Why Now Is The Perfect Time to Wave a Friendly Goodbye to Quebec

Lowell Green

Description

Few Canadians have fought harder or longer for national unity and bilingualism than Lowell Green.

"That was then," says Green. "I have come full circle and am now convinced that it would be best for all concerned if Quebecers were to buck up their courage, cut the cord and, just as many other countries have done, become master in their own house."

As is his style, Green, with humour, insight and well-researched facts, pulls no punches in making very powerful and persuasive arguments for what he calls a "velvet divorce" from Quebec.

Includes the opinions of 90 different Canadians!

Sujets

• American Government
• Political Science
• National

Informations

• Publié par: eBookIt.com
• Date de parution: 29 décembre 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781456620677
• Langue: English

Extrait

Why Now Is The Perfect Time to Wave a Friendly Goodbye to Quebec
 
by
Lowell Green

“Once you carry the stain of the English language and culture, no matter where you were born, how long you have lived here, or the number of generations your family has been here, you can never be a full-fledged Quebecois and this can never be your true home. Full membership and participation are denied. You are merely tolerated and you should count yourself lucky at that. After all, you are an undesirable!”
 
– Kevin Richard, Sherbrooke Record
(One of only two daily English language newspapers left in Quebec).





 

 
This book was researched, written, edited, designed, formatted, printed, delivered and sold in Canada by Canadians without any financial assistance from any level of government. In addition, HST in full has been paid at every level of production to editors, publishers, designers, artists, printers, delivery service, accountants, lawyers and advertising. To the best of our knowledge all paper used in this book was manufactured in Canada by Canadian pulp and paper workers.


ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-2067-7
Printed and bound in Canada
® 2013 Lowell Green
 
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except for brief quotations used for purposes of review, without the prior written permission of the author. For information, please contact the publisher at 613-831-6307 or at www.lowellgreen.com .
 
Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
http://www.eBookIt.com
 
This book was written, published, edited and printed in Canada without the aid of government grants of any nature.
 
Cover design and book formatting by Tara Yourth/taragraphics.
Cover images - Stock photos:
® Kuzma | Dreamstime.com
® MorganOliver | Dreamstime.com
 
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
 
Green, Lowell, 1936-, author
Why now is the perfect time to wave a friendly goodbye to Quebec / Lowell Green.
 
Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-9813149-4-5 (bound)
 
1. Sovereignty. 2. Self-determination, National--Québec (Province). 3. Canada--Politics and government--2006-. 4. Québec (Province)-Politics and government--2012-. 5. Québec (Province)--History--Autonomy and independence movements. I. Title.
 
FC2926.9.S4G74 2013 971.4'05 C2013-905073-6
 
First Printing September 2013

 
This book is dedicated to my wife Deborah.
“Through thick and thin!”
FOREWORD

 

