Quebec gets the lion's share of Canada Day

[Leafless]

Again this year, Quebec gets the lion's share (55%) or $3,690,786 out of a total of $6,735,280 Canada Day funding.

Why? "The Department of Canadian Heritage says Quebec receives a larger share of money for holidays celebrations because its provincial government doesn't fund Canada Day events."

My heart is bleeding! Why even bother to have a federal provincial political party in Quebec when they don't stand up for Canada.

To display any kind of patriotism to Canada apparently does not pay for Canadian citizens of other Canadian provinces who will be federally short changed of Canada Day funding.

Why even bother to celebrate Canada Day when the federal government is unable to equally distribute Canada Day funding not to mention the federal government also provides funding for Quebec's 'Fete National du Quebec' celebrations, ( St. John Baptist Day).

PROVINCE FUNDING PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL

Quebec $3,690,786 55

Ontario $1,013,500 15

British Columbia $491,250 7

Alberta $310,250 5

Manitoba $211,000 3

Saskatchewan $174,294 3

Nova Scotia $173,250 3

New Brunswick $172,000 3

Newfoundland and Labrador $148,000 2

Prince Edward Island $123,000 2

Yukon $87,000 1

Northwest Territories $76,650 1

Nunavut $64,300 1

TOTAL $6,735,280 100

http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/s...3f79336&k=25165

[NovaScotian]

Interesting. Every other province receives funding roughly based on population, except Quebec.

[geoffrey]

Shouldn't fund any of it, anywhere. If people really care, they'll buy their fireworks themselves.

Nationalism is an ugly beast. Leads to things like that, where the government tries to push patriotism down the throats of those that don't want it (Quebecois).

[BC_chick]

July 1st is known to be "moving day" in Quebec.

[Naci Sey]

Shouldn't fund any of it, anywhere. If people really care, they'll buy their fireworks themselves.

Nationalism is an ugly beast. Leads to things like that, where the government tries to push patriotism down the throats of those that don't want it (Quebecois).

I agree.

Just imagine what $6,735,000 could do. Among the items:

* $13,470 could be used to house 500 homeless for one year.

* 2,694 low income workers could receive an average of $2,500 in rental supplements.

It's immoral for Canada's government to spend ANY dollars on pumping up nationalist fervour while homelessness and the poverty gap continue to go unaddressed.

[kimmy]

I somewhat disagree with the characterizations of Canada Day celebrations as "pumping up nationalist fervor".

Canada Day celebrations are a tradition. They also contribute to a sense of community. I think maintaining the tradition and contributing to some sense of community is worth at least some amount of federal support.

Nationalism is an ugly beast? Nationalist fervor? I somewhat agree, but this is Canada Day we're talking about. I don't see people getting all worked up to invade Greenland or St Pierre et Michelon.

-k

{Canada uber alles!}

[B. Max]

Just imagine what $6,735,000 could do. Among the items:

* $13,470 could be used to house 500 homeless for one year.

* 2,694 low income workers could receive an average of $2,500 in rental supplements.

It's immoral for Canada's government to spend ANY dollars on pumping up nationalist fervour while homelessness and the poverty gap continue to go unaddressed.

It could be left in the pockets of the people it was stolen from in the first place. Another tax and spend social program won't make it any less immoral or close any poverty gap.

[seabee]

I just saw a brief report of the Canada Day parade in Montréal. From the pictures, a rather thin attendance. And when asked what they liked about it, they said something to the effect that they like to see ethnic communities.

The organiser also said that this year might be the last parade, for lack of funding. Where has all the federal money gone.

The events in the Old Port will have strong attendance, simply because this is tourist season, and Old Montreal and the Old Port is full of tourists anyway. Is Canada day supposed to be a tourist event.

[ScottSA]

It's immoral for Canada's government to spend ANY dollars on pumping up nationalist fervour while homelessness and the poverty gap continue to go unaddressed.

It's immoral for Canada's government to address a "poverty gap" by redistribution, so the money would be better burned than handed out to undeserving lumpenproletariat. I can't think of anything that would perpetuate the enculturation of poverty faster than making it more comfortable. Such safety net as our society should have ought to be confined to those who cannot help themselves, not to those who don't feel like helping themselves.

[Naci Sey]

It's immoral for Canada's government to spend ANY dollars on pumping up nationalist fervour while homelessness and the poverty gap continue to go unaddressed.

