You’re welcome: Quebec politicians took to the airwaves over the weekend with tough words for Alberta as a spat between the two provinces deepened. Bloc Quebecois leader Yves-François Blanchet blasted Alberta Premier Jason Kenney for spreading “false information” about Canada’s equalization system, and claiming that Quebec pays more into federal coffers than Alberta does (which, technically is true, until you account for Quebec’s larger population). Besides, Blanchet claimed on Global TV’s The West Block, the Alberta oil patch owes its very existence to Quebec: “There would be no oil industry in Alberta if Quebec had not willingly or not contributed to the very beginning of that industry so many years ago. We were the ones providing money to them back then, and we’re not saying keep giving us that money. The Bloc Québécois does not say that. The Bloc Québécois says at the end of the day, we would do better by ourselves without your oil, without your money.”
Over on CTV’s Question Period, former Liberal cabinet minister and one-time Montreal mayor Denis Coderre also said Kenney had a problem with the truth when it comes to his claims about equalization: “I think that if we cut that rhetoric and we’re more factual, we will witness that maybe Alberta is jealous of some of the powers that Quebec has and would like to have that kind of autonomy.”
Kenney, who is en route to Houston today on a mission aimed at “restoring investor confidence and reversing the flow of money, ideas and businesses from Alberta to places like Texas,” didn’t respond directly to any of the latest statements out of Quebec, but give it time.
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See Also:
(1) The Bloc Québécois, on the coattails of the CAQ
(2) 1 year on, most oil-and-gas bailout money has moved, federal government says
(3) Two more senators defect to upstart group, one citing Scheer’s leadership
