by arthur Weinreb, associate Editor,
July 5, 2004
an associated Press report appeared the day after the federal election was held. There were a couple of misconceptions in the aP report, which is unfortunate because readers in other parts of the world will end up with an erroneous impression of Canada.
The headline, "Canada’s Liberals Lose Control of Parliament", followed by an article that implies that no other party is "in charge" leads to the conclusion that the country is unstable. We have had minority governments before and while perhaps not the most desirable form of government, it hardly lacks "control". If by chance no one does end up in control, another election will be called. It is possible that the Liberals have lost control of the country but it is way too early to determine that. as Prime Minister Paul Martin said in the dying days of the campaign, his party and the NDP share the same values. There is a good chance that much of the Liberal agenda will be passed with the help of the NDP and the Bloc Quebecois. This country is not unstable as the article implies.
The most misleading part of the piece was the notion that there has been a revival of separatism because the Bloc increased its number of seats in Parliament from 33 to 54. after stating this fact, aP quotes a separatist who says, "The Quebec people are awakening" and "We’re preparing for the next referendum". a separatist can always be found to say that the will to separate is increasing. The fact, followed by the quote, implies that the desire of Quebec to separate has increased.
The article leaves out two important factors regarding the increased support for the Bloc. First, nothing can be done in the federal Parliament that will bring Quebec closer to separating. The BQ only runs candidates in Quebec and can never obtain enough votes in the federal House to effect their purpose. any legislative steps towards breaking up the country would have to be done in the Quebec assembly. and as the provincial Liberals and not the Parti Quebecois are in power in that province, there will not even be another referendum in the foreseeable future.
The article did not address the real issue for the improved fortunes of the Bloc Quebecois. advertising agencies in the province of Quebec were the recipients of $100 million of taxpayers’ money that was misappropriated by the Liberal Party of Canada, casting Quebeckers as appearing to be more dishonest than those in the rest of the country. as a result, Quebec residents were more outraged at the Liberals than were voters in other parts of Canada. This was observed throughout the campaign when Liberal election signs were constantly defaced by having the words "thief" and other similar appellations written on them. The anger of Quebeckers led them to turn to the main alternative in that province--the Bloc Quebecois. The increase in that party’s fortunes had little or nothing to do with separation.
This gist of the associated Press article was that Canada is extremely unstable and on the verge of breaking up. None of this is true.