Conan's Canada

'David Frum's Diary' in National Review ^ | February 17, 2004 | David Frum

[quidnunc]

President’s Day weekend may be an appropriate time to note the troubles of the prime minister next door. New Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin is being buffeted by a major corruption scandal. Martin’s predecessor, Jean Chretien, appears to have directed tens of millions of dollars of public funds to supporters in Quebec who then kicked back immense contributions to Chretien’s and Martin’s Liberal Party. The main outlines of the abuse have been known for years, although the full dimensions of the story have only emerged recently.

Today’s big political question is: How much did Paul Martin know?

Lorne Gunter, the superb political columnist for the Edmonton Journal lays out the facts in a recent column (not online):

Up until Friday, Martin insisted that he had known absolutely nothing of the scandal.

Now he is insisting that he learned of it in May, or March, or maybe February of 2002.

-snip-

[happygrl]

Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and perhaps the Yukon could very well seek to join the United States (we should welcome them).

I Wonder what the geopolitical map of North America will look like in the 22nd Century ?

[luvbach1]

Try as they may, the frogs' attempt to ban use of the English language will not change the fact that English has been the world language for some time.

[headsonpikes]

I'll have to cut you some slack on this matter.

I was just recalling back in the late '70s when Carter was President thinking what a bunch of p*ssies you guys were. Of course, I was wrong to jump to such a conclusion and you proved it by electing Reagan!

You'll just have to leave me with my child-like faith that the Liberals can be defeated. ;^)

[pragmatic_asian]

"A Quebecker has held the prime ministership of Canada for all but 18 months of the past 36 years. And over those same 36 years, Quebec has received C$201 billion more from the federal Treasury than it has paid in. (Over those same years, the province of Alberta paid in $167 billion more than it received back.)"

It's too bad that Alberta didn't have a vote in Quebec's seccession, I'm sure they would've voted to boot those leeches.

Of course that sort of leeching also goes on in the US. The blue states that voted for Gore pay more out in taxes to the federal government than they get back while the red states that went for Bush recieved more than they pay out. California pays out several billion a year more than it recieves. Before anyone gets on my case, I blame the federal government for the problem. (Consider the illegal immigration problem).

[quidnunc]

headsonpikes wrote: I'll have to cut you some slack on this matter. You'll just have to leave me with my child-like faith that the Liberals can be defeated. ;^)

The Liberal Party isn't the problem; the Canadian zeitgeist is the problem.

And as long as this zeitgeist persists the Tories nor any other party will be able to reestablish sanity.

[bobjam]

That might work except that Quebec would be forced to give up its access to Hudson Bay. There are also issues concerning hydroelectric power. The northern parts of Ontario and Quebec are more important than most realize. Even if Quebec left and ceded a strip of land to Canada, their leaving by itself might be enough to unravel the whole "nation".

[headsonpikes]

I'm no zeitgeistmeister, but it's my historical observation that the Liberal Party confected the current Canadian identity package during the Pearson/Trudeau years. This smarmy monstrosity may not survive the toppling of its creator from power.

There is an older Canadian identity, cherished by many, just as in the Constitution-loving remnant of your own population. Do not underestimate its passion and depth.

[NorthOf45]

'There is an older Canadian identity, cherished by many, just as in the Constitution-loving remnant of your own population. Do not underestimate its passion and depth.'

Nicely put.

[ConservativeStLouisGuy]

Conan's Canada - David Frum

President’s Day weekend may be an appropriate time to note the troubles of the prime minister next door. New Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin is being buffeted by a major corruption scandal. Martin’s predecessor, Jean Chretien, appears to have directed tens of millions of dollars of public funds to supporters in Quebec who then kicked back immense contributions to Chretien’s and Martin’s Liberal Party. The main outlines of the abuse have been known for years, although the full dimensions of the story have only emerged recently.

Today’s big political question is: How much did Paul Martin know?

Lorne Gunter, the superb political columnist for the Edmonton Journal lays out the facts in a recent column. It's not available online, so here's a quick summary:

Up until Friday, Martin insisted that he had known absolutely nothing of the scandal.

Now he is insisting that he learned of it in May, or March, or maybe February of 2002.

But important clues to the story were appearing in newspapers as early as 1999. And while it might have taken outsiders five years to piece together the whole affair, Martin – who was minister of finance throughout almost the whole of the period – must have had some indication of how and for whose benefit his government’s money was being spent.

Moreover - to extend Gunter's argument - Martin was a senior Quebec politician engaged in a desperate battle against Chretien for control of the Liberal party. It is hard to believe that Martin did not have some understanding of how the game he sought to master was being played in his home province.

This understanding is by the way an important subtheme of last week’s other big Canadian story: the furor over a set of anti-francophone jokes broadcast by Conan O’Brien when he took his program to Toronto last week (for which the show was paid 750,000 Canadian dollars in tourism-promotion funds).

The show featured a talking dog puppet who made a series of disparaging remarks about French Quebeckers. For this, Conan has been denounced by all of Canada’s great and good. The Toronto Star, the country’s largest paper and an eager policer of the national taboos, editorially wondered whether O’Brien would have dared to make similar comments about New York’s minorities. And indeed he almost certainly would not have done so. But that question raises another question: Are French Quebeckers a “minority” in the sense that African-Americans are a minority? Although French Quebeckers constitute only about 20% of the Canadian population, they number some 80% of the population in the country’s second-largest province – and within the borders of that province, they exert their power with the uninhibited enthusiasm of an untrammeled majority.

It is illegal to post an English-language sign in the province of Quebec. A Quebecker has held the prime ministership of Canada for all but 18 months of the past 36 years. And over those same 36 years, Quebec has received C$201 billion more from the federal Treasury than it has paid in. (Over those same years, the province of Alberta paid in $167 billion more than it received back.)

The tens of millions misappropriated in this latest in a long series of Quebec financial scandals may add only a few additional dollars to the balance. But you can understand why so few English Canadians continue to believe in the pieties that the Toronto Star urges them to mouth.

The Quebec-based Liberals have held power in Canada for all but 31 of the past 108 years – a better record than either Mexico’s Institutional Revolution Party or the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Under the circumstances, it is a wonder that they don’t steal even more than they do. At the same time, it’s also a wonder that Canadians have tolerated the stealing as long as they have.

__________________________________________

"Thou shalt not excerpt unnecessarily" -- FReeper commandment #11

Thanks for the article -- deserving of a full posting.

FReegards,

- ConservativeStLouisGuy

[ConservativeStLouisGuy]

Quidnunc,

I am so overjoyed that FINALLY something is NOT going the Liberals' way up here in Canada....and am eagerly looking forward to the UNITED Conservative Party regaining control from Martin, Cretan (spelled just like it should be, wink, wink) and their ilk in the next (upcoming) national elections....

- ConservativeStLouisGuy

[headsonpikes]

Thanks.

With the collapse of Martin's 'Emperor's New Clothes' strategy, hope is alive for the Dominion.