The Never Ending Policy Retread

From Mike Konczal comes this little gem of an article: http://www.nationalmemo.com/romney-will-solve-the-crisis-with-the-exact-same-gop-plan-of-2008-2006-2004/

Basically, through good times and bad, Republicans have promoted the same policies over and over and over, over the last decade.  The answers to the ever-impending end of the world - the apocalypse that is the impending doom of the United States, or rather, it`s loss of status as the pre-eminent power of our time - are always the same.

Talk about cutting spending, talk about reigning in `broken` `entitlements programs`, talk about making teachers more accountable.  Blah blah blah.  A never ending farce of political showmanship in the center ring, including enough glittering accoutrements such as military adventurism, (foreign) nation-building, marriage rights, reproductive rights, the Christian Nation only under which perfection can be achieved.

Over in the shadows is the House of Horrors, the Freak show, the dabblers in witchcraft, those who know with certainty so whatever they believe must be true.

Contrast this with the single issue retread that is the (if you can read French) Parti Quebecois in Quebec, Canada.  English readers can go here instead.  Initially and, objectively speaking not without merit, Quebec felt it was losing its identity as a French-speaking corner of North America.  Top business leaders tended to be anglophones, in the parlance of Quebec communications, and more often than not unilingual English speakers in a Canadian Province where the majority spoke French.

Quebec culture had since the colonial days and subjugation by English Canada (notwithstanding its accession to the Dominion of Canada, the first four Provinces of Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick) been reliant on a strong Catholic tradition.  Even today, the church is the most obvious landmark in most Quebec towns.  For more information on the development of Canada go here. 

But two referendums on independence, and talk of a potential third, have left Quebec the needy child of Confederation.  Political uncertainty in Quebec caused many job losses in the 1970`s as businesses moved to Ontario.  On visiting Quebec City or Montreal today, one will be struck by the huge gap in growth between there and in the rest of the country.  While there are now pockets of growth, it is almost as if building stopped for a long time between the mid 1970`s and 2000.

Check out this interactive map of Canada and click on each province or territory to see how much money it receives from Ottawa.  Two numbers are important: Transfer Payments, and Equalization Payments.  Equalization payments are meant to mitigate budget shortfalls a regional government might experience, to ensure that a reasonably comparable level of government health and social services are available across the country.

Quebec receives almost 40% of the money available for equalization payments, despite comprising 25% of the population, and there is no sign that this is ever going to change.

Many in English Canada feel that it is nothing more than extortion, to keep Quebec happy and in Canada.  But it will never be enough.  While Quebecers get subsidized child care, the rest of Canada gets higher pension and employment insurance premiums.  The 80% of English Canada that lives in British Columbia, Alberta, and Ontario have been net contributors to national wealth for a long time.

Tonight the Parti Quebecois will form a government in Quebec,  and the battlecry `Quebec Libre` may rear its head again.

I say let them go this time, but remind them that there was a feeling amongst the Cree of Northern Quebec, that should the province separate, they would remain part of Canada, and would force the province to return to its pre-1912 boundaries, and re-establish the Ungava district of the Northwest Territories, or a new territory or province created in its place.

If Canada in not indivsible, then neither is Quebec.