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Originally Posted by transplant99
Its very simple. History tells me as much.
Alberta and Saskatchewan are the two "have" provinces right now...and by quite a margin over Quebec. Right there is a reason for huge concern as the transfer payments that ALberta alone already makes are pretty much what Quebec receives. Now Duceppe holds a MASSIVE hammer over the heads of the so called leaders of this coup. Simply he says to Dion or whatever unelected person replaces him, I want at least 1 billion more dollars in transer payments this year, or i pull back my support of your coalition. Layton and Dion have no choice but to aquiece to his demands should they want to retain the power they have just back-doored.
So Layton and Dion look West for that money as they certainly are not going to take from Ontario as that is where what little support they do have federally mostly comes from. Unless you believe they are going to cripple a province that is the only reason they have a seat to begin with, there is no where else to go for said favor for Duceppe.
Layton and Dion have already committed to spending 30 BILLION dollars to some unknown stimulus package...again, where do you think they will be getting that money from? That's more money than even the USA is proposing to bail out their auto industry just for a point of reference.
Then of course the NEP debacle enacted by Trudeau who was never as far left as Layton. It worked to prop up Ontario and Quebec then, and I have little doubt that all of Duceppe, Layton AND Dion all believe that it could work again, especially when collectively they have 21 seats West of Ontario.
Add all that up and logically tell me where they are going to be looking at for all this money they plan to spend...which is why they undertook this coup to begin with by their own words this afternoon. As clearly they didnt think Harper and his elected mandate were going fast enough or spending enough money.
Logic.....it works.
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The current equalization plan is based on fiscal capacity...
http://www.fin.gc.ca/FEDPROV/eqpe.html
Are you suggesting that this coalition government is going to change that somehow so that the have provinces have to give more money? If Alberta is a resource driven economy, and currently no more than 50% of it's natural resource revenues can be factored into the equalization money, how exactly can more money be given when by all accounts oil revenue is likely going to decrease based on current forecasts?
In order for the coalition to exist, the Bloc have agreed
in writing that they will not vote against the coalition in a confidence vote. If they pull back their support and lie, then the coalition will fail. That is that, there is no conspiracy here to see. While we have no reason to trust the Bloc, what more can we do?
The whole point of the NEP was that the energy resource prices were exceptionally high and that (as you said) Ontario and Quebec wanted to capitalize on Alberta's success. I just don't see how that could happen again given the current economy for resources. It's your prerogative to remain paranoid, but it's just not in the interest of the country to stifle the only two "have" provinces.
The money will likely come through borrowing (which the Conservatives would have done anyways).