The leaders of the major political parties in Canada are having a televised debate tonight.
Dave Pollard gives us some food for thought by arguing that a vote for the Conservatives is a vote for disintegration of Canada:
So why am I talking about the breakup of the country? When Mulroney was Conservative leader, his Québec wing was substantially separatist. Separatists saw the Conservatives as their allies. Western alienation is not all that different from Québec nationalism, except that until Harper came along it was less virulent. Now, 14 years after they last governed, the Conservatives and the Bloq separatists are again poised to take power. As I mentioned, the Bloq is strongly left-of-centre, while the Harper Conservatives are strongly right-of-centre. The only thing they have in common is the same desire to shift power from the federal government to the regional (provincial) governments that Mulroney tried to impose on Canadians with the Charlottetown Accord. The only difference is that this time there will be no referendum — the Conservatives and Bloq will try to use their 44% ‘majority’ to do the only thing they can agree on, the very thing that Pierre Trudeau warned against: weaken the federal government to the point of gradual disintegration, leading to the eventual, substantive breakup of the country. Once federal powers have been given away to the provinces they can never be taken back.
Ken Dyck 