At least if they want me to vote for them. But also because its a solid political decision in advance of 2015. The number of pro-pipeline votes to be had in B.C. is small and getting smaller. Alberta is and will remain a wasteland regardless. And the NDP's anti stance doesn't seem to have hurt them in Saskatoba, according to most recent polls. Furthermore, it is of a piece with the LPoC's casting itself as the party of national unity. The Quebec separatist movement right now is a side-show. The real threat to a unified Canada comes when a federal government beholden to the Calgary oil-patch tries to force Northern Gateway on British Columbia. D'you know that B.C. is one of the most economically diversified of all the provinces? They extract stuff from the ground, sure, but they also paint and dance and pick stocks and make computers and take little kids from Japan out in the ocean in inflatables where they can have their first experience of swimming with a dolphin. They also have a plethora of port cities to send their exports overseas from and take in shirts made in Romania and all that crap China sells us. If any province could afford to give Confederation the middle finger and get away clean its BC. And I will just note that the rhetoric in the B.C. media has only just heated up to where I was three months ago. They're now freely invoking the NEP, but casting Alberta and Harper in the role of Trudeau, and the whole "over my dead body" meme has spread from Rafe Mair to the general population. So when I say that, if Northern Gateway is approved next year, there will be serious talk of B.C. getting the hell out, you would do well to believe me. Northern Gateway could destroy this country and, as Liberals, we should all be against this result just on general principles.
