The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.
I’m half-way convinced that some weird political inversion has taken place, so that Ontario and Quebec have somehow ended up with the other’s government.
It’s like The Prince and the Pauper, or any of the long line of imitations that have followed that tale, in which children are somehow switched at birth and end up in the wrong household. It feels like Quebec Premier should be running Ontario, and Ontario’s Kathleen Wynne should really be premier of Quebec.
There are new signs of this almost every day. The Montreal Gazette reported Monday that Mr. Couillard’s government is sharply reducing funding for Fete Nationale, one of the public celebrations the separatist Parti Quebecois poured money into as a symbol of Quebec’s detachment from Canada. It’s held a week before Canada Day, celebrated only in Quebec, and was to get $5.4 million from the PQ in 2016. Instead, the Liberals will provide 40% less, or about $3.4 million.
This is the latest cost-reduction measure introduced by Mr. Couillard as he tries to eliminate Quebec’s deficit – which is a mere shadow of Ontario’s – and end the province’s long tradition of chronic over-spending. He hasn’t shied from controversy in doing so, going so far as to reform the hallowed $7-a-day daycare program, introducing a sliding scale of fees in its place.
Whenever he gets a chance, Mr. Couillard speaks of Quebec’s need to gets its house in order, exploit its strengths and play its role as a proud province within Canada. In September he said he’d like Quebec to sign Canada’s Constitution by 2017, the 150th anniversary of Confederation, something no previous premier has had the nerve to propose.
He made that suggestion at a meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Yes, Mr. Couillard can even get a meeting with the prime minister, something Ms. Wynne hasn’t managed in over a year, and which she has been beefing about in a very public show of pique. While Mr. Couillard has been telling Quebecers they can do much to turn around their own economy, Ms. Wynne has been missing deficit targets and loudly blaming Ottawa.
It used to be Quebec that spent wildly, then insisted the federal government help cover the gap.
For the rest of this article, click here: http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2014/12/15/kelly-mcparland-someone-seems-to-have-switched-governments-between-ontario-and-quebec/