Did Canadian taxpayers save the Bloc Québécois?

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I know it's a little late to be revisiting the last Canadian general election, but when it comes to my hard earned tax dollars and how they're used, any time or place is fair game. Anyway, to make a long story short, I was clicking around a few public policy websites last night and happened to stumble upon this fascinating report on campaign finance by Frontier Centre's Mark Milke. Let me tell you, What Saved The Bloc Québécois in the 2008 Election: Public Money is a great read from opening to closing — but what caught my eye above and beyond everything else was the bar graph illustrated above.

For those who find it difficult to read the graph straight up, the blueish green bar to the left represents dollars earned from public sources (specifically the $1.95-per-vote given to registered federal parties annually by Elections Canada), while the grey bar indicates private donations. As you can see from all five examples, the party whose public funding far exceeded its private funding was the separatist party, the Bloc Québécois. They received almost 12 times as much public funding as they did from private donations. No other party even came close to that unbalanced level of financing. As a benchmark, take a look at the Conservatives, their private funding actually exceeded the funding received from public sources. Quite a drastic difference from the pathetic $73,704 the separatist raised since 2008 compared to the $1.5 million we gave 'em in that same time period. A comparative public/private ratio which works out to around 20:1 running up to the fall election. Brutal.

Anyway, as I see it, it's bad enough that the Bloc Québécois (in their 18 years of existence) only passed 4 pieces of legislation in total, not to mention, all the hefty federal pensions they built up over the years via our tax dollars, but for them to be using our money to rescue their fortunes in the last election is ludicrous to say the least. I mean honestly, how many seats did we buy the Bloc anyway?

Let's just say, my consciences hopes it was zero, but my gut suspects it was a lot more --- at the very least a handful. In my books, even one is one too many, especially when you're talking about our tax follars funding separatist. I mean really, can anyone else think of another example — in any Western country — of a government who fully funds a party or group with the intent of breaking their country?

Only in Canada my dear Watson.

Blogging the non-blogging in New Brunswick

I've been blogging a long time in New Brunswick, for close to four years now. Let's just say, I've seen many good and bad ones come and go, including Charles' original. :) But never have I witnessed a time when there have been so many daily bloggers inactive all at once:

[nbpolitico, spinks, j@ckp1ne, Countering the Nanny State, Blogcastnb, Sorry Centrist, To Be Announced, NB Tory Lady, Voice of the Association, Atlantic Insight, Muddy River Tories]

Thank goodness Gyps, Awareness, Koom, Burton Front, Alec Bruce, Harold Doherty, Workout Rob, Dubya Dubya, Chucky and David are taking up the slack. Without them, the province would be voiceless. Well, unless you count Irving and the mainstream media. lol

**Btw, congratulations to Gypsy for holding court at Carleton FreePress for the past year. His efforts and others there should be commended by us all. Let's hope they make a comeback.

I agree with former Premier Bernard Lord

Former Premier Bernard Lord hit the nail on the head in the Times and Transcript this morning with regards to the federal Liberal party:

"I think the Liberal party of Canada has some serious issues in rebuilding. It's not just the question of the leader, and if they think their issues are only because of Stéphane Dion, I think they are missing a part of the big picture," said Lord, noting the party's struggles in Western Canada and Quebec.

"The fact is, they are completely not there in some parts of Canada."

I'll even elaborate a little further in saying, if they [Liberals] don't address their party divisions and lack of vision through a policy and rebuilding process, much like the New Brunswick PC party failed to do recently, then they are destined to make the same mistakes over and over again no matter who's at the helm. And yes, that even includes Frank McKenna, who btw, has little to no experience leading a party who doesn't hold all or most of the seats. Good luck with that.

Anyway, it could be just me, but the Liberals appear to still be in a serious state of denial to their overall political situation federally.

Morer

It would seem Globe & Mail columnist Jeffrey Simpson agrees with both Lord & I. Not only that, he sees the Liberal coalition built in the 70s as a total non-factor: "The coalition that sustained Pierre Trudeau has largely vanished. No more Quebec. No more industrial Ontario. No more swaths of support in Western Canada." As Gerry Nicholls would say, "The Trudeau Empire has fallen and it can't get up."

Even morer

Peter C Newman: "Lester Pearson understood that allowing a new generation to take over was the cure for what ailed the Liberals, even if it meant being displaced, eight years later, by the Phantom of the Canadian Opera, Pierre Trudeau."

This is exactly what the Liberals need to do, and it's exactly what the PCs under Clark and Reform party under Manning did when they handed over important portfolios to budding young superstars like Peter Mackay, Stephen Harper, Monte Solberg, Chuck Strahl, Jason Kenney, John Herron, Scott Brison, Keith Martin, Rahim Jaffer, Grant McNally, Jim Pankiw, etc.

It's funny b/c I remember telling a colleague of mine in Ottawa around the year 2001 about the fact the Liberals had no new blood coming up through the system. Not on the party executive, not amongst staff, none in the caucus. Near the end of the Chretien era, they were a stalled entity. And now they are seriously hurting because of it.