 
In the past six years the Province of Quebec has sucked more than $50 billion in transfer payments from the rest of Canada (ROC). We’ll pump close to another $9 billion into the pockets of the separatist (and I believe racist) government this year.
All that “welfare” money while the Province refuses to tap into the 46 billion barrels of oil and trillions of cubic feet of natural gas that have been discovered just beneath the earth’s crust along the St. Lawrence. A recent announcement that they would allow some exploratory drilling on Anticosti Island is nothing but a stall tactic.
While Quebec pretends this heel dragging exercise is out of environmental concerns I suspect the real reason is much more devious and totally self-serving. By holding off drilling or fracking for oil and gas until they achieve independence, the separatist government avoids having to share any of the revenue, royalties or taxes with the rest of Canada.
While it is true natural resources are owned by the individual provinces, the federal government exercises control over inter-provincial and international trade and shares jurisdiction of many environmental matters with the provinces. The federal government would also, of course, collect billions in various forms of taxes.
To give you some idea of the kind of money we’re talking about, consider this.
The Canadian Energy Research Institute (CERI) estimates that the oil sands of Alberta will create $444 billion in tax revenue across Canada in the next 25 years. More than 70 per cent of that—$322 billion will go the federal government. These figures do not include any revenues or taxes from the sale of natural gas or oil from sources in the province other than the oil sands.
Obviously, as an independent nation, Quebec would not have to fork over a single cent of royalties or taxes to the rest of Canada. They would own and control it all, lock, stock and barrel!
It is doubtful that Quebec would be able to extract oil at a volume comparable to that of Alberta, but no matter which way you look at it, tens of billions of dollars are at stake.
It boils down to this. As part of Canada, any revenue, royalties or taxes from the development of Quebec oil and gas would have to be shared at least in part with the federal government and thus the rest of Canada. In addition, the federal government would be able to exercise considerable control over the industry, in particular many matters relating to environmental concerns as well as inter-provincial and international trade.
But, as an independent nation, Quebec would have full control over the industry and retain the income in all its forms!
Machiavellian? Yes it is. But then what in Quebec these days is not?
At the very least we can stop or slow down the flow of money from the rest of Canada (ROC) into Quebec in 2014 when the Harper Government must renew, amend or cancel the equalization program which very clearly is a flagrant abuse of ROC taxpayers.
Depriving Quebec of its yearly “please stay with us bribe” or greatly reducing it, would probably provide the Province with a final gentle nudge out the Canadian door and force them to follow Alberta’s lead, tap into their vast storehouse of oil and gas and become not only self sufficient—but one of the most prosperous countries in the world, perhaps even rivalling Saudi Arabia!
This incredible oil and gas bonanza they thus far refuse to exploit, completely refutes the long held belief that Quebec will never separate because it cannot afford to. As Yogi Berra (or someone) once said, “this really changes the old ball game don’t it?”
There’s something else that must change as well, because while the assumption has always been that the decision whether to stay or leave will always be that of Quebec, I am suggesting here that the time has come for all of us Canadians to have a say in something this vital.
It could be argued, and I do so here, that separation, no matter whose decision it may be, would force any new Quebec government to begin harvesting these resources, thrusting itself into the vanguard of the world’s oil-rich nations and in the process relieve the ROC of a tremendous financial burden.
In fact, you can be almost certain the day Quebec does not have to share the riches from their oil and gas with Canadians is the day they’ll start to drill!
Far more riches lie beneath the feet of every Quebecer than they will ever be able to extract from Ottawa, a fact that will become a major selling point when the separatists begin their next round of referendum talk.
As I explained this to my wife the other day she remarked, “ Lowell, keeping billions of dollars worth of oil and gas in reserve for yourself while crying poverty so you can extract billions from the rest of the country is a little like having your freezer stuffed with filet mignon as you plunder the food bank every week!”
I think she’s got it exactly right!
Because of this and from the other facts and arguments I present here you will be hard pressed not to agree with me that now is the perfect time to wave a friendly goodbye to Quebec!
We will all be a lot richer—and I suspect, happier as well, when the inevitable occurs and we finally go our separate ways.
CHAPTER ONE
THAT WAS THEN

 

 
Hanging on my home office wall right behind me is a framed letter, dated June 12, 1969 from the Canadian Prime Minister’s office signed by Pierre Trudeau. It’s addressed to Terry Kielty, General Manager of Broadcasting Station CFRA, 150 Isabella Street Ottawa and states as follows:
 
Dear Mr. Kielty:
I would like to convey my congratulations to you and your colleagues at CFRA for your work in winning the ACRTF trophy.
I understand that the Association confers the award for the English language radio or television station that contributes the most comprehensive broadcasting “to foster the comprehension and support of the French fact’s importance to the achievement of Canadian unity”.
In their citation, the judges commented, “their editorials are a very good reflection of the French Canadian situation within Confederation”.
Veuillez accepter mes felicitations.
Sincerement,
Pierre Trudeau
 
Since I wrote and broadcast the editorials referred to, the trophy was presented to me in a little ceremony, held as I recall, in a local pizza parlour. (CFRA at the time was nothing if not frugal!) An artist’s bronze avante garde interpretation of the fleur de lis. The trophy, being particularly ugly, was long ago relegated to a dusty drawer someplace and can no longer be found. I blame my wife!
(ACRTF is the acronym for Association Canadienne de la Radio et de la Television de Langue Francis.)
Hanging on the wall just above my desk, in fact, staring me boldly in the face as I write this, is the now famous overhead picture of the Canadian Unity Rally showing a good chunk of the more than 100,000 who flocked to Montreal on October 27, 1995 to beg Quebec not to leave us. Prominent in the picture is a huge Canadian flag brought to the rally by a busload of patriots from Windsor. The flag is being passed along hand-to-hand over the heads of those jammed into the square. You’ve probably seen the picture. It’s become a Canadian icon.
The rally, as most of you know, is generally credited with persuading sufficient numbers of Quebecers to vote “Non” to tip the scales in favour of the narrow federalist re