In Bed With the Separatists

A lot of Canadians who have no desire to live in Quebec, work in Quebec, visit the damned place or even learn to speak French HATE the Bloc Quebecois for wanting to take Quebec out of Confederation.

For that reason, when stephen herper hypocritically ignores his own past of seeking BQ support to topple Canada's "elected government" and yammers about how the Opposition is seeking to defeat him with the help of the separatists, a lot of Canadians respond with outrage against the BQ's intrusion on politics in the ROC.

"Why should these people who want to break up my country get a say in who gets to form Canada's government?"

To respond to this emotional confusion I would say that the BQ is not unilaterally taking down the Rest of Canada's "elected government." First of all, we don't have "elected governments" end of story. Secondly, the BQ would not be able to defeat a government without the assistance of other parties elected by non-separatists in the ROC.

If people want to have a discussion about whether the BQ should be an illegal party, that's another issue altogether. Most political commentators take the position that allowing a separatist party in the federal legislature is a sign of the strength of Canadian democracy. The dampening of separatist ardour in recent decades is also evidence of the strength of Confederation, for what it's worth.

As a legal party, the BQ has the right to represent Quebecois in Ottawa. And if they find a government unacceptable to the people of Quebec, they are allowed to work with other parties who find this government unacceptable for their constituents to bring that government down.

Since the BQ are opposed to entering into the government of a country they want to leave, it can't be said that separatists have joined a coalition.

It's actually pretty ominous that there are significant numbers of Canadians who believe that Harper's minority government is a ticket to permanent rule, no matter how big an asshole he is.