Canada East/West

There is no East or West. It's just one line right around the earth; go far enough, and east and west are one and the the same. What divides east and west, are people who live on one side of land that is opposite another side. Simple. Same with north and south, but that's another story. The other night, I sat with a group  from what we here in BC call, The East. They were Montrealers and Torontonians, but as most of them revealed, they were originally from outer parts, the smaller towns near those large cities. When the conversation turned to historical Canadian aspects, things got a bit dicey. The easterners said that they were the ones with the important history while the west was simply where the east drifted eventually. They considered that eastern migration, made the west. That, naturally got  backs up amongst the western faction in the room. We were also informed by the easterners that all the culture and development of the country came from the east. What was most amazing was that many of them thought that we, in the west, knew very little of the importance of the east in doing so. What ensued was  an evidently large gap, and that we needed to straighten out some misconceptions regarding Canada's east and west. It is a fictional rivalry. Most of our western high school history texts dealt with such as heroes and heroines found in eastern Canadian lore. Birch bark canoes, The Great Lakes, arrow shooting aborigines, tales of the Metis and of the British and French battles has nothing to do with western history. It is eastern, and that's fine, but what about western history? "There isn't one," were were informed, "it all happened in the east".  Text books across Canada were put out by eastern authors and publishers, therefore, it was natural for the content to be regarded as "our" history. In a similar vein, we young students in the west, had to study British history to a large degree, while our meager education about the young Canadian west, touched only briefly on The Gold Rush and The Haidas. It is true that the influence of the east, historically, is strong nationally, but it is actually the result of Europe's British and French arguments that drifted over to this country in an imperial conflict. Which European country was going to take over, so that Canadian furs, gold and other natural resources could be called their own colonial grab? That's what our eastern history is all about. They weren't all that interested in fostering a delightful new country because they loved it. They wanted to control it. The history in the west has to do, not with European matters that came to us from foreign countries, but actually, greed. Gold, peopled the west but the hardy folk stayed on because they came to love the beauty and challenge it offered. The west was young, rugged and full of adventurous spirit. It developed in a style of its own.  Both east and west built what is Canada and there is  no argument as to whether "east" or "west" is best. Each is unique and each melds to make this country, great.