OK, you got us.

Quebec’s population (7.5 million) is less than a quarter of the Canadian population and far less than Ontario’s population. And it’s mineral and energy exports are no more than Ontario’s and far less than the West. Quebec isn’t that big of a province.

Those who criticize the opposition are focused on the wrong thing. What could they possibly do? There is no way they could let Harper’s donkey-ass legislation go forward – it would create a 1 party system known as fascism.

Its like Italy with crappy weather.

Quebec has the greatest population of Canada, tons of mineral and energy exports, and deserves to be treated fairly when forming the Federal budget, despite some of the ridiculous political leaders and ideas we’ve had in the past 10-15 years.

On the plus side, Duceppe is not a fan of Pauline Marois, who likely won’t be elected Premiere regardless. I don’t like Duceppe either, nor his separation mandate, but I don’t doubt that his intentions are for the greater good of Quebec and to make sure the Tories don’t run roughshod over one of Canada’s most important provinces.

I’m not worried about separation for the immediate future, but this deal does look as if part of the deal is for Québec to get an inordinate amount of money compared to the rest of the country, which I do not much agree with. What a fucked up political system we have in this country (though we’re not at all unique in that respect).

Harper bemoaning Duceppe’s inclusion and claiming that the coalition is working against the greater good of Canada is all bullshit. Couple that with his false claim that they didn’t “sit in front of a Canadian flag” when they signed the agreement, and it all feels vaguely familiar.

Dion is a secret separatist::Obama is a secret muslim.
They won’t stand in front of a Canadian Flag::Obama won’t wear a flag lapel pin.

It’s all bullshit neocon fear-mongering that didn’t work for the Republicans in the south.

I wouldn’t worry about an election. Everybody involved knows that NOBODY wants another election, and anyone who calls it would be a dead duck. Never mind Harper’s incessant goading otherwise.

As for the Quebec thing, the BQ isn’t a part of the coalition officially, they merely signed an agreement to support the coalition. And that could be a double-edged sword. What if the Liberals-NDP got into power and suggested something the Bloc doesn’t like. Can they back out, or do they have to follow along? The BQ could be the ones selling out.

Harper shouldn’t scream too loudly about that, as it was only a few years ago that he was trying to cozy up to the Bloc in order to oust the then Liberal government. Apparently, he thinks nobody remembers.

In other news, Canada has been running federal surpluses for at least a decade, and those have actually gone down under the Conservative government. The country would be in better shape to weather the coming economic storm if that hadn’t been happening.

For all their talk about fiscal responsibility, conservatives’ record on running budgets isn’t too good. I’ve mentioned this government’s record on such, and the last Conservative government, Mulroney’s era, saw the already large federal deficits pretty much double. And south of the border, the Reagan-Bush I years saw a huge increase in deficits. Clinton managed to put the American government back in the black (at least regarding deficits) after a few years, but Bush has never run a balanced budget and the American debt has doubled (5 to 10 trillion) during his time in office. Actions speak louder than words.

People can be justly pissed off about this Canadian coalition running a bit loose with power (there’s only so much I would defend them), but then again, Harper is the one threatening to suspend Parliament so he doesn’t lose a non-confidence vote next week. Which is the bigger threat to democracy?

In short, they are all being babies, it’s just who has the smelliest diaper.

And exactly when the frak did Dion grow a set? Regardless, if we’re forced to go to the polls again, I hope this causes the Tories to win an overwhelming majority so we can be free of these continual elections for at least 4 years.