It seems to me that Canadians don’t know how to react to our new place as the global economic and governmental standard. Things were so much simpler back when we were just another backetcase eh? ;)

It seems to me that Canadians don’t know how to react to our new place as the global economic and governmental standard. Things were so much simpler back when we were just another backetcase eh? ;)

They are truly vile and disgusting human beings, for fearmongering 36 million people into voting for them.

I know that I speak for all of Canada when I say…We’ll try.

Only a Liberal could compare and equate taking political advantage for the biggest political scandal in modern Canadian history (!), and taking political advantage off a global economic crisis that isn’t hitting Canada as hard as it’s hitting others.

Yeah, like Adscam wasn’t the Liberals fault, and that they didn’t gain an unfair advantage through it for two elections (1997 & 2000)!

Oh no, not their fault at all … BUT this global economic crisis that has its origins in the country directly south of us, the one with the economy 12x our own, yeah, that’s all Harper’s fault!

I despair for what passes as fair comment in this country! Seriously! Get serious people!

The opposition are ABSOLUTELY cheering for a recession. Elizabeth May openly stated she wants an 80 cent dollar. Well, after 5 or 6 days of market meltdown, we’re around the 87 cent mark, and if this continues she might just get her wish.

Mind you, if you asked May today, she’d probably blame Harper for the current state of the dollar and ask when is that bad man going to “do something??!!”.

Then when asked about her previous comments, she’d probably deny them. And when confronted with video of them, she’d claim she was misquoted, or she talks too fast for Canadians to understand her, or some other such nonsense.

This is coming from the same woman who said in the debate that Canada needs more pulp and paper mills. Seriously. One of the heaviest polluting sectors in the economy today. She was probably “misquoted” about that too.

Chrystal, if seniors are so heavily invested in equities, despite enough common sense out there telling you to have more safety in your wealth as you age, then, here I am at my sympathetic emotional best: tough on you, you screwed up what’s left of your own future. Why is that Harper’s problem?
It is not the job of the PM to push the TSX to infinite. If enough Canadians feel that is the job of a PM, then we deserve the mess we’ll get.

OK, so Andrew Coyne did a far better job explaining why the sky is not falling, and especially why panicky investors should look at the mirror for blame. And I’m not Australian. So I guess it’s not plagiarism. But I’m watching you, buster…

True enough that risk, supply and demand determine prices. What’s happening in Canada now is that the price of commercial paper is tanking:
- supply hasn’t increased
- demand may be dropping due to international conditions
- the risk premium might be rising.

If it’s the third factor that’s dominant, then it’s not clear how the Government should react. DeLong has a good description of how Bernanke tried “open market operations aimed at the risk premium” (Operation Twist) and notes that they weren’t sufficient. This suggests Mark Carney won’t be able to head this off and the incoming Canadian government may need to intervene…I suspect journalists need to get past the real estate and stock market indicators for us to hear any debate over this…

The increased risk drives the cost, as does the supply of money available for these purposes and the demand, if the demand is high and the supply low then the price goes up, that little tautology never gets old :->

this is the canary in the coal mine, and if they can find ways to affect it so it is operating normally then we drop back from Hurrican storm to just a nasty wind. Fortunatley we havent seen these issues, to date, in canada….but the you are correct taht may change.

If they do it means they’re keeping the tax break that came with it to themselves.

BobbyB – I keep hearing this type of comment all over the newspapers and airwaves. Maybe you could tell me what he could have said that would not have been spun exactly like this one was.

Please – let me know because in my mind, saying “I feel your pain” or “my mother has stocks” gets the same negative spin from the opposition and the media.

As for proof that the media bias is part of Harper’s problem – you have to look no further than the fact that every one of them have those interviews in their vaults – they know for a fact that the PM planned for this – yet they continue to promote the fact “he didn’t get it until too late and now he is reacting”.

So here is a question for Andrew – why are those year end interviews not pulled out and put on the airwaves to calm the Canadian people that the Government has been planning for this? Why would the press not want to calm Canadians fears?

Way too many of us made the decision earlier on that we wanted to invest in travel trailers, boats, expensive home renovations, vacations and cars with nav systems and DVD players.