It's immoral for Canada's government to address a "poverty gap" by redistribution, so the money would be better burned than handed out to undeserving lumpenproletariat. I can't think of anything that would perpetuate the enculturation of poverty faster than making it more comfortable. Such safety net as our society should have ought to be confined to those who cannot help themselves, not to those who don't feel like helping themselves.

'Undeserving'? Forty percent of those living below the poverty line - including people who are homeless - work, most at two and three jobs, at minimum and sub-minimum wages. And the percentage of low-income workers has been climbing.

[gc1765]

Just imagine what $6,735,000 could do. Among the items:

* $13,470 could be used to house 500 homeless for one year.

* 2,694 low income workers could receive an average of $2,500 in rental supplements.

Very good point.

[gc1765]

It's immoral for Canada's government to address a "poverty gap" by redistribution, so the money would be better burned than handed out to undeserving lumpenproletariat. I can't think of anything that would perpetuate the enculturation of poverty faster than making it more comfortable. Such safety net as our society should have ought to be confined to those who cannot help themselves, not to those who don't feel like helping themselves.

Hmmm, for some reason I thought you were a Christian...but obviously I was wrong on that.

[ScottSA]

It's immoral for Canada's government to spend ANY dollars on pumping up nationalist fervour while homelessness and the poverty gap continue to go unaddressed.

It's immoral for Canada's government to address a "poverty gap" by redistribution, so the money would be better burned than handed out to undeserving lumpenproletariat. I can't think of anything that would perpetuate the enculturation of poverty faster than making it more comfortable. Such safety net as our society should have ought to be confined to those who cannot help themselves, not to those who don't feel like helping themselves.

'Undeserving'? Forty percent of those living below the poverty line - including people who are homeless - work, most at two and three jobs, at minimum and sub-minimum wages. And the percentage of low-income workers has been climbing.

I don't know where your stats are coming from, but I'd suggest that if one were to parse them out, one would find a couple of inconvenient facts:

1 You're using one of the more far-fetched "poverty lines" available out there. There are dozens of alternative formulations for where the "poverty line" is; the silliest one was the NDP's notion in 1993 that anything below $35,000 per annum was below the line. By now this same formulation probably has $50,000 as the poverty line.

2 The low-end jobs are overwhelmingly taken by young people as a stop on the way to better jobs. Or in some cases immigrants, as a matter of choice that they can always remedy by going back home and making even less.

3 Throwing money at people is not going to help them better themselves or their job situation. Making poverty comfortable is going to have precisely the opposite effect.

[NovaScotian]

3 Throwing money at people is not going to help them better themselves or their job situation. Making poverty comfortable is going to have precisely the opposite effect.

Partly true. For example, giving large cheques away to the unemployed is bad policy, but making sure they poor have access to medical care and especially education is certainly positive. We also see that countries with great inequality have much higher crime rates and thus can hamper development. Taxation is certainly an annoyance, but has the benefit of preventing money from accumulating on the top, also hampering development.

[ScottSA]

3 Throwing money at people is not going to help them better themselves or their job situation. Making poverty comfortable is going to have precisely the opposite effect.

Partly true. For example, giving large cheques away to the unemployed is bad policy, but making sure they poor have access to medical care and especially education is certainly positive. We also see that countries with great inequality have much higher crime rates and thus can hamper development. Taxation is certainly an annoyance, but has the benefit of preventing money from accumulating on the top, also hampering development.

I agree that the playing field should be level, but I don't see the role of taxation as redistributive. The role of taxation should be to provide public goods, not prop up a false economy of non-production. So far in Canada, education and medicine is available to everybody, and everybody has an equal opportunity to succeed or fail. It ought not be the government's responsibility to level the end result.

[Leafless]

I just saw a brief report of the Canada Day parade in Montréal. From the pictures, a rather thin attendance. And when asked what they liked about it, they said something to the effect that they like to see ethnic communities.

The organiser also said that this year might be the last parade, for lack of funding. Where has all the federal money gone.

The events in the Old Port will have strong attendance, simply because this is tourist season, and Old Montreal and the Old Port is full of tourists anyway. Is Canada day supposed to be a tourist event.

What Canada Day means in Quebec.

Here are some samplers:

"MONTREAL (CP) - Asked if he has any plans for Canada Day, Oussama Aitelhaj asks "When is Canada Day?"

That just about sums up the standing Canada's national celebration has in Quebec, where many people want to leave Canada and many others don't seem to care.

"I'll stay home," says Aitelhaj, a Canadian citizen, when asked what he'll do to mark July 1 this year. "I don't have to work. I don't have to go to school."

