Canada’s had some great divides in its history. French versus English. East versus West. Oil producers versus oil consumers (or is that still east versus west?). But one that’s on the radar, and growing in ferocity is the rural versus urban divide in Canada. Are we becoming two solitudes? Is there common ground? Sun Media’s country gentleman Michael Den Tandt and urbanite Rob Granatstein go searching ...

GRANATSTEIN: Canada’s cities are the engine driving our country, our economy, our future, our growth, and it’s time those cities get the respect they deserve from government. We’re earning the bucks, paying the taxes - and looking darn good doing it. We rule and we should rule the way this country goes forward.

DEN TANDT: I am speechless with astonishment at your naivete. But only temporarily. You want respect? What do you think you get now? Stephen Harper thinks he's got rural Canadians (which includes anything north of Toronto and much of the Prairies and Alberta) in his pocket. So he takes us for granted. Michael Ignatieff has a caucus full of Chardonnay-sipping, effete urban professionals. Again, we get ignored.

GRANATSTEIN: Well, Harper could be prime minister of a majority government if he gave two horseshoes less about the rural world and one parking spot of a care about cities. Getting a bit of blue in Ottawa from Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver would make him the king. Too bad Harper doesn’t want to play that game.

DEN TANDT: I don't think he can. He sold his soul in the last budget and that's as far as he can go. But let's get back to the country. There are 70 rural ridings represented, supposedly, in the House of Commons. Where do you see this reflected in policy? Quick answer: It isn't.

GRANATSTEIN: Don’t you country bumpkins have the world wide interweb out your way? Harper’s all about securing his base, slamming the artsy-fartsies in cities, the day care people, in favour of securing his rural vote. Why else would you all vote for him?

DEN TANDT: Let me simplify. We country bumpkins are tired of taking dictation from a bunch of knob-kneed, pigeon-chested metrosexuals whose idea of hardship is a price rise at Starbuck's. No offense meant.

GRANATSTEIN: Sorry, the latte just came out my nose. We won’t tell you how to farm (collect subsidy here) if you stop telling us to suck it up when it comes to the immigration problem facing cities. How many immigrants show up in Yorkton, Sask., or Owen Sound, Ont. a day?

DEN TANDT: We'll take your immigrants, thanks. But you keep your green belt law, your Niagara Escarpment Commission, your long gun registry and your garbage. We've had enough rules designed by urban do-gooders who have no clue about the impact on rural Canadians and couldn't care less. If Iggy and Harper only opened their ears they'd hear the sound of an approaching wave - 70 ridings, up for grabs.

GRANATSTEIN: So the government ignores the farms, and, despite its protestations, does little for cities - although comes through nicely for the suburbs and their car drivers. So why does anyone vote for any of these jokesters?

DEN TANDT: What choice do we have? If we don't it just gets worse. So people need to get off their butts and tell the candidates, for every party and in every riding, that we're looking for bold solutions to big problems - not penny ante bickering and posturing for the cameras.

GRANATSTEIN: Us city folk are stuck. In cities like Toronto, we voted Liberal, they ruled, and Toronto got squat. The Conservatives rule in Alberta, but Calgary and Edmonton aren’t exactly paved with gold, either. If cities are the engine, they must be the priority.

DEN TANDT: That's horse manure and I'll tell you why. Some of the biggest problems that ail us ail you too. We need affordable high-speed Internet, everywhere. Clean-burning incinerators for our garbage. Smaller and smarter windmills. MDs who work where they're needed when they get out of school.

Gun laws that keep illegal handguns off the streets but don't swamp farmers with stupid red tape.

GRANATSTEIN: I’ll put windmills well down my priority list, you can burn my urban trash in your wide open spaces and won’t argue with you on the rest.

But our cities are so far behind those in the European Union it’s embarrassing. The feds need to step up, fund transit, fund forward-thinking infrastructure not pet projects, and help our cities out of the hole they’re in. It will be good for the entire country.

DEN TANDT: Hmm. Is there an echo in here? Sounds to me like we're saying the same thing. Steve, Mike, Jacko, you guys listening? Halooooooooooo up in Ottawa! Ideas wanted! Once upon a time our politicians, Left and Right, fought over the big ideas and grappled with the big problems. Time we got back to that.