Gilles Duceppe and the Bloc Whining Again

Well, Gille Duceppe and the French Resistance are bawling and squalling again. What's there problem this time? They are not happy about new seat distribution that the Conservative government just introduced. There would be 30 new seats added bringing the total to 338 seats in the House of Commons. BC would get 7, Alberta 5 and Ontario 18. The Bloc says that the new seats are against Quebec. Cry me a river!


The Bloc Quebecois plans to vehemently oppose a government plan to add 30 new seats to the House of Commons -- none of which are slated for Quebec.
The proposed legislation, which was put before MPs on Thursday, would expand Parliament to 338 seats from the current number of 308.
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The Bloc immediately pounced on the bill and said it was an attempt to kneecap their province's political clout.
"After recognizing the Quebec nation, the government is now invoking representation by population in order to reduce the political weight of Quebec," said Bloc MP Claude Debellefeuille in the House on Thursday.
Quebec currently has 24 per cent of the total seats in the House. Under the new guidelines, that representation would drop to 22 per cent.
Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe is currently preparing a cross-country tour in which he will build a case for Quebec's sovereignty. It's expected he could use the new House numbers to bolster his argument that Quebec is under attack.
However, CTV's Chief Political Correspondent Craig Oliver said the new seats simply reflect demographic shift
"Overall I think it's a pretty fair re-distribution," he said Thursday
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Political battles

While the Bloc were the first to complain about the plan, the other major parties could also be impacted by the changes.
In particular, many of Ontario's 18 new seats will be placed in and around Toronto, making the area even more politically valuable for the major parties.
This could change the way parties campaign in future election contests.
"That's where the big battles will be," said Oliver.
He noted that many of the seats will come in ethnically diverse neighbourhoods around the Greater Toronto Area, which historically favoured the Liberals.
However, considering the inroads which the Tories have made into many ethnic communities, the Conservatives may also reap benefits.
"More and more, we're seeing that new Canadians tend to be more conservative than people used to think they were," noted Oliver. CTV

Gilles and the French Resistance should put a sock in it. They don't care about Canada. They are separatists hell bent on breaking up the country.

They're whining because they won't as much influence on Canada anymore and that makes them angry. . Less political influence from Quebec? Bring it on.

Now eliminate the $1.95 per vote party subsidies, that should do damage to the Bloc once and for all. I am sick and tired of Quebec's temper tantrums. They need to be treated like everyone else in confederation.
Hopefully if the seat distribution is approved by parliament, maybe the major parties won't have to pander to Quebec anymore to get votes. as they won't need those votes as quite as much and it will be easier for the two major parties to get majority governments. Depending on the boundaries, these new seats will probably favour the CPC more so than the Liberals.

Hey, MPs What Have You Got To Hide?

MPs are reluctant to give the OK to Auditor General, Sheila Fraser who wanted to a year ago after UK MP expense scandal. examine their expenses. So far she hasn't had much luck in getting the MPs to consent.

Apparently there has not been such an audit since 1991. Even then MPs expenses weren't scrutinized very closely. That's almost twenty years ago now. I say it's about time they opened their books for the auditor general to see.

They're using our money so we have a right to know how they're spending it. A year ago a major MP spending scandal in the UK was exposed and it got international press. When that scandal broke, it forced the Speaker of the House, Michael Martin to resign. That hasn't happened in 300yrs. Heck this scandal is still being talked about on the eve of an election campaign.

Are our MPs afraid of something? Are they are afraid they have been spending our money a little to frivolously and don't want to be found out?


The National Post editorial today emphasizes the MPs hesitation.

Shining the bright light of truth may be all the rage in politics, but getting caught in the glare can be very uncomfortable. At least that seems to be the concern of federal Members of Parliament, who are hemming and hawing about a proposal to have Auditor-General Sheila Fraser turn her eagle eyes to the issue of MP spending.
This isn’t just spending by elected members themselves, but “an audit of the administrative systems in the House and Senate, such as procurement, human resource management, and financial management and controls, including systems to manage expenses.” In other words, the whole ball of wax, some of it bound to be very sticky.

As the NP states as long as the MPs are stalling opening their books for Ms. Fraser to see, there will be a suspicion that something is not quite right. So MPs, what's hindering thee? Ms. Fraser's not gonna bite, she just wants to make sure nothing is adrift unless maybe it is.

At this stage, it is impossible to predict what will crawl out from under the rocks of our own Parliament if Ms. Fraser is allowed her audit. One thing is certain; if the audit is not granted, speculation will linger that MPs had something to hide. Ms. Fraser should get the go-ahead to examine these expenses. The public has a right to know how its money is being spent, and elected officials have the obligation to account for it.

It will be interesting to see what becomes of this. We need to watch this closely. Maybe we as voters should use a little encouragement (pressure) on our MPs to comply.