are we pitting east and west?

Hey Dion: It's not the East versus West
Lorrie Goldstein: Commentary Edmonton Sun March 5

No part of Canada should ever be baited by politicians for short-term, partisan gain.

It was wrong when the old Reform party used to do it to Quebec. And it's wrong now that the same old Liberal party is doing it to Alberta -- again.

What else are Canadians to think when Liberal Leader Stephane Dion takes a trip out West and blames oilsands workers for "living too fast for the easy money" and being bad for our economy?

Honest work is bad for our economy?

Perhaps Prof. Dion should spend a few weeks getting his hands dirty in the oilfields before lecturing Canadians on how "easy" it is.

Then there's Liberal Natural Resources critic Mark Holland, who seems to imagine himself a right little terror of a fellow.

This for lecturing Alberta about how it must reduce oilsands production, now that the Liberals have rediscovered global warming after signing the Kyoto accord in 1998 then forgetting about it for eight years, until they were tossed out of office.

If Holland, who's from Ontario, really wants to make himself useful, let him explain to Ontario auto workers how many thousands of their jobs the Liberals are prepared to forfeit as part of their new-found zeal for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, after falling 35 per cent behind their own targets while in power.

Why isn't Holland, or, more important, Dion, holding daily news conferences demanding their Liberal cousin in Ontario -- Premier Dalton McGuinty -- shut down Canada's single largest greenhouse gas emitter, the Nanticoke coal-fired electricity generating station?

That, along with three other greenhouse gas-emitting, coal-fired energy plants McGuinty promised to shut down during the 2003 Ontario election campaign, yet another pledge he broke once in power.

Finally, Dion, Holland and company might want to peruse the latest opinion polls, where they will discover that the age-old Liberal tactic of pitting East against West and French against English in the pursuit of scaring Ontario and Quebec, respectively, into the waiting arms of the Liberals, doesn't seem to be working so well anymore.

Too bad. So sad. And about time.