Western Voice, Western Vision
I would like to begin by thanking the Timlin Trust and the University of Saskatchewan for this honour and opportunity. To say I’m delighted to be here would be a vast understatement.
It is very rare to have an opportunity to step back from the hurly burly of professional and personal life, and to reflect on the world. However, such rare opportunities are also very intimidating for they pose an awkward question: do I really have anything to say that is of importance or at least interest? There is always the risk that some of you will leave this evening thinking, there goes two hours of my life I’ll never get back, two hours in which I could have watched four reruns of Corner Gas.
What I would like to do, therefore, is duck the question as to whether I have anything to say by asking a much more interesting question: do western Canadians have anything of importance to say when it comes to Canadian political life? Have we made a distinctive and constructive contribution? Is the western Canadian voice more than a whine of regional self- interest and discontent?