Western Canadians were not alone in their dismay at a federal election that spoke to our fears instead of our hopes. Accustomed to being led by our dreams, to rewarding audacity and boldness of vision, westerners found little in the campaign that reflected as citizens of a modern, outward-looking country whose best days lie ahead.
If anything, the election proved that the old political tribes no longer work. Their narrowness, their bickering, their shrill partisan attacks, were distinctly at odds with the inclusive and co-operative life of Western Canada's major cities. The "us and them" divide of partisan politics is particularly alien to a culture where we look for similarities rather than differences in the conduct of our everyday lives.
We in the urban West are on the cusp of a society in which there is no "them" -- only a sprawling, dynamic, vigorous "us" in which everyone is welcome to find a place, a grand inclusion that by its very nature embraces the possibilities of pluralism.
The Charter of Rights and Freedoms has enabled the birth of a New West, one in which our sense of being Canadian is unfettered by convention and tradition, and especially free of the "two founding nations" theory that still resonates east of the Manitoba border. In the 2001 Census, only 9 per cent of Edmontonians and Calgarians declared themselves as single-origin British or French descent.
The fact that nine in 10 residents of these major western cities proclaim themselves outside the "French Canada and English Canada" division illustrates the pluralism of the urban West. There are no ethnic enclaves in Alberta's major cities. We have embraced genuine pluralism -- a society wherein cultural mingling is a natural, positive foundation of society rather than something unusual that must be affirmed.
This was clear in the election campaign. In Edmonton-Beaumont, Conservative candidate Tim Uppal -- a baptized Sikh who wears a black turban and the flowing open beard -- came within a few votes of knocking off 25-year Liberal MP David Kilgour. In Edmonton-Strathcona, Conservative Rahim Jaffer, who came to Canada as a refugee from Uganda, won his third term. Such pluralism is even reflected in a Conservative caucus that accommodates cowboy-hatted Myron Thompson alongside the thoughtful Deepak Obhrai. Pluralism permeates everyday life, in schools, in hospitals, in public institutions, in communities, and in business. Two of the world's largest shopping complexes, West Edmonton Mall and South Edmonton Common, were developed by Canadians with origins in Iran and India.
You wouldn't know this from the small, arch-conservative intelligentsia that seems to get nearly all the media air time as the voices of the West. Their zeal in proclaiming a "firewall" around Alberta, their unfounded assertion that the views of powerful Calgarians represent those of the entire West (reflected in the Calgary postelection sentiment that the rest of the country got it wrong again), is at odds with the views of many citizens.
A year ago, our firm commissioned some research on citizen attitudes. When we asked the "firewall" question in the political context ("Do you want more of your tax money going to the federal government?"), nearly 80 per cent predictably said "No," as they might have in most of Canada. Yet when we asked people to agree with the notion that Alberta's riches belong to this province and should not be shared with other Canadians, more than 80 per cent disagreed -- an overwhelming rejection of the firewall favoured by Stephen Harper, Ted Morton and other neo-conservatives who keep pressing Premier Ralph Klein to adopt a form of sovereignty-association.
Partly to appease this clamour, Mr. Klein asked MLA Ian McClelland, a former MP, to lead a commission examining Alberta's place in Confederation. He found Albertans are more interested in playing a leading role in the country, rather than hiding behind a firewall. Albertans are passionate Canadians.
The urban centres of the West, like other Canadian metro cities, bring together many streams of human experience, under our Constitution and the values it represents. There's little patience for firewalls and conflict, and a huge appetite for moving forward with the creativity and vigour diversity breeds. This New West needs and deserves more responsive governance.
We want all three orders of government working together to serve the common good and the common wealth. As we chart our future, we want a government walking in step with us, rather than marching a generation behind.
Satya Das and Ken Chapman are principals of the Edmonton-based public policy consultancy Cambridge Strategies Inc. Mr. Chapman was one of a dozen Conservatives who supported Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan in the campaign. Mr. Das is author of The Best Country: Why Canada Will Lead the Future.