Is "Funding Separatists" Really So Bad?
Posted in Personal Miscellany
on April 3rd, 2011 by
Stephen DeGrace
Topics:
Politics
I'm frankly sick and tired of all the whining about "taxpayers funding separatists" in relation to MP benefits in general and the political party subsidy in particular going to the Bloc Québecois. Like it or not, they have a perfect right to that funding the same as any other democratically elected representative in Canada.
First of all, Québec separatism is a perfectly legal and legitimate political position in Canada. Like it or not, to prevent violent civil strife, we have implicitly and explicitly given Québec permission to leave if a valid democratic mandate can be obtained. You're allowed to be a Québec separatist or to vote for a Québec separatist in Canada. That's just the way it is, and given the ugly conflicts over separation in so many parts of the world, we're frankly better off this way.
The funny thing is, if you ran a Bloc Québecois candidate in Calgary, people might vote for him... speaking of being sick of listening to whining, I think we're all getting a little bit tired of the attitude coming out of Québec. As a Newfoundlander listening to people in Québec go on about Harper's evil support for the Lower Churchill, I frankly feel a bit like voting for the Bloc myself right now.
But anyway, that's beside the point. Believe it or not, people in Québec actually pay taxes, and they have democratically elected many Bloc Québecois candidates to represent them. Bloc MP's (and Bloc voters) have an absolute right to the same share of tax dollars that other MP's get to do their jobs.
Furthermore, if we have a political subsidy, the Bloc has an absolute right to receive that, too. It's not Calgary Southwest tax dollars that go to pay for the Bloc's subsidy, any more than it Laurent-Sainte-Marie tax dollars that are going to the Conservative subsidy. It comes down to equal treatment under the law and respecting people's vote.
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