The NDP's Quebec gambit
National Post, Last Updated: Apr. 28, 2011 4:06 AM ET
"The Post's front-page Wednesday story on the degree to which the NDP has sold its soul to Quebec nationalists should be read by anyone thinking of voting for the New Democrats on Monday.
Jack Layton's party has surged in the polls, in large part because Mr. Layton himself seems likeable. But the NDP policy in Quebec should be recognized for what it is: a frightening leap into the unknown, which could quickly plunge the country back into the quagmire of constitutional bickering.
Neither side wins when politicians start playing games with Quebec's aspirations. Quebecers don't like being promised powers and privileges that ultimately aren't delivered. And Canadians outside Quebec have no toleration for another round of "negotiations" that consist of Quebec compiling a list of demands to which the rest of the country is expected to concede.
The NDP view of Quebec, as detailed in its Sherbrooke Declaration, amounts to an independent Quebec within Confederation. Layton's NDP would stand in the way of few if any demands. Once Quebec had all the powers Mr. Layton is willing to hand over, there would be little practical reason for remaining within Canada, other than the annual equalization cheque. And even hardcore separatists can't believe Canada will keep sending that along once Quebec has removed itself from any other vestige of membership in the federation.
On other fronts, Mr. Layton's party is promising tens of billions of dollars in new spending, with no credible idea of where the money will come from. The party assumes it can hike corporate taxes without affecting job creation, investment levels or the overall economy. It thinks it can raise billions from a cap-and-trade plan on greenhouse emissions, ignoring the inevitability that those billions will have to be sucked out of the economy, and taxpayers' pockets. It wants to set an arbitrary limit on credit card interest rates, without considering how quickly card companies will stop issuing them to people with low credit ratings, i.e. the same people the NDP purports to help.
NDP plans, particularly in Quebec, are ill-considered and dangerous, and anyone supporting them is backing a serious gamble with the health and unity of the country."
National Post, Last Updated: Apr. 28, 2011 4:06 AM ET
"The Post's front-page Wednesday story on the degree to which the NDP has sold its soul to Quebec nationalists should be read by anyone thinking of voting for the New Democrats on Monday.
Jack Layton's party has surged in the polls, in large part because Mr. Layton himself seems likeable. But the NDP policy in Quebec should be recognized for what it is: a frightening leap into the unknown, which could quickly plunge the country back into the quagmire of constitutional bickering.
Neither side wins when politicians start playing games with Quebec's aspirations. Quebecers don't like being promised powers and privileges that ultimately aren't delivered. And Canadians outside Quebec have no toleration for another round of "negotiations" that consist of Quebec compiling a list of demands to which the rest of the country is expected to concede.
The NDP view of Quebec, as detailed in its Sherbrooke Declaration, amounts to an independent Quebec within Confederation. Layton's NDP would stand in the way of few if any demands. Once Quebec had all the powers Mr. Layton is willing to hand over, there would be little practical reason for remaining within Canada, other than the annual equalization cheque. And even hardcore separatists can't believe Canada will keep sending that along once Quebec has removed itself from any other vestige of membership in the federation.
On other fronts, Mr. Layton's party is promising tens of billions of dollars in new spending, with no credible idea of where the money will come from. The party assumes it can hike corporate taxes without affecting job creation, investment levels or the overall economy. It thinks it can raise billions from a cap-and-trade plan on greenhouse emissions, ignoring the inevitability that those billions will have to be sucked out of the economy, and taxpayers' pockets. It wants to set an arbitrary limit on credit card interest rates, without considering how quickly card companies will stop issuing them to people with low credit ratings, i.e. the same people the NDP purports to help.
NDP plans, particularly in Quebec, are ill-considered and dangerous, and anyone supporting them is backing a serious gamble with the health and unity of the country."