Quebec has condemned Stephen Harper’s promise to back a $4-billion loan for Newfoundland’s Lower Churchill hydro-electric project, noting that Quebec developed its own hydro network without federal support. Indeed, Mr. Harper rejected a request for federal help towards building a Quebec City arena, arguing Ottawa would have to provide equivalent support to similar projects across Canada. Is his promise to Newfoundland any different?
Matt Gurney in Toronto: I’m sorry, I’m not currently capable of answering that perfectly legitimate question because I can’t stop laughing at the thought of Quebec objecting to another province being shown preferable financial treatment. Hey, Quebec? How’s that subsidized daycare I’m paying for? OK, calming down now. Hoooh, that was good. Needed that. And off we go: Does Quebec have a gripe? I suppose. It’s pretty clear that the ability of Newfoundland to export its excess hydroelectricity is not a great thing for Quebec, since obviously they’d rather have the U.S. market cornered. So their point makes sense. But, I’m getting the giggles again. How can anyone take seriously a Quebec government demanding that Ottawa treat all provinces fairly? I’m sure Charest’s chestthumping on this will play well. But do they have no idea how silly this looks from the Rest of Canada? Actually, never mind. Even if they know, I doubt they care. So here’s my offer to Quebec: How about we don’t fund the giant copper wire for Newfoundland’s power exports, and in exchange, all equalization payments … stop. Just stop. That’s what you guys want, right? Equal treatment? Tee hee.
Kevin Libin in Calgary: First of all, Quebec is just plain wrong. Harper explicitly said the same kind of offer was open to other provinces, no matter how whiny they might be. See here: “But I’ve been very clear that when we do, we will make sure we offer and are open to similar projects in other regions of the country, equitably, including in Quebec,” Harper said, the day before the Quebec legislature threw its little tantrum. Of course, the fact is, Quebec has already gotten the sweetest hydro deal going. Ottawa was instrumental in helping to rig the Upper Churchill project in the province’s favour, handing Quebec a license to print money: More than $19-billion in profits re-selling Newfoundland power to the U.S. market since the ’60s, while the Rock has pulled in a lousy $1-billion. The Tories are merely trying to better level a playing field that’s been tilted in favour of Quebec for 40 years, and even that much is unbearable to a province that eternally, incurably considers itself a victim whenever it isn’t the only one being spoiled rotten by Ottawa. What an embarrassingly childish state of affairs.
Barbara Kay in Montreal: We all seem to be in agreement on the irrefutable facts proving that Quebec has no case for complaining. And Quebec politicians know they have no reason for complaint. But they all go on with their grievance-collecting role-playing as if facts simply didn’t matter. Which they don’t to most Quebecers. What matters is that Quebec should feel special and not like the other provinces, and by “special” I of course mean a victim. If Quebecers didn’t have the feds to blame for their problems, they would have to look at themselves and their government and take responsibility for their deficits and failures and then they would start blaming their own representatives. It’s all game-playing. I ran into a senior Tory official recently and asked him why Harper doesn’t make more speeches in French in Quebec in which he tells Quebecers they are being lied to by their politicians, and why don’t they grow up and send representation to Ottawa that is actually meaningful in a Canadian way, since they are all happy to be Canadians in their hearts. I was told those speeches occur all the time but they rarely get reported in the media.
Matt Gurney: That’s something the Tories need to work on, then. Grab some staffer flunky, invest in a Handycam and have them film the damn things (just make sure to use a better camera than Stephane Dion did). From there, you’re just a few clicks away from YouTube nirvana, with a whole heap of eager-as-beavers Tory bloggers and young Conservatives ready to Twitter and Facebook it to high heaven. Especially since Mr. Duceppe certainly hasn’t shied away from explicitly calling Harper a liar. I’d be delighted to see Harper, or a senior Liberal, turn around and just give Quebec the talking-to its needed for years. Sadly, it won’t happen, because as soon as a federalist politician dared tell Quebec how it is, another federalist politician for a different party would be on the first flight to Nowheresville, Que., to eat the local cuisine and announce, in French obviously, how affronted they are and how, if elected, they’d stand up for the glorious Quebec nation in Ottawa (and by stand up, I mean shower billions upon). If there was any area of Canadian politics that would benefit from a coalition, it would be the federalist parties going on a combined offensive against Quebec’s cult of victimhood and explaining (with the help of some handy graphs) just how dependent Quebec’s economy and standard of living is on the rest of us. Then it would be up to the Quebec voters to decide what they value more: their self-respect or their handouts. Not that that will ever happen, of course. But wouldn’t it be somethin’?
Kevin Libin: I’m thinking that senior official must not have heard you right, Barbara. There certainly must have been some misunderstanding. I’m certainly willing to believe Harper exhorts Quebecers to vote Tory. But telling them they’re being lied to by their leadership? I don’t buy it for a second. Sure, I could see the prime minister dissing a federal rival like Duceppe. But when it comes to enablers, the bigger problem is at the provincial level where even the federalist Liberals under Jean Charest have been co-opted into the grievance culture — and I’m rather sure Harper wouldn’t be publicly badmouthing them. Remember, it was the provincial legislature that unanimously condemned the Newfoundland deal, it was the provincial legislature that unanimously censured a magazine for writing an article casting Quebec’s government corruption in an unflattering light (you’re only allowed to say nice things about Quebec government corruption), Charest’s been front and centre arguing for federal dollars for the fantasy hockey arena, and when that didn’t come through, demanding a consolation prize in the form of new ship-building contracts and other goodies from Ottawa’s pork-barrel. That’s how a grievance culture works: not getting some undeserved handout just gives you another reason to demand a handout. Charest learned early on that this is the only way to survive in politics there. And he knows it works. So where’s the incentive for any of them, be it voters or politicians, to grow up when infantilism has for decades worked so magnificently well?
Barbara Kay: You are right, Kevin, there is presently no incentive to grow up, and what is curious to me is the passivity of the one group that could help the Conservatives break through a psychological barrier here: namely, anglophones. Although small in number — fewer than a million, and virtually all clustered into a few ridings in the Montreal area — they are disproportionately represented in business, law, medicine and other economic pillars of the province. They have this droid mentality: they vote Liberal like automatons, as if it were still 1979, with separatists breathing down their necks and only the Liberals capable of saving them. I think when most anglophones look at Jean Charest, his entire history as premier dissipates and all they can remember is him in his federal incarnation, waving that Canadian passport in 1994 at the big Quebec love-in in downtown Montreal. As for the Bloc, I believe they see it as a necessary trade-off for peace on the separatism front and a talisman against the kind of roller coaster political upheaval we’d have without them. We accept all the game-playing as the price we pay for social calm. Since Mulroney the Libs have just had a lock on Montreal. There are rumblings that may change — Irwin Cotler is actually having to campaign for his safe seat rather than sit back and watch the votes roll in, but I doubt he is in serious trouble. I wish the Conservatives would give priority to breaking through not the “glass ceiling” but the “glazed-over ceiling” of anglophones’ slavish attachment to a party that has nothing particular to offer them.
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