canadians tend to identify themselves by their respective provinces simply because the country is so large with a small population.
for example,affairs in ontario have very little to do with BC'ers....whether it is because regional or national media does not broadcast eastern issues first or whether it is a matter of eastern issues have no interest here i don't know.
canada is regionalized more so i suspect than the usa (still i wonder how much a rural kansas dweller has in common with a urban bostonian?) also because of the diversity in economic function.
BC fishing has little impact on manitoba farming.ontario manufacturing little relevance to yukon hunting.quebec language issues little impact on albertan commodity extraction.
consequently politics are a natural extension to those distinct provincial characteristics.
canada is a confederation indeed,but we have a soft federalism,whereas,the USA or Germany has a tradition of a stronger federalism and concentration of concern seems to be in the capital.
we have not really changed all that much politically in the last 30 years,with the exception of a few events (reform party collapse or the FLQ emergence coupled with quebec separtist ambitions that come and go depending on the weather or who can whip up nationalist emotions the best)
