65 Replies to “What Could Possibly Go Wrong?”

  3. I’m tired of the crap coming out of Quebec. Individual initiative and individual rights are foreign concepts, regardless of party. Maybe it’s time for the Rest of Canada to have a referendum on whether we want them around anymore. The “Nanny State” influence they have on the RoC continues unabated, at the same time that sucking sound of dollars flowing into Quebec only increases.

  4. …and I almost forgot: Quebec’s unemployment increased in July by almost 30,000. I’m guessing they were too busy protesting the flavour of the week.

  5. I am constantly shocked at the willingness of officials to subvert the rule of law, the constitution, common law or contract law to placate some cause or eight some perceived social injustice. There can be no “social injustice” in private business because it is “private”.
    A disturbing trend to say the least but what makes these asshats think they have a better solution than the inherent workability of tried and proven existent systems?- in this case, free market investment capital – share holders rule the destiny of a company, not government, if government becomes involved in overriding the will of shareholders, a corporate stock isn’t really worth the paper it’s printed on.
    Politicians carry out the will of the majority – if the majority want a corporation to go a certain direction then buy shares in it and vote but don’t go sending in the clowns from government to disrupt free market dynamics – ferkissake the buggers can’t balance a budget or run a post office , what the hell makes you think they can run a publicly traded company???

  6. Kate, you really need to change your topic heading to the more all-inclusive: “What could possibly EVER go wrong?” lol

  7. Would “foreign” include companies or funds from the ROC?
    Quebec Allez Sil Vous Plait

  8. Isn’t that what happened last week when Lowes tried to buy Rona? Rona’s board rejected it outright without asking shareholders. Why do they need another law?

  10. So, to all those Quebec bashers, Sun News is a Quebec company, what does ROC have, CTV and Global? LOL. Quebec gets 8 billion in transfer payments, less per capita than PEI and many others, yet Quebec workers hand about 17 billion into federal coffers in income tax, seems Quebec still runs a loss. Just because AB runs a bigger loss is no excuse to bash Quebec. Oh, and we are the only province to outlaw Sharia outright. Pierre Karl Pelladeau is the only communications entrepreneur in Canada to air a conservative news station, educated in Montreal. ROC has done eff all.

  11. Astute investors will no longer be willing to have the value of their property held hostage by the Quebec government. Quebec firms will suffer from lack of capital and firms will move their offices to greener pastures. Good news for investment friendly provinces.

  12. Mock all you want, and rightly so. But there’s a large strain of protectionism among some of the posters on this forum when THEIR sacred cows come up for possible sale.
    Like the blocked takeover of potash, any such law in Quebec is the government legalizing theft from the shareholders.
    Brian, Boards reject takeover bids all the time. Then it’s called a hostile takeover when the company making the offer takes it directly to the shareholders. This law would presumably make it illegal to contact the shareholders at all.

  13. Mike must be smoking that free dope or his tinfoil is to tight.His figures are 180 degrees backwards.IF and that’s an if the RoC will never see,Queerbec put 17B into the fed,they wouldn’t be getting one penny in transfers. Hey Mike.Are you the ndpeeer separatists dad??

  14. @ Justnotthinkin,
    look up the census data yourself. I myself paid over 100K to the feds in 10 years, and more to the thieves than run Quebec. Look up average wages, fed tax levels, number of workers, etc. ideology is no replacement for math.

  15. Mike, If Quebecers pay 17 billion in taxes and get $8 billion in transfers, the truth is that for every 2 bucks you send to the feds, they send all of that back plus they add a buck from our taxes.

  16. Math: 17 billion goes out, 8 billion comes in. Equals loss of 9 billion. AB has a much bigger loss, I’m sure.

  18. @ Gus,
    Do the math yourself, all the data are public domain, unless, of course, the census data are part of a big conspiracy, in which case, you can borrow my tin-foil hat.

  19. Of course, I’m sure I am preaching to a bunch of people that think humanity sprang from some kind of divine intervention. Far be it for me to use facts to interfere with your beliefs. Perhaps you all should join the Islamists, they don’t like facts either. Please learn to research, count, and reach conclusions on your own, instead of dogmatically asserting falsehoods.

