Funding Secession

"The message to Quebecers is to say we are not against Canada. Canada is a great country. I have great esteem for the Canadian nation. Let's stop blaming Canada and assume our responsibilities. Sovereignty must not be achieved out of resentment."
Gilles Duceppe, Leader, Bloc Quebecois

Whose? Ours or theirs? We have reason for resentment. Do they?

This is one wonky country. The single province with the historically-proven most consequential political and social advantage of Confederation remains the province with the most grievances against the country. And we, the citizens of the country, through our tax dollars, most high-mindedly fund the political machinations that allow the province to elect and send to Parliament a secessionist party.

We're so even-tempered about it all, that we, through the actions of our parliamentarians, decided to subsidize our federal political parties through tax dollars. This has been a huge assistance to the Bloc Quebecois in enabling them to stay afloat, because even though the Quebec majority sends votes their way, they do not fund them generously. This represents the wily nature of people who have had long and successful practise in extracting funding, concessions and mea culpas.

Quebec has its own inimitable sense of prickly pride, one that is readily and all to easily pricked. And federal politicians go out of their wary way to avoid, if at all possible, sending Quebec into a tizzy of outrage over being overlooked, stepped upon, denied, belittled, unappreciated, challenged. The result being that a lion's share of tax dollars is doled out to the province, and it has been given free rein over policies and perquisites normally the charge of the feds, to reflect its 'unique character'.

Nothing is ever enough for Quebec. Whether representing federal funding for projects, or for recognition as a 'nation'; people of huge importance and singularity, a province controlling its own foreign affairs, immigration, and future direction through continually-threatened separation potential. The stinging irritations of Quebec's language laws, impacting deleteriously on non-French-speakers in the province would be considered illegal anywhere else.

Quebec insists it be handled with kid gloves and awarded any and all demands for greater autonomy that it wills reflects its unique place in the heritage and history of the country. Gilles Duceppe waxes eloquent as he travels the country, insisting that Quebec's trajectory toward independence be understood and supported. He exults at the 'training' in governance at the federal level he has received in Parliament.

He is more than prepared to take Quebec out of Canada. Quebecers are not themselves quite convinced, but they enjoy the status quo, the flirtation with secession, while assurances of beloved-status flow from the rest of Canada, and the federal government, in its anxiety to retain Confederation intact, succumbs to the never-ending demands of financial disequilibrium and national language advantages.

For many Canadians, weary of the charade and the looting of the concept of equality engaged upon by Quebec's notorious, unconscionable separatists, unappeasable and resistant to either reality or reason, it's time to make the break. Put up or shut up.

Go, or stay, but stop the emotional
blackmail.