Tuesday, May 17, 2005

Centrifugal Politics

One of Belinda's reasons for leaving the CPC was Harper's stand with the Bloc - good for her. In that light, I'd like to highlight Calgarygrit's Chilling Vision of Things To Come:
May 24: Paul Martin offers "side deals" on equalization to British Columbia, Quebec, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, and PEI. But adds "Stephen Harper would cave in to Ralph Klein and do a deal with Alberta. I will look Ralph Klein in the eye and say "no".

May 25: After 28 hour bargaining session, Paul Martin gives Ralph Klein a blank cheque. Says he's still standing firm by refusing to cave in to Nunavut.

May 26: After David Herle reviews the northern poll numbers, Liberal give Nunavut 3 billion dollars over 254 years.

May 28: Stephen Harper says Martin has "not gone far enough" and offers to give all future surpluses to the provinces. Also promises to take feedback from Premiers on writing future budgets. Says "that still beats having Jack Layton write your budget."

June 4: Jack Layton announces he supports a European Union style system between Quebec and Canada. However insists both countries must elect their Parliaments by proportional representation.
More seriously, I think we're in a very dangerous moment in Canadian politics, with a number of provinical governments (sadly, mine included) pulling the country apart. Now we've got even smaller provinces wanting a role in foreign policy. My God. It's bad enough that Quebec has a minister of foreign affairs - but Saskatchewan?

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