  20. I made my assertions using public domain census data, but I’ve been told I’m full of crap. Kinda reminds me of the left’s tactics. Prove me wrong with real data, and I will recant, otherwise, eff off. Oh, real data comes from polls, census (actually, census are the only ones to trust with tax levels), and so forth. If any of you spew some Christian right crappola at me, I will be shocked but not surprised. I’m a fiscal conservative, and a capitalist, so I’m sure my narrative reflects that, but I will only use facts, not ideology or religion to back my position.

  21. Mike;
    I think you have to expand your analysis beyond taxes paid and equalization received. The Federal budget is in excess of $280 billion. I think a good exercise by all Canadians would be a exercise in ‘following the money’. None of us would be very happy.
    Anyone who suggests that there is an unfettered free market of goods and capital are dreaming. Political interference in the capitalist system is increasing at an ongoing rate. Quebec interfering with the sale is comparable to Sask stopping the BHP purchase of Potash Corp. Both these provinces run the risk of losing investment capital depending how investors view this conduct.
    Pushing share holders to the ‘back of the bus’ seems to be standard procedures for many constituencies as their power to retaliate is not immediate.

  22. http://www.fraserinstitute.org/publicationdisplay.aspx?id=2147484455&terms=quebec+equalization
    “Some have defended the Quebec finance minister by noting that equalization payments originate in the federal treasury. Given that taxpayers in every province pay federal taxes, so the reasoning goes, even Quebecois taxpayers pay for the $7.4 billion equalization transfer.
    That’s mathematically ridiculous and in error. It is akin to arguing that when ten players put money on the poker table, and six take home winnings (and four do not), that because everyone initially contributed to the poker/equalization pot, no one player/province actually benefits more than another.
    The key question is who benefits when all the chips are cashed in. In the case of equalization, it is Quebec and five other provinces. In contrast, taxpayers in four provinces ultimately fund equalization through their federal taxes.”

  24. @CT
    I agree 100%. Still, facts and figures are what they are. Quebec is ****ed, but not in the way ROC sees it, you seem to see the truth. Blame not the population, but rather the leadership. All that crap about the government one deserves…Quebec leadership is screwed, but Quebec still runs a loss to the feds. Hell, I live here, and I can’t even get a job swinging a hammer without paying for a government course. “Carte de Competance” they call it. I know that we live in a “central command and control” economy more than a free market, and these centralized economies inevitably wind up starving people. I just want the facts and numbers to be known.

  25. so mike thinks quebec runs on 17-8 billion a year. oh my , sort of other worldy in concept isnt it.

  26. @CT
    ! agree 100%. We live in a centralized economy, and centralization always leads to starvation. Hell, I can’t swing a hammer for money here without a permit, and that is literal truth.

  27. Nothing will go wrong believe me, all will be fine..
    But Charest will be dehors.

  29. Mike, I think that $17 billion that you say goes to the federal gov’t, is returned to and spent in Quebec on projects the feds deem to be of federal importance, and the $8 billion in equalization is money that is taxed from the ROC, sent to the feds, and then spent in Quebec on programs the Quebec gov’t deems to be of social significance.
    The other “have” and “have not” provinces are taxed, and have that money returned to them in the way of federal programs, but that equalization program is different, it rewards mediocrity in All the provinces that depend on it, and punishes excellence in those that pay into it. It’s wealth redistribution.
    You are right regarding SUN news, the only other significant news outlet that tilts to the right is The National Post, and sometimes they make me wonder if that’s all the right we can muster…
    Getting back to Kate’s post, closing the doors on foreign investment (factories, builders) is a bad idea, selling of resources while still in the ground (oil, natural gas, potash) is a bad idea. The foreign owned companies and governments will line up to buy these products no matter who owns or produces them in Canada, and they provide employment and a rising standard of living to those that work in their foreign owned factories.
    If they aren’t allowed to own factories that build autos, or produce steel, they’ll export those jobs, by investing in creating those jobs in other jurisdictions, while in the end still selling those autos or steel products back to canadians. Who loses? Quebec in this case.

