By Stephen Gray
“One thing is clear from Monday's budget: The Conservatives are wooing Quebec with the rest of Canada's tax dollars” ( Vancouver Sun, March 20, 2007).
Is anybody really surprised that Quebec gets the loot while the rest of Canada usually gets the boot. The question is when will the rest of the country cry enough to this appeasement of the Bloc?
“Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe calculated Quebec's haul at something more than $3 billion, or 80 per cent of what he was demanding.”
"We can't let $3 billion (get) away . . . . We'll take the money," said Duceppe.
(Canoe C-News, March 19, 2007)
Mr. Duceppe knows a good thing when he sees it. This is not peanuts Quebec is getting, it is an extra proliferation of tax dollars from the rest of the country. “What the rest of the country received was chump change compared to what Quebec got” (The Calgary Herald, March 20, 2007).
Still, big money from the rest of Canada is needed to buy votes in Quebec. But, will it be enough? Some people believe that enough is never enough for Quebec! But hey, the Red Tories, oops, I mean the “conservatives” need those Quebec votes, and Mr. Harper wants to be successful. Albeit the rest of the country has to pay for his “success” with their tax dollars. Still, that’s the price of “success.”
“To succeed, however, Prime Minister Stephen Harper needs Quebec on board. Significantly, Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe announced his support mere minutes after the budget was delivered.
“If there ever was any doubt, it's clear the Conservatives have changed places with the Liberals as Quebec's dance partner in the waltz to win votes” ( Calgary Herald, March 20, 2007).
A caller to a radio station had this to say regarding voting “conservative: "If you're going to be Liberal lite, the voters will vote for real Liberals." Which raises the question, do we now have two Liberal parties to vote for? Perhaps they will merge and we can have one big Liberal party to vote for?
Votes and power, is what it’s all about, and to heck with principles. But, will all this largesse handed over to Quebec be enough? Will the Oliver Twists in the Bloc be back for more? After all, it is stated Mr. Duceppe got only “… 80 per cent of what he was demanding.” Will the rest of Canada be held to ransom for the other 20 per cent? Gee, why not give him the rest of the money? He already has “80 per cent” so why be a cheapskate and not give him his other twenty per-cent? Come on Red Tories, oops, I mean “conservatives,” give the man the money. After all, he is reportedly supporting your budget. And with that kind of separatist support surely this makes you guys “winners?”
Stephen Gray
March 21, 2007.
graysinfo@yahoo.ca website http://www.oocities.org/graysinfo