Guy M

Wow... Just wow. I have vacationed in New-Brunswick, surrounded by other Quebecers... I've vacationed in Sandbanks ON, surrounded by other Quebecers... Cape Cod, Lake Champlain, the White Mountains... ditto. In Florida, they have french-language TV and newspapers... I think you are casting a very wide net. Yes there is a cultural divide, and it works both ways. I've seen a study recently that looked at the opinions of people in Canada towards certain groups. 75% of Quebecers have a favorable view of anglophones. It the rest of Canada, 60% think favorably of Francophones. http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2010/01/26/12622471.html

As for the Quebec Act as discussed above, and the "generosity" of the British... it secured them the support of Quebec's population during the American revolution, and during the war of 1812. In theses wars, french canadian militiamen fought with the british to repel 2 American invasion attempts. It enabled them to keep Canada, and govern it without heavily militarizing it. In the early days of Canada (1759-1774), the British were few in numbers... soldiers, merchants... They needed to deal with the French Canadians to establish their foothold... Laborers, doctors, nurses, food, guides... It cost them almost nothing and gave them a functional colony. I think you'll find very few Quebecers to argue that we need more privileges and more votes than other Canadians. I'd be happy / am happy with just equal. Do the bloc vote this way? No, they vote for what's in their best interest as politicians. If your going to give the west fair representation, why not make it so in the maritimes as well? Why not have a nice even seat per 100,000 people and reduce PEI to one seat? Why keep a bias towards rural areas? If you're gonna open a can of worms like this, you need to have a well thought out plan. C-12 died because it was designed to increase the number of conservative MPs, not to reform the electoral map and make it as fair as possible

This is what I've seen... it seems to depend on the case study http://www.investquebec.com/en/index.aspx?page=1789

Could be... I've seen 29% and 32% respectively. Not sure if this was for larger or small business. There's obviously many ways to make that comparaison

I disagree... The Utica Shale was just recently discovered, and heavy interest has been shown... The Quebec government was actually going to permit drilling & fracking with some of the lowest royalties around. It was going to be a few percent of what BC is charging. The hurdle in this case has not been corporate taxes, or royalties, but environmental concerns about the process that would be used. It's not more expensive for business to operate in Quebec than elsewhere... the personnal tax rate is higher, the corporate tax rate is about the same as everywhere else. It's actually 2 points lower than in Ontario for example

That's not what I'm saying at all... Québec is not "poor" by any means. Not by international standards, not by the standards of other develloped countries. It's poorer than the Canadian average, when the Canadian average is severly skewed by oil revenu. It's true that we will likely not close that gap, because the gap with Alberta, Saskatchewan and NL is not caused by fiscal policy, or economic policy, but by the presence of ressources that are highly in demand. Other provinces are starting to fall behind as well, including Ontario. We're about median between the provinces, about average in unemployment... Average in growth, despite having higher taxes. What I'm saying, is that if we were to drop our taxes to Alberta levels tommorow, our GDP per capita will not magically increase. Similarly, if large scale oil & gas operations takes off in Quebec, we could easily become a "have province" despite having 7$ daycare and cheap tuitions. I don't know how else to explain it.

Well this is a fairly easy question to answer... Quebec used to be one of the furthest right leaning provinces in the 1950s, and still had appalling poverty much beyond the national average. We are not going to be as rich as Alberta, no matter what social services model we have... the reason is easy... we don't have large oil deposits. Similarly, Alberta would be rich even if it were more left leaning, like say oil rich Norway is right now. Alberta would be much poorer without oil, small government or not. Ontario is richer than Quebec, largely because of the presence of Canada's banking and financial systems, and federal goverment jobs in Ottawa. Thunder Bay, Sudbury, Windsor and Kingston are not really faring that much better than other medium sized cities in Canada and Quebec... The 'traditional' sectors in Ontario, manufacturing, natural ressources, knowledge economy, are comparable to Quebec, or BC, or Manitoba on most counts. Massachusetts is one the richest US states, and has some the the highest taxes (hence the nickname taxachussets!!) There's no simple corrolation as to what your GDP will be depending on your level of services or tax model.