  30. If a politician completely ignorant of business starts b***ering about,
    the possibilities are endless.

  31. Canuck66, sadly, those were part-time jobs lost due to the students. People needed the work and they mucked it up. This is why there should a massive beat-down of students next time they take to the streets.

  32. Marc,
    You may be right, with all the bridges here that the feds are supposed to fix. We have bridges here crossed by 2+ million/day, and the feds aren’t ponying up. If one collapses, watch ROC swing left like a bunch of lemmings, even more left than they are now. Quebec construction companies are forbidden by law to fix the bridges unless they have a contract with the feds. Still, I agree, Quebec’s policies will screw the Quebecers. I would love to see transfer payments ended, and let each province stand on their own, but first, I want the feds to stop pillaging us. Feds should deal with courts and defence, period.

  33. Let’s just label it accurately as “a law preventing owners from getting what their property is worth.”

  34. Marc, so what you are saying is that it’s fine for foreign capital to come into Canada to buy up or start up factories, retail outlets, etc. But mines and oil fields are off limits?

  35. Mike, the 2009 revenue figures are that Quebec receives 39 and a half billion in taxes from Quebec. It receives a bit over 8 billion in equalization. Equalization is spent according to the provincial agenda. No other province receives as much as Quebec in equalization.
    But, in total, Quebec receives about 53 billion from the federal government. Remove the 39, and Quebec receives about 14 billion more from the federal government than it provides. Got that?
    Could you therefore explain how this is ‘the federal government pillaging Quebec’?
    Note also that Quebec’s universities, funded by the federal government, provide jobs for a large ratio of the education class of Quebec. And, interestingly, there are 23 public universities in Quebec while in Ontario there are only 17, despite it having twice the Quebec population.
    Then, there are the jobs for the Quebec educated class in the federal government, a massive ‘subsidy’ due to official bilingualism. And all those head offices of banks and industries in Montreal, located there by federal subsidies and deals. So, the Quebec educated class have jobs, due to the federal funding! And this is not counted in that 14 billion.
    And other benefits, such as the privileged dairy industry, whereby Quebec alone is allowed to produce dairy products over other farmers in Canada. And the fact that Quebec workers are allowed to work in Ontario while the reverse is not true.
    And if Quebec construction companies are forbidden by law to repair bridges without a federal contract, could it be due to the fact that the federal government is paying? And due to the corruption of the unions in Quebec?
    Again, could you explain ‘federal pillaging’ to me?

  36. Yes, cgh.
    We / anyone, can build another factory, retail outlet, restaurant. But those resources underfoot aren’t quite the same. Oil refineries are factories, the oil resource, can be purchased from canadians for feedstock.

  37. Quebec has a right to protect its businesses and sovereignty every bit as much as we do, exactly like countries such as China, Russia, India what have you do as well.
    The only real difference is that Quebec is a welfare state, sort of like a backwards African country that owes everyone else its very existence. They are a thankless lot, which imposes their demands on us to provide the bill and sell off our resources and wealth, while they get to keep their cultural rights to theirs.

  38. Mike….here’s an idea.You made the claim,you prove it.Post the links for the bucks.And the ROC does not owe your mob bosses dick all for bridges,roads,french signs or ahything else.

  40. “(Charest’s) also promising a new law that would give Qc companies more power to reject foreign takeovers without giving shareholders a say”
    They can say everything they need to with their “pieds” .
    Aur Revoir frogs.

  41. Feds claim sovereignty over bridges. Who cares what politicos think, Sun News is a Quebec investment. ROC has done eff all for free speech, fighting Islam, etc. I spent time doin the math, prove me wrong.
    “Quebec receives 39 and a half billion in taxes from Quebec.” OK so that’s already ours. “But, in total, Quebec receives about 53 billion from the federal government. Remove the 39,(what?) and Quebec receives about 14 billion more from the federal government than it provides”
    Where does this come from? Back your data up, pal.
    I simply used census data, average wages, and number of workers, what did you use?

