The choice for Canada (I)

Editorial
The Gazette (Montreal)

Thursday, January 19, 2006

The most important issue in Canadian public affairs, and therefore in Monday's federal election, is the future of Quebec. Many Canadians outside this province ignore that simple truth. Some deny it. Others resent it. But we who live here understand that our future, and Canada's, pivots on the unresolved matter of Quebec's status.

La question nationale is the lens through which Quebecers assess every issue and every leader. And through that lens, it is obvious that Canada needs a change of governing party.

For the first century of Confederation, the idea of Quebec separation scarcely existed. Independence will never again be unthinkable, but we trust it will lose its allure over time. Already, many see it as a faded fad, as quaint as bell-bottoms or eight-track tapes. Quebec's recent politics include many who have renounced the notion: Jean Lapierre, Raymond Bachand, Richard Le Hir and apparently Mario Dumont.

So why, federalists ask themselves, does this exploded idea still poll so potently? The answer begins with federalist failures, in Quebec City and Ottawa.

Here it's helpful to remember Kenneth Clarke's dictum: The British Tory frontbencher likes to say that in a referendum, you ask people about, say, bimetallism, and they respond "Throw the rascals out." That's the way it is with Quebecers' notorious ambivalence: Voting Yes, or voting for the Bloc Quebecois, is a form of protest when federalism disappoints. The problem is that, when there's a lot to protest, there's always a danger that Quebecers could be lured onto the banana peel of a majority Yes vote.

Which brings us to the Liberal Party of Canada. The future of Quebec-in-Canada remains shaky today in large part because, for 12 long years, the federal Liberals have been doing well by doing good, milking national unity for their own political profit and even, as the Gomery inquiry confirmed, for financial gain. From Option Canada in 1995 through the sponsorship scandal of recent years, the Liberals have chosen to play fast and loose with the rules. This is the Quebec element of the "culture of entitlement" seen among Liberals from coast to coast.

Across Canada, federal Liberals have painted themselves as the "natural governing party" and the only bulwark against separatism. Inexorably they elevated themselves above the rules, because they are (in David Dingwall's memorable phrase) "entitled to my entitlements." With no healthy federalist alternative to challenge them, the Liberals have been a species facing no natural foes: They spread unhealthily across the landscape. Little transgressions grew bigger, abuses went unchecked. There's a nasty whiff of "l'etat, c'est nous" around the Liberals, manifested most recently in Prime Minister Paul Martin's willingness to start tinkering with the notwithstanding clause of the constitution just to make - rather obscurely - a partisan point.

The worst of these excesses was the sponsorship scandal, a made-to-be-abused $250-million boondoggle that insulted Quebecers in three ways. First came the presumption that the people of Quebec were stupid enough to be swayed, on something so fundamental as independence, by federal hand-outs to county fairs, music festivals and sports events. Second came the outright fraud in which $100 million got away, much of it slipped to the Liberals' friends, with cash finding its way back to the party. Third came the embarrassment of knowing that many outside Quebec see this massive scam as just business as usual in Quebec. In fact, our provincial politics are remarkably scandal-free, but do they know that elsewhere? The Liberals dragged our collective reputation in the mud from coast to coast.

No wonder Liberal support here has collapsed. The federal Liberal brand is now hopelessly stained. One more Liberal government in Ottawa, minority or majority, would certainly be welcomed in some quarters as one "winning condition" for a Yes vote in a new referendum.

This is a tragedy. These 12 Liberal years, under Jean Chretien and now Martin, have in many respects been good years for Canada. Booming resource industries have made our economy healthy, while we enjoy a level of social peace most of the world envies. Manufacturing is holding up. Unemployment is at record low levels. As finance minister, Martin made it his business, and the country's, to end crippling annual government deficits. His farsighted resolve in drying up the red ink has given Martin an enduring claim to Canadians' gratitude.

Since he became prime minister 25 months ago, however, Martin's government has looked stale and unfocused. His knack for discovering countless "urgent" and "fundamental" issues, each one his "top priority," has led to a startling jump in total spending but no corresponding sense that the country is accomplishing anything.

On policy matters, Martin and his ministers have had successes and failures, which need not be rehashed here. What's vital for voting day is the fact that on the essential Quebec question, the Liberals have fouled their own nest, discrediting themselves and soiling the federal system they were supposed to be championing. The great majority of Quebecers now have only a cold contempt for the Liberals. To re-elect this government under these conditions would be asking for trouble in a referendum.

The Liberal Party has failed, seriously and ignobly, on the principal issue of the day. For this reason, if no other, it is time for the Liberals to go.