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We live in Canada's 'mysterious east' - mysterious because most Canadians don't seem to know much about how expansive the region is. Nor do they even care to know that the eastern part of this country runs seven thousand kilometres headland to headland, longer than is found in most any other country in the world.

Adding to the mystery is the fact that the east coast of Canada is over-governed, hosting four competitive provinces each with a limited jurisdiction over only a part of the whole region.

Yet in spite of many of its abundant geographical and natural resources, our east coast with its 2.5 million people remains a largely underdeveloped region in the country.

The entire east coast of Canada runs from the northern tip of Ellesmere Island near the North Pole, around the jagged length of Baffin Island and the Labrador coast, past Newfoundland, the shores of Cape Breton and Nova Scotia, and into the Bay of Fundy. It provides a lucrative travel route to Europe, Iceland, Greenland and access to the United States. It offers significant geo-political security as a region within NATO and NORAD.

Yet it remains an afterthought in the media and as a focus for academic analysis. Analysis itself is often overrun with stereotypes of patronage, rural corruption and reference to "petty princedoms" competing for the spoils of office, jobs and federal transfers.

The rest of Canada engages in a bemused condescension about provincial accents, lifestyles and the apparent lack of local sophistication. It is often easiest to lump these provinces together, despite the risk of over-generalization.

Frequently, there is talk of greater integration and outright political union as the simple panacea for regional dependence and chronic underdevelopment. But these conversations are laboured under the realization that political change is not welcome in any of these provinces.

In addition, observers are divided on the merits of referring to Atlantic Canada as a "region." There are strong similarities among the provinces being coastal, having marginal resources, high unemployment and even disparities among themselves. But local citizens express 'provincial', not regional loyalties that have been retained historically.

Duplication and replication of services now characterizes governance in the Atlantic provinces — Jim Guy

Each province limits the perspective on the entire east coast. Because there are four individual governments, no one provincial government has jurisdiction of the entire east coast: No one government makes economic development policy for the region, no one government takes an inventory of the mammoth resources in the area, no one government reaps the wealth from the natural resources found in all the coastal areas.

So the east coast remains a divided underdeveloped region with very little policy focus and investment. Despite the persistence of 19th-century provincialism a weaker regionalism has developed within Canada's federalism, creating a large geographical area with similar grievances, political marginalization and dependence on federal programs.

The recently merged Atlantic Institute for Market Studies with the Fraser Institute identifies a "prosperity gap" in Atlantic Canada compared with the rest of the country. They want to focus on comparing economic indicators, such as the employment/unemployment rate, GDP per capita/household income.

But the report doesn't address the structural weaknesses among the provinces: Too many provinces with too few people cannot coordinate a regional strategy toward the development of eastern Canada. Each government creates an expensive and wasteful bureaucracy to do essentially the same thing.

For decades each provincial government legislated uncoordinated pro-growth policies to juice their economies. Problem is these policies had limited effect in each province but also on the region as a whole. Duplication and replication of services now characterizes governance in the Atlantic provinces. The cost is a significant drain on real growth and efficiency. The region is standing still and lagging behind the rest of Canada.

Is the federal government willing to become the saviour of the east with more funding transfers as it tried unsuccessfully in the 1970s and 80s with regional and economic expansion? Unlikely! In fact, Ottawa is reviewing its contributions and transfers to the provinces across the country.

Watch for equalization to morph into a smaller more targeted transfer. And the provinces should not expect much additional funding for health and social welfare. What will bring the Trudeau minority government down is opening the spending floodgates on the national deficit.

Dr. Jim Guy, author and professor emeritus of political science at Cape Breton University, can be reached for comment at jim_guy@cbu.ca