Evening Star

Also Ruth-Ellen Brosseau

Andrew Cash

Yes they are planning to: http://www.thestar.com/article/829074--french-g8-g20-summits-will-cost-10-times-less-than-canada-s-sarkozy Admittedly, that article doesn't actually put a price tag on the French summits. I'm not sure what the source for the $30M figure is. The amount quoted in the AG report is $664M, I thought?

Yeah, I don't get this at all. I felt like I was completely at home and in familiar surroundings in Vancouver and Edmonton, without even the sorts of differences that I observe between Windsor and Detroit or Toronto and Buffalo. I never had any sense that I was in another 'solitude' or observed a profound alienation or anything.

Could you explain this? I never really got the sense that we in Ontario identify any more strongly with the Maritimes than with Vancouver or Edmonton, certainly not in the way that e.g. folks in the Northeastern US identify as Northeasterners or even in the way that Quebecers identify with their province. Tbh, the Maritimes actually seem more foreign to me.

Thanks for at least fleshing that out. I don't know that much about agricultural policy in that time period tbh.

Yeah, Saudi Arabia has plenty of wealth too despite being a quasi-medieval theocracy and command economy. People like to attack QC for relying on transfers from AB but I think it's one province that has actually taken real efforts to promote more knowledge-based industry and innovation, ranging from aerospace to science to even stuff like the video game industry and, of course, culture more generally.

This was a pleasant surprise, yes. But what is your defence of the spending in Clement's riding? Or the way it was presented to Parliament?

This was a rhetorical question that he proceeded to actually answer, right? (Seems so: http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=M1ARTM0011049 ) And the Liberals haven't done so great in the West since 1957 so I don't know if PET was the reason, though he probably helped. Also, didn't Lougheed actually choose to sign on to the NEP?

But, numbers aside, do you think AB is being exploited or oppressed by the federation?

"Ever again" doesn't mean "in the near and foreseeable future". Who knows what conditions may arise at some point in the future?

Sure, but is there a point at which you would decide it's not worth it to keep a province in the country against their will?

It makes sense that the proportion should be comparable to what is required for other fundamental changes or what is required in other democratic federations that have provisions for secession. If 60% is a common standard, as has been suggested, that makes sense to me

(The 1980 referendum was actually called while Clark was still PM btw. Levesque and other senior pequistes of the time have openly stated that they knew they couldn't win if PET was PM.

I agree but I would be willing to accept the decision of a clear majority. I have largely been convinced that 50%+1 is probably setting the bar too low.

Sure. I just think it's a little bold to say "it will never happen".

Because we actually got something for the money then?

Do you remember the results of the last referendum? What makes you sure "it is never going to happen"? And, even if you are, should fundamental policies pertaining to national unity really be based on a bet like this?

I personally tend to think of Chretien's Liberals as a right-wing party, at least on economics, fwiw.

That depends on how you define "the right". A number of major CPC policies are just an extension of things the Liberals did and were passed with Liberal support in the Commons. -- xpost with Smallc

"start"

This statement is truly incredible!

His analysis didn't even make sense to me on its own terms. Provincial NDP governments have been very successful in SK and MB. If they're fading a bit now (after years of government), that doesn't make them comparable to the situation in ON. NS and NL both sent NDP members to Parliament.

The Liberals themselves didn't seem that bothered about the corporate tax cuts, considering that they voted for them. (So I'm not actually that convinced that all the Opposition parties are so close on these policies, despite the Liberal platform - which at least Rob Silver has admitted the Liberals didn't even really believe in all that much. NDP and BQ, yes.)

Do you see any distinction between this issue of riding distribution and the situation in Libya or Syria? The people who are actually trying to tackle issues like electoral reform are not being condemned as enemies of the state. Nor are they simply holding up signs that say "Stop Harper!" while they're at work.