Being Fair To Quebec

Well, it's just not possible to be fair enough to Quebec. Unfortunately, fair to Quebec is unfair to the rest of Canada. And while that's just dandy with Quebec it doesn't sit so well with the rest of Canada. Mostly because the rest of Canada is more or less fed up with ongoing and constant efforts to appease the tiger in Quebec's gas tank. And the continued efforts of the Bloc and the Parti Quebecois to light a fire in that gas tank.

The ensuing blaze would make a mockery of all those attempts to please a malcontent because there is simply no way to do that without doing grave harm to the coalition of provinces that had decided to make a country of themselves. And their further joint agreements on equality of opportunity and sharing of combined riches equalizing those with natural resources and those without for the achievement of a refined quality of life for all.

All for one, however, is Quebec's motto. And now they have succeeded in helping to form a political party that is far more likely to represent their singular interests in a manner that will be seen to be helpful and hopeful to achieve what the separatists, at least, have so long devoted themselves to. The Bloc Quebecois and the Parti have somewhat exhausted themselves and bored their previous constituents to death.

Not the NDP, though. Which has transfigured itself as the New Quebec Parti. And right on cue, with the coronation of Nycole Turmel as the inheritor of all the preparatory work lavished on the party and the province by the ailing Jack Layton, the cudgel is ably taken up. Ms. Turmel, ?temporary? leader of the NDP/NQP, as the lead spokeswoman for the Official Opposition is opposed to fairness to the rest of Canada.

Why is that not surprising? This Conservative-led government has finally decided to do something concrete about the inequities of representation in the House of Commons. Although Quebec has lost some of its population, those many people, born and bred in Quebec, but not of French extraction, who exercised their painful option to leave and seek Canadian identity and security elsewhere within Confederation have not resulted in diminished representation in Parliament.

For it is written into law that Quebec will be guaranteed 75 seats at minimum, in perpetuity. While more populous provinces like British Columbia, Albert and Ontario whose populations are steadily increasing, are in the unenviable position of having inadequate representation. Since these have also traditionally been the engines of the country's fiscal growth, a clear absurdity. Unfair to Quebec! shrills Ms. Turmel, that those provinces will be granted additional seats.

The democratic principle mandates equal adequate representation in Parliament. The move to allow additional seats to Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta, without impacting the relative over-representation of provinces like Saskatchewan, PEI, Newfoundland, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia will mean a larger parliament. But we're locked into that condition, given Quebec's guarantee of its minimum seat numbers. And the sensitivities of those fortunate others.

Trust the NDP/NQP to continue its courageous battle to ensure that Quebec will continue to receive the lion's share of whatever is being handed out to improve quality of life, revenues, opportunities for all Canadians. This new Quebec-oriented national party with its 59-out-of-103 Quebecois members, some of whom, particularly Ms. Turmel, belonged/belong to sovereignist/nationalist movements will ensure that Quebec never becomes 'marginalized'.

And that, as long as they can arrange it, the rest of Canada will.