Canadians are by no means alone in having separatists among them. Many countries contain cohorts of the discontented who believe they would be better off if their part of the country departed from the main.
Our neighbours the Americans, for example, experienced one of history’s most famous efforts at separation. It didn’t go well. The separatists, who called themselves the Confederacy, lost their fight and their precious way of life in the bargain in one of history’s bloodiest civil wars.
One might think that the horror of that effort would have dampened the urge for separation permanently, but not so. The Americans, like the rest of us, learn little from history. And today the U.S. is about as polarized as it was before the civil war, and numerous fractures are showing.
A recent article in The New York Times suggested that at a moment when great swathes of Americans can no longer talk to each other, thoughts of secession are crossing many minds.
Apparently activists in the two most populous states, California and Texas, continue to promote separation. As an independent country, California would have the world’s fourth largest economy.
Some of the northern states are eying Canada as their liberal populations find a Trump America increasingly unliveable. Many American in northern California, Oregon and Washington see themselves as better off joining British Columbia to form a new nation called Cascadia.
A group called Cascadia Democratic Action is promoting 2028 ballot measures in Washington and Oregon on secession if things don’t improve. As one member remarked, “I have way more in common with someone in Vancouver, B.C., than someone in Arkansas.” More in common in many respects, including social policies, economic ties and environmental issues.
States, too, are having their separation movements. The Greater Idaho movement wants to move a large swath of neighbouring rural, conservative Oregon into Idaho. Some residents of southeastern New Mexico want to join Texas.
Indiana politicians have approved legislation inviting conservative counties in Illinois to join their state. A West Virginia state senator accorded a similar invitation to border counties in Virginia and Maryland.
The support for shifting eastern Oregon into Idaho reflects a similar interest in eastern B.C. to join Alberta. As an eastern Oregon supporter of the Greater Idaho movement put it, “They just don’t understand us on the other side of the mountains.”
What is all this interest in separating about? According to Oxford University’s Semir Dzebo, who studied the Greater Idaho movement, public polling showed that the effort was less a partisan fight than an economic one. He claims that the movements are motivated by a sense of feeling different coming with economic consequences.
As a democrat, I believe in people’s right to separate, as long as they follow democratic procedure. I also believe that in a free country where you have a right, indeed a responsibility, to participate in building your society, separating is a last resort. I fail to see conditions that justify any need for that last resort in this country, but there will probably always be some who do.
Nor, viewing from a distance, do I see much justification for any of the American separatist movements. Of course, President Trump could change that. And it would be amusing indeed, if after all the 51st state nonsense, one or more of the current 50 states decided to leave, particularly if they wanted to become the 11th province, or maybe the 4th territory.