Canadanarchy!!!

[mr_whomp]

The thing thats interesting is our third biggest party the Block quebecois is just a bunch of french bastards that want to split off from the rest of the country, and yet because of how our system works they have a significant amount of power.

[BluffTHIS!]

The subject of Quebec in your country has always amused me. Particularly why the rest of the provinces don't just call their bluff and quit bending over backwards and tell them to go their merry way. If they cut off their nose to spite their face and went ahead and left what would the rest of Canada really lose? In fact the savings from not making French a second language and having to print all gov't documents and provide dual language governmental functions would be huge.

[mr_whomp]

We'd still have to print the french, New Brunswick is a bilingual province.

[mr_whomp]

Also, if you want to fix how divisive (sp?) Canadian and american politics are right now all you'd have to do is rearrange how we're divided, instead of being split north south, make the eastern seaboard one country, the western seaboard another and let the people in the middle make a 3rd country, It would really make a lot more sense.

[BluffTHIS!]

I'll trade you New England for your western and prarie provinces any day.

[mr_whomp]

Only if you take newfoundland in the deal too

[Gamblor]

[ QUOTE ]
The thing thats interesting is our third biggest party the Block quebecois is just a bunch of french bastards that want to split off from the rest of the country, and yet because of how our system works they have a significant amount of power.

[/ QUOTE ]

You can thank the 1867 Constitution Act for that. The Constitution was written at a time when Canada was basically Ontario and Quebec, hence Quebecois are given equal power as Ontarians.

If there were a Bloc Ontarian party it would have the same power, believe me. Except Ontario considers itself more "Canadian". We could try to instill national pride in Quebec by having the federal government sponsor events and programs in Quebec, but that idea is going, going, Gomery! [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[Gamblor]

[ QUOTE ]
We'd still have to print the french, New Brunswick is a bilingual province.

[/ QUOTE ]

The Constitution has put most of the power in the hands of the Courts, not the government.

Read the Secession Reference given by the Supreme Court.

[Gamblor]

"How could you have respect a man who was responsible for budgets that stole millions of dollars from tax payers? Personally i think anyone who votes liberal has to be off their rocker (unless your local liberal candidate is someone highly respected that you feel ought to be in government regardless of party leadership).

The Gomery Commission showed that Martin was only responsible for producing the budget. He had no discretion as to how the budget was actually spent, i.e. which ad firms were chosen to run the program.

In fact, the Commission found that the Liberal Party skipped the normal avenues of accountability in choosing which companies were chosen. Chretien was not found negligent but was found to have been lax in his responsibilities.

That said, the Liberals are a joke and to have them in power after this incident would be a declaration by the voters that they would happily have any Liberal candidate SIITPs.

[HopeydaFish]

[ QUOTE ]
"How could you have respect a man who was responsible for budgets that stole millions of dollars from tax payers? Personally i think anyone who votes liberal has to be off their rocker (unless your local liberal candidate is someone highly respected that you feel ought to be in government regardless of party leadership).

The Gomery Commission showed that Martin was only responsible for producing the budget. He had no discretion as to how the budget was actually spent, i.e. which ad firms were chosen to run the program.

[/ QUOTE ]

In terms of Gomery, I blame the Liberal party as a whole (the culture of "entitlement", as Gomery put it), and not Paul Martin in particular. There's no evidence that he knew of anything that was going on with the sponsorship deals in Quebec. I find it much harder to believe that Chretien knew nothing of what was going on, but that's an argument for another day.

However, the fact that Martin is not personally responsible is irrelevant. The Liberals need to be punished for what they did. This wasn't one or two bad apples in the party -- this was a scam that involved dozens and dozens of members of the Liberal party. To re-elect them would be sending the wrong message as to what Canadians are willing to tolerate from their elected officials.

In 1993, after many scandals came to light, Canadians overwhelmingly voted against the Progressive Conservatives and basically destroyed the party. I don't undestand why it doesn't look like the same thing will happen to Liberals in 2006. They might not win the election, but they won't be reduced to 2 seats like the PCs were in '93. It's sad, really.