I think there's a large movement in the rest of Canada that likes the idea of Quebec going bankrupt - or otherwise failing in one way or another. Thoses that don't like social-democracy, thoses that think the private sector knows best. Those that write articles for CANWEST or the Fraser Institute, as told by their bosses on Bay street... In reality we've had average growth and average unemployment for the last 6 or 7 years, and an economy that is not that dynamic, but diverse, maybe one of the most diverse in Canada. There will be pressure to change the model and financing of public services in the coming years, as there will be elsewhere. As I've said earlier, federal transfers to Quebec are on pace with many other provinces... It's nice to know that you guys are out there anxiously awaiting our demise, however. Hope that works out well for you.

1) The goverment of Quebec is "soaking" a corporation named Churchill Falls (Labrador) Corporation Limited, a business it largely backed and funded in order to get this project going... a business which 1/3 belongs to Hydro-Quebec. CF was not funded and built by the NL goverment, but by this holdings corporation... It would not have been built without the long term rates deal. No one else was putting forth any financing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Churchill_Falls_Labrador_Corporation_Limited 2) That's all fine and dandy, there is plenty of Hydro to go around, and plenty of demand for power 3) Yes... The truth hurts... Can you look in the mirror and say that funding healthcare for an aging population will be easy in your province? Can your province run this proverbial hamburger stand?

To clarify, in the grand scheme of things we (Quebecers) receive more transfer payments than the average, but near the median. We actually get some of the lowest transfers per capita, but of course the largest total equalization payment. We also have fewer federal public service jobs per capita than the average, unlike say Ontario. Yes Ontario gets less direct transfers than Quebec, but a lot of goverment business which is an indirect transfer. Then there is the topic of corporate subsidies... And stimulus funding... All this tangent to say that federal transfers to Quebec are not the determining factor in explaining the power situation in eastern Canada. As I've said earlier in this thread, I'm all for this underseas cable, and federal help to make it happen... just stop blaming Quebec for all your problems. Quebec and eastern Canada are in the same boat, facing the same problems. We are wasting energy being at each other's throats and avoiding the real issues. Your politicians love that no matter how badly they mess up this massive project in the lower Churchill, they can divert the blame to the frenchies and most of you will eat it up, and ask for seconds. Things often work the same way in Quebec of course

Quebecers are ordinary Canadians that also pay a mammoth ammount of taxes to the federal goverment, and receive transfers and equalization at a rate that is about midpack between the provinces... less than NS/NS/PEI/Manitoba. More (but not much more) than Ontario/BC... Of course the fiscal situation is going to be difficult with a lagging economy and lots of aging baby boomers to take care of. The same thing will happen in much of Canada as well. We're all in the same boat. Hydro-Quebec is not perfect, but its a stretch to say we've squandered the hydro ressources... I'd say we've planned our power generation better than most. How many provinces have energy corporations that can export significantly, supplies lots cheap reliable energy to their citizens, draw energy hungry mills and jobs like ALCAN /ALCOA, and turn a profit in the process?

I'm all for it... Too much coal power in the maritimes, theses emissions make their way to us in Quebec too. My only concern is that NL seems hell bent on getting the cable and bringing their power straight to the US. I say if you want the federal goverment subsidy, make sure that power goes to Labrador / NL / NS / NB first. If this is just to make money by way of exports, this project does not really benefit Canada. Quebec needs to make a mental note... ask for subsidies when the Romaine river comes online... Check back into theses threads when that happens and watch everyone`s positions doing a full 180!!!

Quebec does not receive 8BN from Alberta, but from the federal goverment. If you were to break that amount down actually, Ontario transfers the most wealth to Quebec through equalization, as ~40% of all federal revenu comes from Ontario. Anyway on the arena and all theses talks about principles, there are no principles in politics; only interests. The same principles for funding this arena, and not giving money to private interests, would have applied for the GM bailout. Of course that went through without controversy because benefiting Ontario is not pandering, it's for "the good of the nation". The conservatives will simply fund it if it benefits them politically, and won't if it will cost them seats. They are probably doing this math right now....

This is largely the way things are now; in the Public Service there are designated bilingual enclaves. Northern Ontario, the NCR, Montreal, Gaspe and the Acadian peninsula. A public servant in theses area has the right to work in his/her language of preference, including english in Montreal and Gatineau. Outside of theses areas, say Halifax or Edmonton, the language of work is english essential in the ROC or french essential in Quebec.

I agree that there is no good reason for Quebec to be against it. Even with the cable in place, Nalcor won't be a big competitor to HQ and the export market is more than big enough for both companies. This will be good for the maritimes. Remains to be seen if Danny Williams will offer his atlantic brothers similar rates HQ was going to give to NB...