[Individualist]

If you look at the comments section of the CBC news site or of any of the other major news outlets, stories that touch on Alberta draw out some very hateful screeds directed not just against "the oil patch" or certain political parties, but Albertans as people. The vast majority of these ugly comments come not from the old Laurentian power centre of Southern Ontario and urban Quebec or the Maritimes (although there are definitely a few of those), but from residents of BC.

Why? The conventional answer is that Alberta tends to be right-wing (current provincial government notwithstanding) and is home to extraction industries while BC tends to be left-wing and has a strong environmentalist streak. That's an oversimplification though. It's fairer to say that BC is polarized politically. Debates about pipelines have certainly boosted this anti-Alberta sentiment in recent years, but you'd think Notley trying to align Alberta more with the federal climate chance agenda and a PM with BC roots advocating for pipelines would have softened this attitude somewhat.

I think the source of this anti-Albertan sentiment is more fundamental than that. When Preston Manning said "the West wants in", what he failed to grasp was that part of the West was already kind of in - just not his part. BC was an "associate member" of the Laurentian Consensus, serving as the Western outpost of Laurentian thinking and a place that elected high profile Liberals who could claim to represent Western Canada in Liberal cabinets.

BC was of course always on a lower tier than the true Laurentian power complex of Upper and Lower Canada, but occupied a level above the prairie provinces and the Maritimes. The Reform-Alliance-CPC movement changed all that. It wasn't just that they were right-wingers who changed party names, because BC certainly has its own flavour of that,. It was the fact that Alberta, driven by its oil wealth and a chip on its shoulder put there by Pierre Trudeau and that most Laurentian of policies, the NEP, had seized the stage and become the dominant Western Canadian power. The upstart Albertans had taken down BC's old master and played a dominant role in federal politics for a decade.

And then, to add insist to injury, BC'ers help elect a second Trudeau, who then elects not to imitate his dad and stick it to those redneck Albertans, but instead tries to win their support, at least urban areas.

What's a bitter person with frustrated revenge fantasies to do? I guess the answer is - troll to CBC comment boards trashing people in the neighbouring province.

[LikeFineWine]

BC blames us Albertains for the price of EVERYTHING going up.
Oh BC we do love you, why can't you love us back lol

[N_Fiddledog]

I don't notice this "anti-Albertan" sentiment from BC.

But what do I know about BC? I don't read the comments at CBC. I only live here.

[BartSimpson]

It's the same in the USA where the "sophisticated" coastal liberals have contempt for everyone who lives in "flyover country" and who's socially and politically conservative.

[herbie]

They don't. Just the right wing whiney, stupid ones.
Who bitched about being ignored even when the PM was an Albertan. And are ignorant enough to think because BC didn't vote overwhelmingly Conservative it was a betrayal, even when Albertans themselves were so sick of the provincial party's shit they voted in the NDP.
Grow up already.

[Strutz]

Haven't we already had this discussion about BC/Alberta?

I'm not searching for it but I know we have. Just like when there have been threads and/or posts about the west vs. the east or Canadians vs. Americans. Pointless debates about who is in the "superior" province or country where the grass is greener and the sun shines brighter.

Taking a few comments and opinions by some to turn it into a blanket opinion that EVERYONE else feels the same is ridiculous.

[BartSimpson]

I didn't say that 'everyone' feels this way...just that select group who perceives themselves as a select group.

[Strutz]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

I didn't say that 'everyone' feels this way...just that select group who perceives themselves as a select group.

I wasn't directing that at you at all Bart. Not in this thread anyway
I was responding to the original post.

[Thanos]

I'm assuming it's more of a Vancouver thing than it is a BC thing because Vancouver seems to have the same contempt for the interior as they do for Alberta.

[herbie]

Nah, they don't even think of Alberta or the BC Interior.
All they think about is how much their damn house has gone up and why they can't have their cake and eat it too

Like they way their thinking of replacing the bridge tolls, just making the people who live down there pay $100-$150 a year to renew their license plate isn't simple enough, I'm sure they're working out a way for us here to have to pay mileage fees going to the doctor 100 miles away help them... ya know like they help us with transit, cutting the trains and Greyhounds and upgrading the airports so we can fly to Vancouver for only twice as much as to Hawaii or Mexico....

[BRAH]

Living in Vancouver I have yet to come across anyone who's Anti-Albertan, infact there's sympathy for what Albertans have gone through. This Anti-Albertan theory is Fake News created by the Lamestream Canadian Media for better raitings and politicans who thrive on this BS pandering to their political base.

[Thanos]

Andy T - "here, hold my beer"

Just remembered the Hedy Fry thing where in Parliament she openly accused the people in Prince George of being a bunch of cross-burning KKK members. And isn't she still the MP for Vancouver-West, like for over two decades of being re-elected after saying something like that?

This happens a lot, everywhere, in cities where the dilettantes gather in such numbers that they can swing political seats in their favour. And with numbers comes power, even more so when the local CBC or Global team can't be bothered to send a reporter to Merritt or Kamloops or Prince Rupert to see what people there think of, say, the pipeline issues and instead go gather the opinions at 420 Day in Stanley Park and project it as "this is what all BC'ers think".

[BRAH]

Thanos Thanos:

Andy T - "here, hold my beer"

Just remembered the Hedy Fry thing where in Parliament she openly accused the people in Prince George of being a bunch of cross-burning KKK members. And isn't she still the MP for Vancouver-West, like for over two decades of being re-elected after saying something like that?

This happens a lot, everywhere, in cities where the dilettantes gather in such numbers that they can swing political seats in their favour. And with numbers comes power, even more so when the local CBC or Global team can't be bothered to send a reporter to Merritt or Kamloops or Prince Rupert to see what people there think of, say, the pipeline issues and instead go gather the opinions at 420 Day in Stanley Park and project it as "this is what all BC'ers think".

The Lamestream Fake News Canadian Media is pushed the Anti-Trans Mountain Pipeline narative which helped get the NDP eventually elected and instead of asking the average BC resident as you pointed out they get opnions from people who have no real concerns other than to create chaos and mayhem while trying to find parking spots so they can protest Kinder Morgan in Nothern Burnaby.

Hedy Fry is the biggest race baiting Liberal who never fully apologied for her cross burning comments.

[raydan]

Strutz Strutz:

Haven't we already had this discussion about BC/Alberta?

Yeah, we've had that one a few times, also...
Calgary hates Edmonton
The Roc hates Québec
We All hate Toronto

and the all-time favourite, Canada hates Americans.

[herbie]

No dummies. "Fake news" is telling people that the oil refined in Alberta or Prince George is suddenly in short supply because of a hurricane in another country thousands of miles away.
Fucking jumped 15% from 106 to 119.9 overnight.