My wife and I have never had a combined income in excess of $50K a year, yet we paid off our mortagage(s)early, retired young, take vacations, buy a new car now and again and have invested for our retirement. We have no pension plan, but a substantial investment portfolio. Sure, it’s down somewhat today. But so what. We don’t need to draw on it yet because we’ve put cash away for such rainy days and should we choose to do so, we’ll use some of our rainy day cash to buy some of the bargains.

If we can do all that on a $50K combined income, I have little sympathy for those many who chosen to buy all of lifes little shiny baubles instead.

I went and looked at the daily spread between the Canada bank rate and the 1-month commercial paper rate. Since 1998, the commercial paper rate had never been as much as 35 bp above the bank rate – until August 2007. During the past month, this spread has regularly hit record highs (43 bp on Sept. 14, 45 bp on Sept. 17, 50 bp on Oct. 2, 53 bp on Oct. 3). I think this is plausible evidence of the credit crunch hitting Canada. Mark Carney may not be able to fend this off all by his lonesome.

But you know what? If you really care to look at the past few weeks and start analyzing what has happened in this particular campaign, we must bring the presence of two solitudes within Canadian politics to the fore once more. Again? No, please, not again, and yet it is so.

Yes, yes, Harper fumbled in his response to the art’s gala. But what he had said had a truth ring to it as well; afterall the arts funding had not really been cut back, but had merely been altered. I don’t really want to bring up the arts funding issue again (hoping that this country will have an ongoing debate about that after the election), other than to say that the art’s cuts, AS AN ISSUE, have been grabbed onto as a real possibility for renewing the BQ’s position: the possibility to upstage the Canadian potential once again.

No one asked if perhaps the province of Quebec has certain responsibilities for keeping Quebec culture flourishing. No one asked if perhaps a provincially based party, namely the BQ, should have such wide ranging powers within a federal election. Do other provinces get a chance to play with the big guys one of these days? And if so, would they be able to get off completely scott free? And why do you think Duceppe kept hammering at the Kyoto target setting?

Here is another thing I think about daily: The poopin’ puffin was considered an insult to many Canadians. The 22 minute campaign to turn Mr.Day into Ms.Doris Day was considered a hoot! He had deserved it, no doubt, but why had the poopin’ puffin not been equally deserved? It had been Ignatieff afterall who had suggested the bird to pose as mascot for the Liberal party, and let’s be frank, if Stockwell day had pooped on his own parade (the creation story, the ride on the sea-do, etc.) it had been Mr.Ignatieff and Mr.Rae, just to single out these two, who had dumped a lot of stuff onto Mr.Dion. I cannot, for the life of me, figure out why this difference of tolerance keeps persisting.

But that same level of tolerance difference is being presented over and over again. We ‘must’ attack Mr.Harper for being to ‘barbarian’ when speaking about the ‘cultured elite’ who did not really care for speaking the truth, or else the country will break itself in half, and Mr.Duceppe gets to ride the dividend all the way to a soon to be released election’s result. He saw that one coming from miles away.

In the meantime, many Albertans (and perhaps Saskatchewanians and Newfies also) are wondering how long the $7 @ day daycare within Quebec will continue if the tarsands are put on hold, or the Big Oil ‘cheaters’ are ‘put in their place’.

Mr.Dion doesn’t come close to seeing below the surface. He prefers to not scratch the surface. His Green Shift might hold merit, but honest about it he is not. He makes it sound as if there will be no cost associated with the plan, but there will be, as there will be under the Conservative proposed cap and traden plan; the difference being that Harper actually admits to it, and has done so repeatedly (see debates as well) while Dion keeps harping at the neutrality of it all – that’s the deception.

I believe it was Harper also who, during the first part of the campaign, told us about the potential for renewed regional tensions appearing out of the Green Shift. He didn’t have to shout it off rooftops because subtle understanding might work for the better here, as they appear to do under Duceppe’s manouvering play-out of deceptions.

But in any case: thank you for bringing up personal responsibility. Let’s come to an understanding of where the average Canadian voter really stands on things.

After reading the comments I finally understand why my country sucks. Seems like barely a third of the country has any real men left. The rest of you are like screaming women and children. I finally now undersdand who is voting for those 4 parties. I alway’s though it was mostly mindless, faceless folks that did not take the time to inform themself on their choices with a slant towards the gimy for nothing crowd.

