Vancouver Island Its Own Province
Friday, August 2, 2013 @ 3:45 AM
The idea to turn Vancouver Island into a province of its own may be gathering some support in the local area, but before those people who are pushing the petition get too far ahead in their plans, they might want to look at what the Province of Quebec found out in their quest to become a separate country.
The residents of Vancouver Island might want to dust off the study that was done on where the wealth of BC comes from. In the most recent study it was found that 67% of the wealth generated in BC comes from the rural areas of the province. The bulk of that money originates in the area north of Williams lake. Now we in the north know full well that we contribute more to the BC economy than we receive but the argument of population plays into the puzzle, and politics is won or lost on the vote of the population not on the region that it represents.
So strip away for example what would happen to BC Ferries and who would be responsible for the subsidies to operate the system? After all, a new Island province would be expected to pay its own way. For those that see the Island as a province on its own, step back for a moment and ask yourselves where will the money come from in order to provide the same sort of services that presently exist?
There may be an appetite on the Island for the NDP who have been able to show continual strong support from the voters, but that will not pay the bills.
In the end, if the Island feels strongly about the issue, take your share of the provincial debt with you along with your share of the money required to pay for projects that have been built and are financed over time and give it a try. Saying we would like to have our own province has a nice ring to it, reality on the other hand is a different matter.
I’ m Meisner and that’s one mans opinion.
Comments
I think we should support the formation of a new province. We already have two island provinces.
Of course, the only condition I would place on it is to then make Prince George, sitting near the center of the province, the capital of the mainland province.
We have to remember that Edmonton is just as far north as we are.
There are some states in the USA which have a compass designation associated with their names.
West British Columbia and East British Columbia.
Just think of all the money that would be generated by that move.
Oh, and the capital of West BC should be more centrally located in Nanaimo ….. :-)
Why not? They have more population than any of the three Atlantic provinces and likely a higher GDP per capita as well. I think it makes sense. When I was there recently it feels like a different province, but a close twin to the mainland. On the East side of the Island mountains its almost like one city from Victoria up through to Campbell River, and then they have the whole western and northern halves of the island that are as rural as one is going to find anywhere.
I think they got everything they need to be their own province. The only question would be BC Ferries and possibly the Sunshine Coast. I always consider the Sunshine Coast as part of Vancouver Island, and I think given the choice thats the way they would go as well.
Debt wouldn’t be an issue. The cities on the Island carry hardly any debt. Lots of pensioners bring their pensions to the island, so thats got to help out as well.
That leaves the provincial capital for mainland BC, which would obviously then have to be moved to PG, otherwise then why wouldn’t the north just separate and have its own province as well?
Should just go back the 1858 and have the original three provinces again of Caledonia, BC and the Island. The arguments for amalgamation don’t stand any more anyways.
Opps that was the original three colonies, none were provinces of Canada at the time.
Well this might be new news for some of you… but certainly old news for those of us with little hair left.
Vancouver Island… or more accurately, the REPUBLIC of Vancouver Island, has been in their very own world for many, many years.
The unique culture there speaks for itself, spawned by that protective isolation, special water, musty OLD money, salty air and what some might call “the great genetic experiment”.
The “Rock People”, as they are known, are gifted with powerful, strange powers… best observed from a safe distance.
Live and work there for a while… you will begin to understand.
V.
OK, I’m getting my morning chuckle reading this one!
I was born on the south end of the Island, lived for many years mid-Island in the Comox Valley, and did most of my logging on the north end of the Island. Is the Island special? You bet, but after living in PG for the past 18 years, I’d say it’s no more special than this area.
And Eagle, those who live on the Sunshine Coast, as I did before moving to PG in ’95, definitely do not consider themselves part of the Island. There’s more than Georgia Strait separating Island folks from Sunshine Coasters.
As for the Island becoming its own province: fuggetaboutit! It’s the diversity of BC that makes it so great.
If PEI is a province, why not Vancouver Island? It’ll never happen, just sayin’…
The one good thing that could result is that the likes of Carol James or Adrian Dix would never be the Premier of East BC. The two party system would consist of liberals and conservatives.
The NDP power base is on the island so West BC will likely have the prefix of the Peoples Republic Of.
The dogwood would be replaced by an aromatic leafy green plant and April 20th declared a holiday.
0.0
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“The residents of Vancouver Island might want to dust off the study that was done on where the wealth of BC comes from. In the most recent study it was found that 67% of the wealth generated in BC comes from the rural areas of the province. The bulk of that money originates in the area north of Williams lake.”
That was the biased study done by UNBC, I think.
We need to see the biased study done by the University of Victoria regarding where the wealth comes from.
Besides, living near the resources doesn’t mean we somehow ‘own’ them or deserve special consideration.
What ar they smokin on that Island anyway? ;)
I lived on the island most of my life and have to say I just never heard the term “rock people”. Use to be referred to as living on the rock so I guess maybe in the years I’ve been gone they became rock people? As for the island becoming a province, methinks this to be unlikely.
I could see Vancouver, Kelowna, or even Kamloops becoming the capital of a new BC, however not Prince George.
Who would want to force all these people to live in the middle of nowhere with six months of winter???
They don’t make hats big enough for all the swelled heads that live in Prince George.
The way the province is heading (with over spending and deficits), it is towards bankrupcy. Perhaps we should create a smaller southern BC and sell the north hillbilly part of it to Alberta or trade it (with its debt portion) with some south part of Alberta. The North Eastern part of BC belongs to Treaty 8 (Cree, Dane, Dene) people in Alberta and the eastern part of it can become a 1st nation territory too.
Now where should we draw the lines?
British Columbia should remain united as one jurisdiction. Hiving off Vancouver Island or any other regions into separate provinces is just plain ridiculous. As a whole, BC is quite likely the ONLY jurisdiction in Canada that is potentially ‘self-sufficient’ internally, and not being land-locked can trade freely internationally for those things we cannot provide for ourselves. Our problems are almost entirely ‘financial’, not ‘physical’, and separation would do no more to better our position in that area (over which each separate entity would still have NO control, and likely no chance of ever attaining it).
Separating BC into smaller parts will not solve any of the problems that hold us back from achieving the far greater potential for a better life for all here that we are more than physically capable of. It would just make it all the easier for those that virtually control us and our government now to make that control even more absolute.
British Columbia is huge.
British Columbia has many solitudes.
Look at the USA, which has a smaller landmass than Canada yet has 48 lower states while we have ten + three territories.
I think with smaller self-governing provinces each province would be finding what it can be and wants to be and become that because the effort of the people will be put towards that.
At the moment we have no control over our direction. The province decides what to do with the resources, the people living in the communities do not.
It is the same as municipal governments. The neighborhoods have no meaningful say. The First Nations are complaining about the same thing. The provinces are complaining about the same thing with the feds.
No jurisdiction is really doing that well in governing to satisfy regional solitudes. If cities and regional districts were given more power and authority it would be a different story.
It is time to rethink old notions. If we were given that opportunity people might be surprised what new opportunities there would be.
BTW, the reason why they chose Edmonton, that god forsaken place in the north of Alberta, as the capital when the province was formed was because it is in the middle of the province.
There are many capital cities in the world that were created in the center of the country for the same reason.
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