Savage Washington

Savage Washington

Luiza Ch. Savage covers political life south of the border. Follow Luiza on Twitter: @luizachsavage

American conservatives grapple with Cdn election

by Luiza Ch. Savage on Wednesday, October 15, 2008 10:15am - 27 Comments

…and ask: Why don’t Canadian conservatives support Quebec secession?

Law professor Ilya Somin writes:

“Quebec is the most statist province in the country and its political influence drives Canada’s economic policies well to the left of where they would be in a separate anglophone Canada. Canadian Conservatives hate paying for federal government subsidies to Quebec (Quebec is a major net recipient of transfer payments from the federal government). Obviously, there would be no such subsidies if Quebec were an independent nation…”

Hmm? Why did Americans bother fighting a Civil War? Why not just let the South secede — afterall, they disagreed about slavery.

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  • Ti-Guy

    I guess I’d have to read the Pajamasmedia post to figure out if the issue really is about comparative morality rather than ignorance of different histories, cultures and legal systems.

  • http://kitchenersown.blogspot.com/ Lord Kitchener’s Own

    Professor Somin makes a valid point about the relative “evilness” of Quebec’s reasons for leaving Canada vs. the reasons of Southern secessionists in the 1800s, but it’s nonetheless humourous to read an American wondering why Canadian seem to feel that secessionism is such a big deal, and why Canadian Conservatives wouldn’t just embrass it on crass political grounds. I mean, it seems to me that Sarah Palin’s alleged and somewhat tenuous connection to the Alaska Independence Party is considered a reasonably noteworthy item, and yet a presumably well educated American still seems somewhat confused that the Tories don’t just adopt the break up of Canada as part of their electoral platform.

    I wonder if Professor Somin thinks Sarah Palin would be the VP nominee of the Republican Party right now if she’d won the Governorship on a platform of taking Alaska out of the Union?

    The Conservatives don’t advocate Quebec secession (to their credit) because they don’t believe in breaking up Canada. I don’t think that’s such a mysterious notion.

    Not even to an American.

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