What do you guy’s do? Run home to your famelies and cry that the gov’t didn’t more of other peoples money to save your ass? Own up to your shit dudes.

And crying and whining that our prime minister is not acting like a scared kid on your behalf? God lord. A man in control does not do that, but I guess for your vote he should pretend to not have a clue. Same old shit, you want the tooth fairy to tell you rosy stories, because you are not grown up enough for reality.

The Real Question, is why is not the Media reporting the sensible points you just brought up? They seem to be behind the shrill chicken little cries as well….

Ask Harper point blank – what’s the NET surplus/deficit figure.

He’s hiding behind the good ol’ “budgetary surplus” chunk of the balance sheet. There’s the very significant other side which currently is $23 billion to the red.

That’s not chump change… and the debt was incurred during “better” economic times this year.

A commodity price collapse, a manufacturing collapse, and a housing slowdown which is asserting itself very clearly in markets like Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, southern BC interior and other areas that have been visited by bubblicious speculation – well these things are going to make it hard or impossible to achieve revenue projections that would have been made at budget time.

By the way, $23 BILLION is far and about the largest financial requirement (debt) the finance ministry has taken on in any individual year over this entire decade. Almost double the next closest, and several times larger than the average.

Much larger than post 9-11. Larger than SARS.

And the economic crisis hasn’t even shown up properly in Canada’s financial statements.

Another point blank question to ask Flaherty or Harper is why the next monthly update for Canada’s books won’t be published until Oct 20, six days after the election. Coupled with tomorrow’s Afghan mission costing, Canadians are likely to want to have a much more up to date picture of the country’s finances than July’s snapshot.

I’m an investor. I want to see such data – country or corporation. Lets see it. Now. Its the “conservative” thing to do.

PS: An easy to understand chart showing the significant increase in government borrowing this year, source data and a spreadsheet is available for your looking and downloading pleasure:

http://mikewatkins.ca/2008/10/08/harper-government-running-deficit-now/

Radio Canada and Auger were salivating at the possibility of a Dion minority and the coverage ended with the anchor saying what a great end of the election to look forward to!

Regarding “The 85 lefty economists who signed that letter demanding the government go into deficit and otherwise “stimulate” the economy might have been out to lunch, but they were at least putting their names on the line, and exposing their proposals to public criticism.”

http://www.progressive-economics.ca/2008/10/07/open-letter/

Many signers don’t even appear to be economists at all, unless sociologists count.

Stephen Harper had a choice of what comment to make to Mansbridge’s question and he chose to make light of it and suggest people buy, afterall it is a down market!

Instead he blew it by saying this. People would have listened harder to his message about the economy if he had shown some empathy for their plight! That, however, is not somehting that Stephen Harper knows how to do. It’s his way or the highway and if you don’t understand that then, well, then your are “dysfunctional” (and maybe we need to have an election!!!).

Putting aside the question of whether this originated in the banking sector, this is not why Bernanke spent the last year transforming the Fed’s balance sheet. He was trying to get liquidity into the market, recognising that traditional monetary levers were insufficient. That’s why Carney pushed for new powers for the Bank of Canada.

There is a lack of liquidity in the American market that is now spreading to Europe (and possibly to Canada). Read the model of this Krugman posted to his blog a couple of days ago – he points out in passing that housing values are still relatively high. If the underlying asset values are still high, your institution is not insolvent. That’s why TARP might work, even though the problem might be better addressed through equity purchases by the government.

Canada does not have a housing bubble, nor does it currently have banks in crisis. It could be hit by the credit crisis, though, and it would be helpful to have a discussion over how that might be averted or mitigated.

Green Shift ironically could save us by stimulating high tech jobs making photovoltaic cells, windmills, hydrogen cell cars, electric cars, diesel from algae and octane from hydron and carbon dioxide. And none of it courtesy of government oversight but plain jane enrepreneurs sensing profit.

I take your points. Your post is very good. I would suggest, however, that there is one exception – the income trust scandal.

Senior citizens investing in blue chip preferred stuff looking for a safe income instrument were told by the CPC that income trusts would not be taxed. Their advisors signed them up telling them that the conservative government would keep income trusts safe.

