| The Quebec wing of the Young Liberals of Canada recently proposed changing our current election financing system to take into account the number of candidates each party fields in an election and adjust its subsidy accordingly.
At present, all federal parties receive $1.75 per vote that they obtained in the previous general election. Since the separatist Bloc Québécois only runs candidates in Quebec's 75 constituencies, this change would mean they would get only 43 cents per vote, rather than the $1.75 that the Liberals, Conservatives and New Democrats, who mount national campaigns in all 308 ridings, would continue to receive.
These are not merely the idle musings of youth. The idea has been endorsed by Jean Lapierre, Paul Martin's Quebec lieutenant. The resolution will come before the convention of the Quebec wing of the federal Liberal Party in November.
Maybe it is odd that any federal tax dollars, period, should be going to a party that seeks to break up the country. But the last time I checked, the Bloc was a legal political entity giving expression to the views of a very substantial percentage of the electorate in Quebec.
The Liberals have always felt they "owned" Quebec federally, and thus detest Bloquistes with a passion – this is, after all, a family quarrel in that province. However, since they seem to be implying that the views of sovereigntists are illegitimate, why don't they have the courage of their convictions and suggest the party be made illegal?
In many countries, governments routinely ban opposition parties, in particular those that reject the very state as presently constituted, or at least make sure such parties do not operate on a level playing field with those in power. But we would not, I hope, call such places genuine democracies.
Should this suggestion ever become law, the Bloc ought to respond by nominating candidates throughout the country. Apart from exposing the self-serving nature of the Liberal proposal, and though none of the token Bloc nominees outside Quebec would have even an outside chance of winning a seat, it might allow the public to gauge the amount of support the Bloc can actually obtain in the other provinces and territories.
There are probably Canadian voters out there who, for whatever reason, would agree with the Bloc that Quebec and the rest of Canada become two separate entities.
Henry Srebrnik is a professor in the Department of Political Studies at the University of Prince Edward Island in Charlottetown. |
Copyright ©2005 FFWD. All rights reserved.