already know what the outcome will be, and don’t want to go through the whole exercise of dancing around all those predictable moments I’m about to see unfold.

It’s sort of the reason why, despite all the comments and coverage, I have avoided reading Preston Manning’s Op-ed in the Globe and Mail, where he evidently warned Canadians about an impending national unity crises, if they vote a certain way – or don’t.

I’ve seen that movie before, am familiar with the characters, and know the plotline.

When Op-Ed was published I started getting messages from friends acrss the country asking me if I’m separating from Canada, and how real is the threat?

“Relax,” I told them. “There’s an election on.”

That’s not to say there isn’t a dedicated pocket of Albertans who have always felt that way, and others who have felt ignored by the “east” forever. ‘m not one of them, but I kind of get it.

Here’s an example of what I mean.

When I served as the national union president for CBC employees, I was a bit annoyed when managers in Toronto would repeatedly send me an invitation to a meeting that started at 9:00 am Monday morning.

Do they not know, Alberta is in a different time zone…and their 9:00am is my 7:00 am???

After a few years of me declining these early starts, they finally figured it out.

I was also surprised to come across so many colleagues who had travelled extensively around the world, but had never been West, much less to Alberta. To many, it was completely foreign.

On the flip side there are a lot of Albertans I’ve met who’ve never been east of Saskatchewan, and don’t plan venture that way.

These annoyances of course are minor compared to what really rattles some people in Alberta, such as the cap on emissions, regulations and the lengthy approval process to build pipelines, and a whole host of other issues I’ve heard about over the years.

But as a reporter, in the context of doing stories about western alienation, nobody ever threatened to throw me out of my country or remove my country from me.

That type of threat is right up there with the leader of a sovereign nation threatening to annex another country. Hmm sound familiar?

This discontent and alienation are not new. After all it was the basis behind the creation of the western based protest Reform Party, which Preston Manning famously founded in 1987.

I too covered that movement and remember meeting with two fellas in Prince Albert Saskatchewan who tried to explain to me what the party was “for and against” in those early days. I recall that story vividly, especially since I came across it while transferring VHS tapes in January.

Those two guys were convinced they were angry about something, if they could remember what it was.

Some stories never go away – this is one of them.

I also recall former Alberta Premier Ralph Klein lamenting how he felt more at risk from political forces on the “right” than from the “left.”

While he was premier, he put together a committee to study issues such as a separate Alberta police force, and more autonomy for Alberta. The committee came back with a report to say none of the issues were worth pursuing. (The fix was in).

No, the issues have never disappeared – but at times they get louder.

Like right now, during an election.

Manning’s piece did garner a lot of attention, but not as I can tell, sympathy from others.

It’s created a lot of chatter in parts of Alberta that feel very comfortable within Canada thank-you-very-much and resent a flash from the past sticking his neck into an election where he is not on the ballot.

Plus – they just don’t like the guy.

Back to the election and how being a chicken, not a duck factors into this narrative.

Yakky Doodle was a duck. I inserted a picture of the lovable cartoon character because I fondly remember Chopper the big dog warning Yakky to “close yer eyes Yakky you shouldn’t outta see this…”

Before Chopper clobbered a cat, or wolf or some type of predator who gobbled up vulnerable Yakky.

That’s kind of like what I’m feeling like these days (not Chopper, but Yakky).

I’m feeling like something is going to bust, but I don’t quite know what.

Staying with the “chicken” comment at the beginning of this piece…

Next week, the federal debates will be on. This could be what’s on my mind.

I’m feeling a bit anxious about the whole thing. Like you know how someone might get ripped apart on live television.

Reality television has heightened expectations of verbal assaults, and timely consequences.

Think “You’re fired!” and how far a reach that rally cry has extended.

Oh, I’ll watch the debates or at least try. And I suspect the issue of unity, or separation may come up.

Even though I’ve heard about Western alienation for decades, perhaps it’s time for all leaders to really take a hard look at what’s fueling this sentiment, and why it has never disappeared.

As a distraction during the debates though, perhaps I’ll muster the courage to finally read Manning’s article.

It will take my mind off of what’s happening on the screen.

And I’ll do an especially big load of laundry while reading the Op-Ed, and peeking at the screen from time to time.