One of the most contentious of the policy changes affecting centre-province relations in the 1980s was the adoption of a new regional development strategy. The commitment to a spatially uneven wave of development clearly helped some coastal provinces to enhance their economic position relative both to the centre and to other provinces. At the same time, fears and perceptions (real or not) of relative deprivation in interior provinces were heightened, notwithstanding numerous official reassurances that the new policy would not lead to polarization.