To see ourselves as others see us.

• Author: Robinson, David
• Position: ECONOMICALLY SPEAKING

Did you ever wonder what a Northerner is, deep down in the southern mind?

Image matters in politics. Why else would Mr. Harper spend millions to destroy the image of Liberal leaders? If you can't control your image, you can't control your future.

Something about the way Northerners are seen in the south makes it OK to ignore what Northerners want. Northerners need to understand why southerners feel they aren't fit to govern themselves.

Historically, the North was populated by "Indians" who were seen as primitives. This was a convenient fiction that neatly justified taking over the vast region north of Superior. These Indians were often portrayed as children. They certainly didn't get to vote.

Once the resources were legally available to Upper Canada, they were handed to nice, civilized businessmen who hired a rabble of immigrant workers to cut the trees and mine the ores. These workers didn't get to vote either. They were lower class, or even non-British.

Throw in the French settlers who weren't entirely welcome, and you have a population of ill-educated, superstitious, muscular and probably oversexed country people who had to be civilized.

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You may see yourself as a fully modern, well-educated, absolutely civilized citizen. You are not treated that way. You don't have the right to elect a regional legislature the way the 35,000 people in the Yukon do. Or the 32,000 in Nunavut. Or the half-million in Newfoundland. In the political unconscious of the south you are still a wild child from the wilderness who lives by killing bears, chopping trees and digging holes. From the points of view of urban, civilized Ontarians you are a kind of 19th-century hunter-gatherer throwback, ripping resources out of a delicate environment. You need to be controlled.

Whether you think cancelling...