Ripely Juicy Sugar Plums

The nation that is Quebec residing within Canada's confederation, so richly deserving of very special status because of its endowment of culture and French-language values and cosmopolitanism and artistic perfection is avowedly and practically different from the rest of Canada. The simple fact is, however, each of the provinces is different from one another. How could it be otherwise?

Canada inhabits a vast geography, from sea to sea to sea. Many ecosystems, incredible geological features and a vast array of natural resources. Whose current population represents a true smorgasbord of ethnicities, cultures, traditions and geographical underpinnings. All of whom gravitated to Canada over time to begin new lives, to take advantage of opportunities, to become a part of its grand social experiment in multiculturalism.

It is a country that has a unfortunate origin of Europeans arriving at its shores, complacent with the notion that the country was virtually inhabited but for the existence of some far-flung, negligible natives, too obviously uncivilized to claim ownership of the land. Part of the land was claimed as the possession of France and part of England, and when each contested the other's right to claim ownership, the battle ensued that would historically grant ownership to Great Britain.

The French have never forgiven the English for their blighted effrontery in contesting ownership and coalescing the masses of Upper and Lower Canada into a single national entity. Despite the British generosity in granting legal rights to the French language and the inhabitants of Lower Canada. Ever since Confederation there has existed a power struggle between Quebec and the rest of the country, intensifying into a political movement for separation.

Quelled for the time being, but ever nascent in character. For the Quebecois don't particularly find it appealing to separate themselves entirely from federalism. It behooves them to remain albeit grudgingly within confederation, but with ever growing autonomy granted them by one hapless federal administration after another, attempting without success to placate and finally put to rest Quebecois resentment at their status, merely one of ten/13.

It's that candied carrot at the end of the equalization stick that remains so eternally alluring to Quebec. Insist on separation and forego that $1,000-plus per capita plum that the federal equalization program ensures Quebec will always be entitled to? Provinces are mature enough and capable enough through their natural resource extraction, and technological enterprise, entrepreneurship and corporate interests to forge their individual economic growth.

It is a fiction, in any event, that Canadians living in any of the provinces will receive precisely the same entitlements, for each of the provinces operate independently of one another, gauging their own priorities under the general auspices of the federal government. Transfer payments from the federal government to the provinces for vital social programs should be all that transpires as far as wealth redistribution.

The "equalizing" aspect of confederation has long outlived its practical usefulness. Quebec, although entitled to perennial 'extras' through "equalization" is not really in need of that huge hand-out, any more than any other of the provinces. Its prevailing GDP is not, in fact, that far off that of the other provinces. What it does is allocate its finances differently than its sister provinces.

Quebecers enjoy the lowest university and college tuition rates by far of any other province. The province's socialist outlook on providing for its population is unmatched by any other province. Its union strength is unmatched by other provinces. Its child day-care costs are far below those of any other province. Its universal dental care is unmatched elsewhere in Confederation. Well and good, but on others' dime.

Now, with a new election called, far sooner than it should have been, the governing Liberals have offered a sweet deal to their voters; training subsidies, infrastructure spending, more tax flexibility at retirement, and loan guarantees - in the face of a declining job market, even a minimum wage rise.

The Parti Quebecois whose agenda has been slightly altered to put off for the moment its trajectory toward separation, has its own shopping list of projects and promises, some of which echo those of the Liberals, but somewhat more expansive. With tax credits for the poor and mortgage-payers with incomes up to $150,000, along with a few new state-operated investment funds.

And the Action Democratique claims favouring tax credits for middle-income mortgage payers and those withdrawing money from RRSPs. And stock ownership in Hydro Quebec, along with other goodies. So, those earning up to $150,000 should be entitled to tax credits on their mortgages, placing them in a similar category to the poor, that's fascinating.

How does Quebec manage all these juicy sugar plums, far outdistancing other provinces in their social spending programs? Basically, by holding all the other provinces to ransom, through its squeezing of the federal government, too gutless to resist.