You are quite right that society, government, is not responsible for the downside of an investor’s portfolio. The government, however, should not knowingly cause the downside, as it did in the income trust case.

Keep up the good work.

I know long email…sorry…

Diane, and what does it have to do with Adscam? This is a problem with people not having perspective on a story. Open your eyes, look around and see just how bad others have it.

The US had to pledge a bail out package of 5% of its GDP, maybe more. The UK just pledged 33% of its annual GDP!!! OMFG

Canada has had to spend how much of taxpayer capital….ZERO, not one red cent, whereas adscam had a 100,000,000 fraud tag attached to it, but we wont go there.

NOTHING, so the fact that the Cons arent having to run around like headless chickens, a la Paul Martin, is a bad thing? Do we miss the drama that much?
Now I will say I do think Harper should have been strutting a la Chretien, but it isnt in him to do that, it wouldnt be authentic.

But maybe some people can give their head a shake, assuming things settle out a bit, and recognize that maybe the reason we didnt call the fire department was because there wasnt a fire, and that was due to some prudency, good gardening on the part of the current government.

So you can worry about who emotes the best, but I would rather be in a situation where emoting wasnt required…

Look at the facts, two leaders paniced and spouted and one leader remained calm. I tell you, Dion will regret his actions by the end of the week if the markets settle out and the all clear is sounded. He and Layton will look like cassandra’s of the worst order….not a leader will still apply, only more so.

Canadians should appreciate our little island built on high ground. I am sure the point will be made.

Is Stephen Harper supposed to step up to the plate and bail out Belgian banks?

Canada

The canadian Government has had to do nothing in the current crisis except defend the fact it isnt in crisis.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7654647.stm

Here is the text…read it and tell me Canada has a problem….it doesnt by the way.

Credit crisis: World in turmoil

As global markets fall sharply, the BBC News website looks at some of the countries affected by financial turmoil and what their governments are doing to alleviate the crisis.

JOINT ACTION
Six of the world’s biggest central banks have cut interest rates by half a percentage point in an effort to steady the faltering global economy.

The US Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the Bank of England, and the central banks of Canada, Sweden and Switzerland took the unprecedented, co-ordinated step.

Central banks cut interest rates

CHINA
China joined the interest rate offensive, cutting rates by 0.27 percentage points.

AUSTRIA
Austria officially announced a guarantee for all personal bank savings, retroactive to 1 October.

“Deposits in Austrian banks are safe and the state is vouching for them,” said Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer.

UK
The government announced a £50bn ($88bn) package to prop up eight of the largest banks and building societies. In return, the government would receive shares in those institutions.

A further £200bn would be made available by the Bank of England to provide the banking system with much-needed liquidity.

A special company will also be set up to provide up to £250bn in loan guarantees to banks and building societies.

The announcement came after UK banking shares plunged on Tuesday and the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) warned that Britain was already in a recession which could see unemployment rise by 350,000 by next year.

The UK government increased its guarantee to savers from £35,000 ($62,000) to £50,000 from Tuesday.

The Northern Rock bank and the mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley were nationalised earlier, and two other large groups, HBOS and Lloyds TSB, are to merge.

UK unveils bank rescue plan

GERMANY
State-owned savings banks in Germany reported a flood of new deposits as people look for safer accounts which are insured for 100% of their value.

The country’s second-biggest commercial property lender, Hypo Real Estate, was threatened with collapse last week after incurring large amounts of bad debt.

The government attempted a bail-out, only for it to collapse on Sunday after a banking consortium withdrew support for the deal. A new bail-out was arranged with guarantees of 50bn euros ($68bn; £38.7bn), 15bn euros more than the first rescue attempt.

The German government also announced what appeared to be unlimited guarantees for private savings. However, it said there would be no legislation to give extra protection to savers.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said those financiers who did “irresponsible business” would be made accountable.

Germany clinches bank rescue deal

ICELAND
The Prime Minister of Iceland, Geir Haarde, confirmed that negotiations were going on with Russia for a big loan to support Iceland’s banking system.

Mr Haarde said a delegation from Iceland would go to Moscow in the next couple of days to finalise the deal. He thanked Moscow for its offer of more than $5bn in emergency loans.

Iceland’s government has taken control of Landsbanki, the second largest bank by value, and has dismissed the board of directors.

