A sense of alienation has been sweeping across the Canadian prairies in recent years, and with it has come talk of new political parties, secession, and other radical action. At face value, this could be cause for concern, because at one time in the early history of the western provinces, radical politics became a commonplace occurrence. Indigenous political parties emerged from the prairie region whose objectives ranged from eliminating party· politics in Canada to overthrowing the system completely. However, as discontent comes once again to western Canada, we find that neither the degree of dissatisfaction nor the conditions which had facilitated the early radicalism are the same. A political transformation has also taken place in the west from its early radical character to a strong traditional partisanship. As a result, current western alienation does not pose a threat to Canadian politics through radical actio~ as some might suggest.