Morgan Pendleton
(201 238 446)
October 26, 2001

PLSC 3329

XIV) What is the Western Premier’s Conference? What role does it play in uniting / disuniting the four western provinces?

Within the framework of Canada lies the diversity of the provinces and areas, versus the fraternity of Canadians and the need for national unity. As Canada has become a more and more decentralized state, some provinces have taken to interstate politics and province building as cornerstones of their main agenda. An example of this has been the development of the Premier’s Conference, and the Western Premier’s Conference (WPC) as new ways for the regional concerns of the provinces and regions to work both with and against the federal government.  Within this paper, I hope to develop two contrasts of the WPC; a parallel between the WPC and the use of non-traditional, or opposition government by the west in national politics, and a comparison of the changes between the regional concerns of the WPC, and the federal issues of the Premier’s Conference.

The western provinces represent only a small portion of the Canadian population, and have (more or less) proportional seats in the House of Commons. The west has traditionally felt alienated from Ottawa, and has thus, traditionally voted in protest parties to Ottawa. This voting pattern, combined with party solidarity (and the failure of regional representation of the Senate) has only increased feelings of alienation in the west, and created a move for new ways to push for the views of the region.  The off-shoot of this was the development of the WPC, a localized take on the annual Canadian Premier’s Conference. 
The WPC joins the premiers in matters referring to Federal – Provincial relations ships, namely, the issues around transfer payments; a very large part of the provinces total annual budgets. This meeting also allows for the western provinces to focus their collective power over the federal government to achieve common goals. Over the two to three day periods, previous meetings have created “wish lists” from the west to Ottawa. These give the premiers two valuable incentives: a written, signed document that asks for various western goals from Ottawa and a media-rally point to showcase their activeness to their constituents. 
	It should be noted that the conference does spark some opposition between the western provinces, the conservative views of Alberta and B.C. (under the name Liberals) will not always see eye to eye with the NDP governments in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Since the WPC is a conference that presents a paper to the Federal government, the WPC must submit a unified front; this means that compromise is in order on some issues to reach a consensus on others.  These differences in opinion tend to be blurred in the final reports because of a lack of specifics regarding compensation to each province for each industry.
 	Also, the paper shall look into the similarities of the itinerary of the Western Premier’s Conference, and the Premier’s Conference, as two examples of institutional interest-groups pushing for increased province building powers while maintaining Canada wide standards, as seen in The Social Union Framework Agreement. This will be then compared to the specific regionally based demands created by the WPC. This should show the difference between the specific interests of the regions versus the province-building demands submitted by the Premier’s Conference. 

	Most of the information for this paper will come directly from the released reports, transcripts and news articles regarding the WPC, and the premier’s conference. Most of these can be found on-line at various government sites
   2001 WPC conference in Moose Jaw, Sask. http://www.wpc2001.gov.sk.ca/
   2000 WPC conference in Brandon, Man. http://www.gov.mb.ca/wpc/welcome.html
or through various newspapers and magazines. (Herald, Globe and Mail) Information on the status of Canada’s inter-provincial levels will be found from Canadian Federalism and Economic Union, Ministry of Supply and Services, 1993, Alberta in Canada Strength in Diversity, Government of Alberta, 1984. Other sources will include class textbooks and notes.