That's celebration enough, he jokes.

Christiane Joanette is what could pass for an ardent federalist in Quebec. She knows when Canada Day is and she usually goes to the park with her family to take in the local celebrations.

This year?

"I'm moving," she says.

Most leases in Quebec expire at the end of June and anyone who wants to relocate spends the holiday packing or unpacking.

While Quebecers love getting a second three-day weekend in a row, the celebrations are always far more muted than for the June 24 Fete nationale holiday and the province never becomes a sea of red on July 1.

And even the fact this is the 140th anniversary of Confederation won't change that.

"I don't mind the holiday, that's good," says Francoise David, whose fledgling Quebec solidaire party espouses separation from Canada.

"But I don't participate in any celebration because, for me, it has no meaning."

For many Quebecers, it's just a day off, she says.

"There are certainly people for whom it's an important holiday but I have the impression that for most people, even for people who aren't sovereigntists, that they don't celebrate the day in any particular way," says David.

"There's a certain indifference on the part of many Quebecers."

Indifference may be the best case scenario, says Allen Nutik, founder of Affiliation Quebec, a pro-federalist group.

"The anti-Canada feelings in Quebec run so high," Nutik says.

In Quebec City, the annual holiday tradition in recent years has included a small parade and an accompanying protest by hardline sovereigntists.

In Montreal, Nutik says turnout for the downtown parade has diminished each year.

"Some (people) are embarrassed, some are outright intimidated or frightened," he says.

This year, organizers aren't sure they will be able to mount more than a marching band and their own unbridled enthusiasm.

Nutik says the federal Heritage Department hasn't come up with one red cent for the parade in Montreal.

But a spokesman for the department says $40,000 has been set aside for the downtown parade. The department says celebrations at the Old Port in Montreal are the centrepiece of federally funded Canada Day events in the city.

But Claude Leclerc, organizer of the parade for many years, says the funding is a pittance. The Fete nationale parade held the weekend before costs $675,000.

In the heyday of the notorious federal sponsorship program, Canada Day in Quebec was flush with cash; apparently not as much cash as was paid out, but flush all the same.

Nutik blames sponsorship shame for the poor showing the past few years.

He says federalist parties in Ottawa have abandoned the anglophone minority in Quebec in order to woo the so-called "soft" nationalist vote they need to win seats in the province.

He says there's pressure to abandon the downtown parade altogether.

"It's as if the federal government is trying to sabotage it," Nutik says. "And it is shameful."

There aren't that many activities listed in the province on the federally sponsored website for Canada Day in Quebec.

There are events planned in the Old Port of Montreal, a young staffer at the local tourism office assures a visitor. She just doesn't have any information about them.

Jean-Francois Lisee, an author and political pundit at the Universite de Montreal, says celebrating Canada has never been de rigueur in Lower Canada - not 140 years ago and not today.

"When Quebec joined the federation in 1867, there were no celebrations," says Lisee.

He says it's only since the rise of the sovereigntist movement that the federal government has promoted July 1 in Quebec - with very limited success.

"You have a holiday, it's nice outside," Lisee says. "I'm sure that this being the 140th anniversary will not make much of a difference for Quebecers."

Tania Kottoyanni, co-president of the Conseil de la souverainete, says most Quebecers don't even know it's the 140th anniversary of Confederation.

"People here know a lot more about their national celebration than this one," she says, referring to the Fete nationale.

But Nutik and a handful of his Canada-loving friends are determined.

There will be a parade, he says, even if it's just a single marching band and some proud anglophones holding up traffic. He urged all federalists in Quebec to come out and fill the ranks.

"If you think that Canada deserves to be a country and you are Canadian in Quebec, come to this parade. Your country depends on it."

© The Canadian Press, 2007

http://www.mackenziefinancial.com/en/pub/m.../n0629168.shtml

[jbg]

I somewhat disagree with the characterizations of Canada Day celebrations as "pumping up nationalist fervor".

Canada Day celebrations are a tradition. They also contribute to a sense of community. I think maintaining the tradition and contributing to some sense of community is worth at least some amount of federal support.

I think Canada needs, if anything, a bit more patriotism. I always took it for granted that schoolchildren in most countries, including Canada, stood and said a "Pledge of Allegiance" to the flag at the beginning of a school day. I was surprised to find that is not done in Canada.

How can Canadians demand more respect from their American brethren when they don't respect themselves?

Nationalism is an ugly beast? Nationalist fervor? I somewhat agree, but this is Canada Day we're talking about. I don't see people getting all worked up to invade Greenland or St Pierre et Michelon.