  42. Hey Gord, PKP’s freindliness with politicos means nothing, what has ROC done to protect freedom of speech, fight Islam, etc. Quebecor 1, ROC 0. Learn to count.

  44. Good!
    Whatever law Quebec comes up with is fine with me. Bound to be a Ménage à Twats. More bullet holes in their pantoufles…

  45. Mike:
    The ROC very culturally and politically diverse – Quebec is very much less so. And a much higher muslim population particularly in montreal. Thus the speed at which sharia has been banned has been faster in quebec.  And  That the roc has not is not sufficient evidence to say that the roc supports sharia. 
    Suntv has much higher viewership in the roc than in Quebec. 
    And the province of Quebec gets more than 28 billion of direct and indirect federal spending: 19 billion from Quebec federal tax and 8 billion in equalization. 
    Not included is the additional chronic imabalance in EI benefit employer deductions versus EI benefits paid in Quebec. If memory serves that number bounces around 1.5 billion per year. 
    And on top of that, Quebec hydro charges domestic consumers a fraction of the going market rate for the power they consume. As a result the Quebec govt (100% owner of QH) receives 8.5 billion less in revenues from QH. Because of that Quebec recieves over 8 billion more in equalization than it should – and has been since the early seventies. Make no mistake this exploitation of a loophole in the eq calculation will be addressed within the next CPC mandate.  

  46. Honestly I am a little sick of always reading negativity about Quebec in the Canadian press or this blog.
    It is always about judgement of value and you people of Quebec are inferior.
    Leave us alone. We want to be different… what is so wrong about difference.

  47. Please don’t identify me with the commies, like Xavier at Quebecois NDP separatiste. He’s a commie, I’m a capitalist.

  48. Mike, here are two data sets; you can check the numbers. The first is the stats can table for Quebec from 1981 to 2009. You can see that in every year, that’s every year, the federal revenue from Quebec is less than it spent in Quebec. The second uses the same stats can figures in an analysis.
    http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/13-018-x/2011001/t/tab0724-eng.htm
    http://thoughtundermined.com/2012/07/22/a-closer-look-at-federal-revenues-and-expenditures-by-province/
    Quebec doesn’t fund Sun News. Quebecor is a private company based in Quebec with revenues coming in from all over the world. It has private operations in 18 countries. Nothing to do with the Quebec taxpayer or Quebec investment.
    Sharia Law is not applicable in Ontario. For what it’s worth, McGuinty rejected religious law for families several years ago.
    As for free speech, your language laws reject that, and yes, if you can’t speak in the workplace or schoolyard in any language other than French, that’s an inhibition of free speech.
    As for fighting Islamism, I applaud Quebec’s rejection of the veil, but that is less about fighting Islam and primarily about supporting the integrity of francophone culture.
    And you’ve said nothing about my other points, the federal jobs for the Quebec educated class, the universities, the dairy, the blue collar workers and so on.

  50. quebecois, you have to define ‘difference’.
    If ‘difference’ means an unprincipled taking of vast sums of money from the Canadian taxpayer, with no ‘equal value’ in return, that’s hardly commendable.
    That’s what it’s all about. It certainly has absolutely nothing to do with language, with history, for such differences are valued by most of us.
    It’s all about the Quebec attitude. It’s the constant ‘grasping hand’ to the Canadian taxpayer, the constant threats of ‘give me more or I’ll leave’, the constant complaints of ‘you don’t speak French often enough in Edmonton’, the unilingual nature of Quebec, the refusal to collaborate and share, work with, care about Canada and Canadians.
    It’s the constant rejection of Canada and Canadians, the rejection of the federation, the sneering view that ‘Canadians have no culture’, while all the while, Quebec insists on more and more money from that same Canada.
    Now, you have previously declared that such behaviour of insisting and taking as much as you can, while refusing to care and share in return, is just fine with you. It’s not fine with most Canadians.

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