- Aug 20, 2000
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The cure for credit crisis? La separation, bien sur
Quebec receives 50% of the equalization payments that are sent out from the have provinces to the have-nots - totaling $7 billion in 2007-2008 - but they'd have a stronger economic foundation on their own. No doubt we'd be expected to continue paying them the annual ransom even if they did become a sovereign country. What is wrong with these idiots?
The world's greatest economic thinkers have failed to find a path out of the global financial crisis. World leaders have been pouring billions into stimulus efforts without making much of a dent. But members of the Parti Quebecois put their minds to the problem and came up with a solution in the space of a weekend: Quebec independence.
"In my opinion, the economic crisis demonstrates the necessity of sovereignty," PQ leader Pauline Marois told a party meeting on Saturday in Quebec City.
"It is time for Quebec to take charge. When we need to make sudden changes of course, as is now the case, do we really have the means to deal with the in-coherency of a federation? We must finish with being wards of another nation. The context proves it. Sovereignty is urgent!"
According to Ms. Marois, the benefits of separating from Canada would be almost endless.
"If Quebec were sovereign, we would have all our taxes. We would have more manoeuvring room to develop an economic strategy, to support families and workers," Ms. Marois said.
"If Quebec were sovereign, we could support our industries in the manufacturing and forestry industries. Our aeronautical industry would not be rejected in favour of outdated automobile manufacturers in Ontario.
"If Quebec were sovereign, we would be seated at the big international tables where nations work together to lessen the effects of the crisis."
In recent years, it seems, there hasn't been a major crisis for which sovereignty was not the answer. Climate change? A sovereign Quebec would have ratified Kyoto in a flash, former PQ leader Andre Boisclair said. A 2008 PQ document, An Argument for Sovereignty, predicted: "We will be able to play a role of world leader for the protection of our planet."
Islamic terrorism? Follow the Quebec sovereigntist blueprint of greater freedom for peoples and nations, former PQ premier Bernard Landry advised after 9/11, and avoid the "deep bitterness" that fosters terrorism. Earlier, when it was the fear of sweeping globalization that had mobilized leftist protesters, Mr. Landry said sovereignty was needed so Quebec could defend its interests on the world stage.
Quebec receives 50% of the equalization payments that are sent out from the have provinces to the have-nots - totaling $7 billion in 2007-2008 - but they'd have a stronger economic foundation on their own. No doubt we'd be expected to continue paying them the annual ransom even if they did become a sovereign country. What is wrong with these idiots?