The bank, which also trades as the internet bank Icesave, is being taken over by the Icelandic Financial Supervisory Authority (IFSA).

Customers of the Icesave have been warned they will probably have to claim compensation for money held in their savings accounts.

Iceland’s prime minister said he hoped to find a “mutually satisfactory solution” to the loss of UK Icesave deposits after Prime Minister Gordon Brown threatened to sue Iceland to recover the money.

Iceland’s parliament has passed emergency legislation giving the government wide-ranging powers to dictate banks’ operations.

Mr Haarde said the legislation would help the island avoid national bankruptcy.

Iceland will also offer an unlimited guarantee for all savings accounts.

The Icelandic krona plummeted against the dollar after the government nationalised the country’s third-largest bank, Glitnir, last week. By Friday it had lost one-fifth of its value.

The government has agreed measures allowing the banks to sell off some foreign assets to help shore up the financial system.

Icesave savers warned on accounts

BELGIUM
The Belgian government has agreed to guarantee bank deposits of up to 100,000 euros ($136,000) – an increase of 80,000 euros.

The country’s largest banking group, Fortis, has been in difficulty since it joined two other banks to purchase the Dutch bank ABN Amro, just before the global financial crisis began.

After several failed bail-out attempts, French giant BNP Paribas agreed to buy 75% of Fortis’s operations in Belgium and Luxembourg. The two governments will take a minority share of the company, while its Netherlands operation has been nationalised.

IRELAND
Ireland was the first government to come to the rescue of its citizens’ savings, promising on 30 September to guarantee all deposits, bonds and debts in its six main banks for two years.

The move initially prompted consternation among some European partners, but several countries have since followed suit.

Cowen defending Irish banks move

SPAIN
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero on Tuesday increased bank deposit guarantees to 100,000 euros ($136,000) from the current 20,000 euros.

Mr Zapatero told leading banks that the government would take immediate steps to increase deposit guarantees to boost confidence in the financial system.

Spain has been calling for a joint European initiative to tackle the world financial crisis.

ITALY
The Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, said the government was prepared to buy stakes in failing banks while waiving voting rights in an effort to guarantee stability.

“Eventual intervention will be carried out by the treasury,” said Mr Berlusconi after a cabinet meeting to address the impact on Italy of the global credit crisis.

NETHERLANDS
The Netherlands trebled the amount of savers’ deposits it will protect to 100,000 euros (£77,700; $136,776).

GREECE
The Greek government said on Friday it would fully guarantee all bank deposits of citizens, but an official added that this was a “political commitment” and the banking system was not at risk.

DENMARK
The Danish government and banks on Sunday agreed a crisis plan which removes the ceiling on savings deposit guarantees, to be funded partly by banks and partly by the taxpayer.

RUSSIA
President Dmitry Medvedev announced 950 billion roubles ($36.4bn) of long term help for banks at an emergency Kremlin meeting on Tuesday.

Russia’s two leading stock exchanges were forced to close after suffering massive falls in value.

Trading on the RTS and Micex bourses was postponed on Wednesday for a second time in less than a week after each fell by more than 10% on opening.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called for urgent international measures to combat the global financial crisis in a statement.

“The crisis of the international financial system demands urgent joint action. It’s absolutely obvious the time has come for new decisions,” said Mr Medvedev.

Falls halt Russian market trading
AUSTRALIA
Australia’s central bank has cut its key interest rate from 7% to 6% – a much bigger-than-expected reduction.

The Reserve Bank of Australia said that the sharp cut was justified given the prospects for growth, even though inflation is currently above target.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said the move would maintain financial stability and help Australia in “tough times ahead”.

The cut, the bank’s largest since May 1992, was well received by investors and the stock market rallied.

Observers had only expected the rate to be cut to 6.5%.

Australia slashes interest rates

HUNGARY
The Hungarian government has proposed raising the guarantee on bank deposits from the current 6m to 13m forints (£40,000; 51,000 euro) following talks with the president of the Hungarian central bank.

The proposal will go before parliament for approval on Monday.

Banks reacted today and the evidence is that the Interbank lending rates are coming down to near normal levels. Google for Libor rates tomorrow morning. If this is true, we will see tomorrow, then the storm is abating, didnt say over. Nerves are still pretty fragile.

