If I can paraphrase Innocents Abroad: he writes that Western Canada is disenfranchised, fundamentally different and cut off from the Canadian power-base. That certainly has some truth to it -- BC and Alberta are such resource-rich provinces that they have different interests, naturally, from other provinces. However that doesn't necessarily mean a disunited country -- Washington State is resource-rich and Mississippi is poor, yet clearly they're united in a country with a strong self-image.

My parents moved from Alberta to Ontario and back to BC -- I'll have to ask them at Christmas what they think of this.