SCIENCE PUB – THOSE WASCALLY WEXITEERS: WHAT TO MAKE OF WESTERN SEPARATISM

SCIENCE PUB – THOSE WASCALLY WEXITEERS: WHAT TO MAKE OF WESTERN SEPARATISM. Our wildly popular Science Pub Series returns for a 13th incredible season! Enjoy lectures on scientific topics of general interest in our Arizona Room over fine craft beer and award-winning pub cuisine. The room opens at 5:00 PM. Avoid disappointment and come down early for dinner and a pint before the presentation which begins at 7:00 PM.

Enjoy this special edition of Science pub featuring three speakers including; Jim Farney, Director, Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, Murray Mandryk, former political columnist for the Regina Leader-Post and Tom McIntosh, Professor, Politics and International Studies. The panel will reflect on the history and future prospects of western separatism as a political movement that has ebbed and flowed over the decades. In the past Saskatchewan election, the Saskatchewan Party seemed more concerned with a possible challenge from the separatist-adjacent right than from the NDP on the left. But that challenge never materialized. Next door, some Albertans are collecting signatures on a petition to force a referendum on its place in Confederation. How real is the threat of western separatism? Or is it a political ploy to secure changes to the Canadian federation? Did the election of Mark Carney change the separatist calculus? Where do the four western premiers sit on the question of independence for their province or their region? Three long-time observers of western Canadian politics will discuss the recent uptick in separatist support and whether it indicates a political sea change in the region or a tea-cup sized tempest.