-k

{Canada uber alles!}

What about this one:

Artist: Arrogant Worms

Song: The War Of 1812 (link)

Album:

[" " CD]

oo come back proud canadians

before you had tv

no hockey night in canada

there was no cbc

in 1812 madison was mad

he was the president, you know

but he thought he tell the british where they ought to go

he thougth he'd invade canada

he thought that he was tough

instead he went to washington

and burned down all his stuff

and the whitehouse burned burned burned

and we're the ones that did it

it burned burned burned

while the president ran and cried

it burned burned burned

and things were very historical

and the americans ran and cried like a bunch of little babies

wa wa waaaa

in the war of 1812

now hillbillies from kentucky

dressed in green and red

left home to fight in canada

but they returned home dead

its only war the yankees lost

except for vietnam

and also the alamo

and the bay of... ham

the loser was america

the winner was ourselves

so join right in and gloat about

the war of 1812

and the whitehouse burned burned burned

and we're the ones that did it

it burned burned burned

while the president ran and cried

it burned burned burned

and things were very historical

and the americans ran and cried like a bunch of little babies

wa wa waaaa

in the war of 1812

in 1812 we were just sittin' around

mindin' our own business

puttin' crops into the ground

we heard the soldiers coming

and we didnt like that sound

so we took a boat to washington

and burned it to the ground

oh, oh...

we burned our guns

but the yankees kept on coming

there wasn't quite as many

as there was a while ago

we fired once more

and the yankees started runnin

down the mississippi to the gulf of mexico

they ran through the snow

and they ran through the forest

they ran throught the bushes where the beavers wouldn't go

they ran so fast that they forgot to take their culture

back to america, gulf, and texico

So, if you go to Washington, its buildings clean and nice,

Bring a pack of matches, and we’ll burn the White House twice!

and the whitehouse burned burned burned

but the americans won't admit it

it burned, burned, burned,

it burned and burned and burned

it burned, burned, burned,

now, i bet that made them mad

and the americans ran and cried like a bunch of little babies

waa waa waah!

in the war of 1812!

[August1991]

PROVINCE FUNDING PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL

Quebec $3,690,786 55

Ontario $1,013,500 15

I seriously question these numbers. For example, I suspect they exclude the money spent by the National Capital Commission (a federal agency funded by taxpayers across Canada, including Quebec taxpayers) spent on festivities in Ottawa.

Here's a an Intro:

Canada's Capital Region — As the organizer of Canada Day festivities in Canada’s Capital Region, the National Capital Commission (NCC) invites Canadians and visitors to take part in the activities offered at some of the region’s museums and attractions and on the four Canada Day official sites.

Link

There were fireworks, televised spectacles and a flyby by fast jets. I doubt that all that could be had for the quoted figure of $1 million (and the last time I checked, Ottawa was in Ontario).

In short, don't believe everything you read in the newspaper and government budget numbers are often hard to interpret.

----

Just imagine what $6,735,000 could do. Among the items:

* $13,470 could be used to house 500 homeless for one year.

* 2,694 low income workers could receive an average of $2,500 in rental supplements.

It's immoral for Canada's government to spend ANY dollars on pumping up nationalist fervour while homelessness and the poverty gap continue to go unaddressed.

I tend to agree with you - but I'll add two caveats.

One could apply the same logic to alot of other government spending. (How many homeless could we house for the cost of providing security while that UK prince is in Canada? How many went homeless because our GG decdied to take a Challenger on vacation rather than fly commercial?)

Then again Naci, since this is the government we are talking about, I'm not certain any of the money would ever really help a homeless person.

[geoffrey]

There were fireworks, televised spectacles and a flyby by fast jets. I doubt that all that could be had for the quoted figure of $1 million (and the last time I checked, Ottawa was in Ontario).

In short, don't believe everything you read in the newspaper and government budget numbers are often hard to interpret.

While I do agree with you, I can point out a significant difference. Muncipal and provincial governments share in the cost of Canada day celebrations... well, that is, excluding Quebec.

That's where you see the difference. Quebec does not spend money on Canada day.

[Bakunin]

You are right,

alot of city have to choose to organize an event the 24 or the 1st and they choose the 24th because its more likly to be successfull and the 1st is kind of a bad date for canada day, many ppl are moving and take a break after last week party.

[B. Max]

How can Canadians demand more respect from their American brethren when they don't respect themselves?

I confess. I drank American beer on Canada day.