A new national survey that asked people whether they wanted their provinces to do more to develop an identity separate from Canada found the most common preference in Saskatchewan was to keep things as they are.
Results of the Confederation for Tomorrow survey, released Thursday, suggest 40 per cent of Saskatchewan residents hold that opinion, while 24 said the province should do more to distinguish itself from Canada and 20 per cent think it should do less. Another 15 per cent responded that they couldn’t say.
The poll surveyed 5,461 total adults in all 13 provinces and territories online and by phone, including 422 Saskatchewan residents, in January and February.
Nationally, about one in five Canadians agree that their province should be doing more to develop a separate identity from the rest of the country. But almost as many say their province should be doing the opposite.
Almost a quarter of Saskatchewan residents want their province to do more to develop a separate identity from the rest of Canada, according to the new Confederation for Tomorrow survey. (Environics Institute for Survey Research)
Saskatchewan saw the biggest growth rate among the provinces in wanting more efforts to have a separate identity, twice as high today than when residents were last asked the same question in 1991, according to the Environics Institute for Survey Research.
Meanwhile, half as many Quebec respondents feel that more emphasis should be placed on developing a separate identity compared to roughly 30 years ago.
‘Nation within a nation’
The report was framed around Premier Scott Moe’s “nation within a nation” comments in the fall, said Environics Institute executive director Andrew Parkin.
In November, Moe said he wanted the province to be a “nation within a nation” by increasing autonomy.
Moe was “referring to Saskatchewan taking greater control of its own economic sovereignty, especially when it is threatened by actions and policies of the federal government,” Moe’s press secretary wrote in an email to CBC News on Wednesday.
“Premier Moe continues to hear strong support for that objective among Saskatchewan people.”
Moe also said at the time that he was “not talking about separation,” but about “being a Saskatchewan cultural identity within the nation of Canada.”
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said in the fall that he wanted the province to be a ‘nation within a nation’ by increasing its autonomy in several areas, including policing, taxation and immigration. (Matt Duguid/CBC News)
Two Prairie-based political parties that have advocated for western independence endorsed Moe’s message, including the Maverick Party, formerly Wexit Canada.
“The notion that Saskatchewan’s identity should become more distinct or more separate or go in a different direction from the rest of the country was something that caught our attention,” Parkin said in an interview with CBC News on Wednesday.
Lack of momentum
Few Saskatchewan survey respondents (17 per cent) strongly agreed that their province has a distinct culture that is often misunderstood by people living in the rest of Canada.
Saskatchewan residents, along with residents of seven other provinces, were more likely to identify as Canadian only or first, rather than with their province only or first, the survey results said. Provincial identity predominates only in Quebec and in Newfoundland and Labrador, according to the survey.
“I think the purpose here is not really to keep score or to say whether the premier was right or not, but to see which way the winds are blowing,” Parkin said.
“I don’t think that you can see a lot of momentum around this. I don’t think you can see the country really pulling apart any further around this question of identity.”
Ken Coates, a public policy professor at the University of Saskatchewan, agreed.
“The reality is that people in Saskatchewan are proud Canadians. They might be frustrated Canadians, they might even be angry Canadians, but they’re still Canadians,” Coates said.
University of Saskatchewan professor Ken Coates said Saskatchewan residents still identify as Canadians despite grievances with the federal government. (Jason Warick/CBC)
The Environics Institute for Survey Research collaborated with the Centre of Excellence on the Canadian Federation, the Canada West Foundation, the Centre D’Analyse Politique – Constitution et Fédéralisme, and the Brian Mulroney Institute of Government on the research.
There is no margin of error for the results, as most of the survey was conducted with an online panel. The respondents were weighted by province and territory, age, gender, education, immigration background, language, and Indigenous identity.
High support for shifting federal powers to Sask. govt
Many Saskatchewan survey respondents supported shifting federal powers to the provinces, with 39 per cent saying they prefer that their government “take charge of many of the things the federal government does right now.”
Coates said this highlights that the federal government is not representing Saskatchewan interests, noting that there are no Saskatchewan MPs in the Liberal Party.
However, Coates questioned what specific federal responsibilities the provincial government would be able to take on.
Sixteen per cent of Saskatchewan respondents said they support a shift in the other direction — for the federal government to take charge of provincial portfolios — while 23 per cent of respondents supported leaving things the way they are and 22 per cent couldn’t say.
There was also high support for shifting federal powers to the provinces in Alberta (44 per cent) and Quebec (37 per cent).
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
