wabigoon;
Good evening to you my friend, I hope that the weather's been cooperating for you folks as far as your agricultural needs and that all in your world are well.
The question you've posed isn't as simple as it might first appear in that you'll get a diverse number of answers I'd think.
Those answers will depend upon the geographic location of the respondent, the line of work they're in or were in and likely the actions of their provincial or state government over this past tumultuous year.
Speaking broadly, since I live just a few hours south of my cyber friend 673, it's a very conservative leaning area, but as he's said, the voting system here is such that the decision as to who will be in power is made before BC heads to the polls. While BC had - up to the outbreak of the beer flu - a GDP higher than all the Atlantic provinces combined - we do not get a similarly weighted number of seats in the House of Commons. Thus when the Atlantic provinces or eastern Canada as a whole wants a handout from the west, it's easy for them to accomplish as they have the majority of the seats.
Again like 673 stated, I honestly do not know anyone who has even a small degree of "trust" in the current federal government, other than to trust that they will follow their own agenda regardless of whether or not it contravenes the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Speaking personally, I "trust" them to spend too much money on too many useless projects and vote buying ventures.
Having had a fair bit of time over the years traveling in the western US states - Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, North and South Dakota, Colorado and a week in south Texas, I got to talk to a fair few people and I must say was always treated wonderfully by them all with the sole exception of a Homeland Security officer who was younger than some cowboy boots I own and apparently needed to vary his diet from mainly crab apples.
The states are similar to the provinces - as I understand it wabigoon - in that there's different laws for setting up and operating businesses, interstate sales of goods and to some degree health and safety regulations. Again, we're different in BC than Alberta or Saskatchewan - having lived in all those 3 provinces I can state that.
Overall, I felt as if I was able to make connections with people who had similar backgrounds as me, so to some degree that's geographic but not always. I recall in Cody, WY one night talking with a fireman into the wee hours of the next day about how frustrating the political systems were which gave both of us the feeling that our voices didn't really and truly matter.
He was there fishing with his father, was a part time elk guide and that alone gave us a couple hours of visiting - which is no surprise really.
On the other hand someone who has only lived and worked say in Toronto may well have very little common ground with a country mountain redneck such as myself and we'd have to work at it to find grist for the communication mill at times no doubt.
While that might not have answered your question, it's a start perhaps or at least my take on it.
All the best to you all wabigoon.
Dwayne
