But what if they're right? National's current policies emphasise the growth of the three larger urban centres at the expense of the regional smaller cities. Eaqub rationalises this policy, extolling its virtues as "Auckland ... enables growth for all of New Zealand" - a down-home version of Ronald Reagan's trickledown economics.
He simultaneously denies the obvious reality that the policy is at our cost ("Auckland is not in competition with Hamilton").
Where does Eaqub think Wanganui's tax dollars are going?
Michael Laws foresees regional neglect by central government leading to the hollowing out of the economies of cities like ours, leaving them dependent on people with superannuation and on welfare beneficiaries. Presumably, with no jobs, no hope and no future.
His apocalyptic vision would have us resemble the burnt-out scenery of the movie The Last Picture Show with tumbleweed dust devils blowing through a deserted and boarded up Victoria Avenue.
Who would want a New Zealand like that - its centre eviscerated with only three bloated parts in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch?
Laws is right for once - we need to persuade and petition and protest and lobby this newly-elected government to change course. Decentralisation of government functions, not regionalisation, is the better economic choice, whether it's the Department of Conservation, NZ Transport Agency, the courts or our local hospital.
Locally we need to insist on quarterly meetings with our re-elected MP Chester Borrows to give a report on what he is doing to ensure Whanganui's future.
He represents the entire district not just those who voted for him.
That regular accountability may help to remind him that 2017 is not that far away.
Whanganui is at risk but has its distinct advantages over some other small cities.
As an inclusive community, Whanganui has the potential advantage of an economic engine in the Treaty settlement.
One expression may well be the revitalisation of a real academic centre through the auspices of Ken Mair's Tupoho Trust.
A first-rate educational centre growing in the complex built on the ashes of the dying UCOL would attract not only young people from afar but all the associated business that universities attract.
While we are at risk of at least stagnation, if not outright decline, Whanganui is not alone in its plight. We need to reach out to the other cities at risk and our mayor could convene a taskforce of like-minded mayors to create a comprehensive approach to the issue of regional vitality.
Together the group can exert genuine political pressure, lobbying the government, lobbying their elected representatives of whatever party, with the goal of shifting the priorities from the present short-term, bottom-line, tri-city outlook to one of the longer-term prosperity of the country as a whole.
The country needs its heartland. The heartland nurtures the country.
Jay Kuten is an American-trained forensic psychiatrist who emigrated to New Zealand for the fly fishing. He spent 40 years comforting the afflicted and intends to spend the rest afflicting the comfortable.
