‘The Annihilation of the Federal Liberal Party’

On dashing the Grits' chances against the rock of Quebec.

“Poor Quebec,” writes the National Post’s Tasha Kheiriddin. “In five years, the province has gone from the Conservatives’ favourite child to the black sheep of the federation.” With the Tories so close to a majority, you'd think they’d be doing anything they could to win seats in Quebec, but instead they’ve refused to fund Quebec City’s hockey arena and ignored Gilles Duceppe’s demand that the province be given $2.2 billion for the HST. Kheiriddin speculates that not only has Stephen Harper decided he doesn’t need the province to form a majority, but that, with the Liberals polling at 11 per cent in Quebec, the prime minister is hoping the Bloc will rout the Grits and bring about nothing less than “the annihilation of the federal Liberal Party.”

“If the Liberal vote implodes like the Conservatives’ did in 1993, and the Bloc maintains its strength," predicts Kheiriddin, "then the result could be a Tory majority with a Bloc Opposition, with the former Natural Governing Party wandering the political wilderness for a decade or more.” Cue Justin Trudeau’s epiphany in a canoe, circa 2021.

According to Henry Aubin, Quebecers have more to worry about than being ignored by the Conservatives. In an exhaustive column in the Montreal Gazette, Aubin describes the province’s “crisis of competence.” A troubling array of Quebec’s public institutions “range in quality from sub-average to downright poor,” he writes. The lowlights: Quebec’s municipal watchdog hasn’t investigated a case of misconduct at any city hall in 20 years, the province ranks dead last out of 10 provinces and 50 U.S. states in tax revenue as a percentage of GDP, the provincial debt is the biggest in Canada and continues to grow, its universities and high schools are among the worst in the country, police forces in big cities are ineffective, and corruption is tolerated among the bloated civil service. At least the Montreal nightlife is still exciting. “What we have, then, is two Quebecs,” says Aubin. “One is an impressively bouncy, convivial society at large. The other Quebec consists of sluggish, self-entitled and financially undisciplined public institutions.” Vive le Québec gonflé!

Image courtesy Reuters.