But lets look at the evidence, when this is overwith, there hasnt been a bailout by the canadian government. At worst there may have been some backchannel backup but no public statements required. In fact the US Fed is shopping institutions directly to our banks!

So please, why can we not say that Canada is an island of relative stability in all of this, because it sure looks like it. And I have argued in other places you have to give credit where credit is due, generally the government in charge. Can you imagine the preening that would be going on right now if either Chretien or Martin was in charge right now.

chretien would be talking about how much he loves canada and how we arent Bushes america and thats why we are stable….Martin would frentically be calling meetings and looking busy, dropping the names of the world leaders he had just spoken to yada yada. Probably would have offered to host a meeting of the G7 himself in the middle of a campaign.

Anyway, if you cannot recognize Canada’s position of fortune in this mess then uncharitable is the least I can say, because you know how the oppsoition would be screaming and crying and spitting purple if the government did have to bail out a bank.

Maybe its going to take a comment from a foreigner or foreign news organization to point this out to Canadians, the country where you can never be a hero at home.

Advice to con warroom, get a mention on CNN and Bloomberg and from a couple of US and Euro analysts about how canada has been a relative rock of sanity in this. Get that out there! canadians listen to foreigners….because our own media is too tied up in reporting a horserace to have any perspective on this…that along with being innumerate and economically illiterate, our blog host is the exception that proved the rule.

Amanda Lang of BNN said today she didnt know what Libor was before this. A little shameful for a business reporter, but hey at least she had the honesty to say she didnt but now does. How many other business reporters, let alone political reporters in this country would say the same. Oh, xyz corp just released another poll, and Duceppe is up by one, Harper down by one, may up by one….This changes EVERYTHING!!

I take two big issues with your post:

1) a claim of insensitive does not equal a a call for inaction… the former is about messaging… if my friend’s dog died tomorrow, and I knew he loved his dog and hanging with his dog, I might honestly believe it is in his best interest to get a new one… that being said I suspect ‘get a new one’ wouldn;t be my main message….

2) you no doubt know more then I do about the state of the economy so I will take your word that is better than some parties are gonna make it out to be….

but you are gonna go after Liberals/opposition alone for fear-mongering…. please… at various points in this campaign SH has said/inferred that 1) the Green Shift will cause a recession; 2) that continued minority government will cause a recession; 3) has criticized SD because the proposed 30-approach does not respond quickly enough…

The Tories have been at least, if not more (I find using minority government as a threat to be so distasteful and anti-democratic) fear mongering in their approach over the last two years and mis-leading.

SH goes back and forth near daily on 1) are fundamentals are sound and 2) SD can’t respond urgently enough to impending doom… FYI right now the front page of the CPC website advertises ‘a need for both action not talk’ and the existence of a credit crunch….

IF you are gonna call BS on people on a particular issue pls cover all your bases.

If I was to buy your argument, that the Libs, are recklessly

Who’s to say what will work and what won’t, given particular circumstances. I’m not trying ot be difficult, but think of it this way:

Example 1: Do nothing during major recession, just keep a balanced budget i.e. the Bennett model from the 1930′s. That leads to disaster.

Example 2: Support failing industry with subsidies, the Trudeau model. Leads to the disaster, and worse, the Reform party.

Example 3: Spend on infrastructure and socialism, i.e. the Bob Rae Ontario model. Leads to disaster, and worse, Mike Harris.

I’m firmly convinced that Option 2 is the better model. Why? Because of Quebec separatism. What does that have to do anything? I’m gonna go out on a limb and suggest that the reason that the Referendums happened was because of economic discontent as much as political. Both were at the tail end of major recessions. But Referendum 1 was soundly defeated (during the Trudeau era), and Referendum 2 was barely defeated (the Chretien cost-cutting era). I think Trudeau pacified Quebec with his subsidies.

Consider if Harper gets reelected. He won’t go into deficit to prop up Bombardier et. al. when the Quebec economy fails. Duceppe starts whining about the fiscal imbalance, Mario Dumont starts whining about some constitutional recognition of the Quebec nation, to guarantee more federal handouts right in the constitution, natch. Mario and Marois form a coalition and foist a seccession referendum on a severely pissed off and broke Quebec population.

Bam! End of Canada.