A column by Richard Gwyn

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1118353813221&call_pageid=970599109774&col=Columnist969907618300

which contains the telling remark

"It's one of the curiosities of Canadian federalism that every single province and region is absolutely convinced it's being shortchanged."

My comments:

A big problem in Canada is provincialism and the ridiculous way it is feted. The great thing about Cdn nationalism is that it never goes far to become national chauvinism. Now unfortunately the pendulum has swung the other way with provincialism that borders on Xenophobia. And it is a curious xenophobia at that. Provincialists are willing to embrace anyone, the Americans, the French, the brown boys and girls from India, in a do-or-die effort to say "FUCK YOU" to anybody from another Canadian province.

When I listen to Easterners talk about Westerners, Westerners talk about Easterners, Francophones talk about anglophones and vice versa, I'm amazed at how small differences are being talked off as they mean anything at all. I was born in India, a country that has real diversity and underwent repeated bloodbaths on it. In India all Christians are considered about the same. This is because there are so many different types of people, no one has the energy to figure out the different types of Christians.

But here we go, La-dee-da... WASPs from Ontario and WASPs from Alberta and Roman Catholics from Quebec whisper darkly to me, a brown Hindu, about how "those people" are all so different.

Amazing