April 10, 2007
Kamloops Daily News

Be careful what you wish for. For decades, Canadians have
wished that the Parti Quebecois would just go away and take
their dreams of separation with them. We finally got our
wish. Popularity for the PQ fell to its lowest level in 35
years in the recent Quebec election.

While the fall in popularity of separatism is good news, the
rise of Quebec autonomy is not. Especially when the rise in
autonomy coincides with the ambitions of the federal
Conservatives to make all provinces autonomous. It's
separation under a different name.

The rise of conservatism under Mario Dumont's Action
Démocratique du Québec plays into the hands of Prime
Minister Harper to weaken the foundations of Canada.

The separatist PQ only wanted to break away from Canada.
The conservative dream is separate all provinces into
autonomous states.

Don't be fooled. The decline in popularity for the PQ is
not a vote for Canada. The rise in popularity ADQ is a vote
for Harper's vision of a fractured Canada.

Quebec separatists don't care what happens to the rest of
Canada, so the prospect of the breakup of Canada does not
trouble them at all.

For supporters of the ADQ this new model of autonomy is less
messy than the PQ's dream of separation. Quebec will become
independent with the cooperation of the prime minister of
Canada. No fiery speeches and dramatic referendums are
needed. It's the break-up of Canada by stealth.

Harper's plan for Canada is no secret. He imagines
independent states, each with its own power to raise taxes
for pension and health care. As autonomous states, each
province will manage its own foreign trade.

What he hopes for Alberta, he wishes for all provinces.
"Each province should raise its own revenue for health... It
is imperative to take the initiative, to build firewalls
around Alberta... ," Harper wrote to former premier Ralph
Klein.

The prime minister understands the aspirations of Quebec
autonomists to build a firewall around the province. Quebec
already has its own pension plan and would like to control
immigration. Harper has granted Quebec a seat at the
international organization, UNESCO. He envisions a weakened
Canada in which provinces sink or swim on their own; it's
the conservative concept of individualism expressed at the
level of nation-states.

It's not the vision of Canada that most Canadians have.
Only a strong federal government can set national standards
that define our nation. A strong central government is
needed to prevent our assimilation into the United States.
Canadians have a completely different view of the way
society functions at home and the way we conduct ourselves
abroad.

Harper's talk of "fiscal imbalance" is code words for
transfer of power from the federal government. The $1.5
billion that Harper transferred to Quebec is just the
beginning of similar transfers to other provinces.

What the Prime Minister fails to mention is the resulting
social imbalance that would be the consequence from his
power shift to the provinces. A weakened central
government would result in a patchwork of social programs in
which a citizen's standard of living would be determined by
the province they lived in.

When Harper gave Quebec the status of nation, he made it
clear that Canada could be divided into nation states. His
move wasn't a surprise for those who listen to what the
Prime Minister says.

In 2005, the Prime Minister told an appreciative audience in
Quebec City: "We will recognize provincial autonomy as well
as the special cultural and institutional responsibilities
of the Quebec government. I want to emphasize specifically
today that we will develop mechanisms to allow the provinces
a greater role in their own jurisdictions as they relate to
the international arena."

Most Canadians define themselves by being compassionate and
caring. Not Harper. He has never made his distain for
Canada's social programs a secret. In1997, at an assembly
of the right-wing Council for National Policy in Montreal,
he lamented that: "Canada is a Northern European welfare
state in the worst sense of the term, and very proud of it.
Canadians make no connection between the fact that they are
a Northern European welfare state and the fact that we have
very low economic growth, a standard of living substantially
lower than the United States."

The rise of the ADQ in Quebec linked the new federal
conservatism is as much a threat to Canada as separatism
ever was.

David Charbonneau is the owner of Trio Technical.
He can be reached at dcharbonneau13@shaw.ca

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