Commentary
Last week’s threat by Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet to withdraw support from the government has attracted more publicity than it deserves. He declared that the Bloc would try to bring down the Liberal government in Parliament if it did not back the Bloc’s bills to increase pension benefits for those between 65 and 74 years old by 10 percent, and guarantee that the supply-managed farm sectors—dairy, poultry, and eggs, would be exempted from any future trade negotiations.
The full absurdity of these demands requires a moment of reflection to be fully appreciated. What the Bloc does has no bearing whatever on the status of the government, since no Liberal government has failed to bribe the New Democrats and its precedent organization, the CCF, into sustaining it in government over nearly 100 years, other than when Pierre Trudeau wished the NDP to vote against it to justify an election in 1974, that he correctly believed his party would win….