Tempestuous Tinpots

"We have 24 senators from Quebec and there are just six from Alberta and six from British Columbia. That's to our advantage.
"To want to abolish it, that's demagoguery. It has to be improved."
Justin Trudeau, Leader, Liberal Party of Canada

It's not quite that Justin Trudeau has had no experience of any other part of Canada. His mother was born in British Columbia. His grandfather was a B.C. businessman of some wealth and repute. One of his brothers died in British Columbia. He himself lived and taught for awhile in a private boys' school in the province. But he now lives and raises a family in Quebec, the province where his father was born.

And so, as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, and aspiring to become the prime minister of the country, Justin Trudeau appears to propose that he represent that position largely as a "we" of one province only. Others may govern the entire country, all its provinces and territories equally, but Justin Trudeau proposes to become Canada's prime minister of Quebec.

"Justin Trudeau is tone deaf to western Canadians. This isn't the first time he has insulted the West, it won't be the last", commented Heritage Minister James Moore, senior B.C. minister in the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Even the official opposition had something to say about Justin Trudeau's selective prime ministership. "Mr. Trudeau has made so much about being a unifying figure, so to defend something so indefensible as the Senate under the guise that, 'It's better for the place where I live' speaks to the worst motivations", fumed the NDP's Nathan Cullen representing northwestern B.C.

He was simply misunderstood. What he really, truly meant, and what he genuinely and sincerely feels is that it would be detrimental to the Senate should the Prime Minister be successful in passing legislation to create an elected Senate. Because, after all, Alberta and B.C. happen to be proportionately under-represented in the chamber.

"I'm looking out for the interests of all Canadians, there's no question about that, but I'm not going to make apologies for being very serious about protecting minorities in this country, whether they be linguistic minorities like anglophones in Quebec or francophones outside of Quebec, or even Quebec as a province". Sounds good, thanks a lot.

One is hard put to recall Justin Trudeau making any kind of a fuss over Quebec's straitened language stranglehold on English...?

And with the recent move by the Conservative government to level the playing field for proportional representation in the House of Commons by giving more seats to B.C., Ontario and Alberta, didn't Quebec object strenuously?