The province of Quebec is the most politically dominant of all the provinces yet it is a semi-autonomous country operating within Canada. Politically based bilingualism was introduced in 1968 by Trudeau for all of Canada resulting in most senior positions in the government, including the military, going to bilingual people. It is now increasingly necessary for anyone to hold a federal cabinet post or indeed the prime minister's office to be bilingual. This arrangement favours the francophones for obvious reasons.  

All of this while Quebec employs its Language Police to retard bilingualism in its own province. Quebec represents 24% of our total population. Of the 308 seats in parliament, 75 reside from Quebec of which 51 are held by the Bloc Quebecois and 13 by the Liberals. The Conservatives are shamelessly changing their policies to conform more to Quebec's tastes at the expense of the voters across Canada who elected them to their 124 house seats.

Quebec is now recognized as a nation within a nation. Quebec is not a province like the others. Under the Quebec Act of 1774 Britain preserved Quebec's use of French civil law while English Common Law is used by the other provinces. The British North America Act of 1867, known as Confederation, granted Quebec the right of provincial self-government . Quebec was given a fixed 65 seats in Canada's House of Commons regardless of its population. Today it has 75 ridings in Parliament.  Voting as a block over the years, Quebec has played an over-sized role in federal politics.

The Supreme Court Act of 1875 made it compulsory for one third of the Supreme Court to be from Quebec. Since 1954 Quebec became the sole province to collect income tax directly from the people while the federal government collected taxes for the rest of Canada. In the 1960's under the Opting-Out Formula, Quebec pulled out of some 30 federal programs including the Canada Pension Plan and Family Allowance. It administers unique programs for itself. By 1978 Quebec was allowed its own immigration program with overseas legations. Quebec has recently begun representing itself separately in Canadian Overseas Trade Missions. 

Ontario and Alberta contribute $4.5 billion annually in so-called equalization payments to Quebec. The leadership of the Liberal Party is run by Quebec interests yet Quebec continues to threaten separation. Ottawa is the nation's capitol but many federal government museums, office buildings etc are located in Hull, Quebec.

And why does Quebec figure so prominently in those endless federal scandals? It seems that Canada is all about Quebec. The most recent Governors General have come from Quebec, the current one holding dual citizenship with France which she has now dropped unlike Stephane Dion, the new Liberal party leader who refuses to give up his dual French citizenship. Oh ya, and Mr. Dion speaks English as a second language.

The political equilibrium at the federal level needs recalibrating. My solution would be an act of parliament which would automatically reduce the number of seats appropriated for any given province in the House of Commons by 50% should that province become a recognized nation within a nation. Of course passing such a bill with Quebec holding 75 seats in parliament would be almost impossible. There in lies the rub. No political party can get past the federal blackmail which eminates from having 75 parliamentary seats that can make or break any of our political parties.

Consequently this country will remain in political gridlock as Quebec nibbles away at becoming a fully independent nation.  Let's hope that Quebec finds a way to officially become independent sooner rather than later.

 
Mickey Moulder

Your observations are too accurate and causes me much pain to admit it.
The trans Canada highway through Quebec was paid for by the Federal government every nickel of it including the signs in English to warn travelers of construction, diversions, rest stops, etc etc were never posted as English is not allowed. Yet on highway 401 in Ontario which is not even the trans Canada highway we have everything in both languages. Why ? just to placate the French. Unbelievable. Do you also know how much longer it takes to read a bilingual sign at 100 km ?? Can you guess how many rollovers, collisions, rearenders this causes ?? That alone should be enough to get rid of them so that the rest of us can be on par with the Quebec drivers who do not have the obligatiuon to read bilingual signs. How many people have been hurt coming out of the Toronto airport onto highway 401 where in a very short distance you have to make up your mind which exit to take. Here you are faced with 4 signs, two in French Oest, Est which totally confuses me since they both sound like east ! Ad to this Sud and Nord, in a hurry they are both reasons for an accident. Who can we sue over this ???

I wish that Quebec would leave Canada officially.

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