Pork Served Up In Deep Oil

After a long time, Harpercon flunkie Christian Paradis and his provincial counterpart here, Nathalie Normandeau, have reached an agreement on The Old Harry oil and gas field which straddles the Newfoundland/Laborador and Quebec borders out on the Gulf of St-Lawrence.   Wow! Talk about timing! I mean, the Quebec government has been trying to get a deal with the Feds for quite some time to allow us to drill on our part of Old Harry to no avail.  It seemed to be as Marie-Victorin MNA Bernard Drainville said: that the feds liked Quebec to be dependent on them.  Not a far stretch when one thinks about it; keeps ideas of sovereignty out and of course, keeps us as Alberta’s (and Anglo Canada’s) favourite whipping boy.

Don’t get me wrong, I have reservations about deep water drilling in my belle province, but I also never thought it was fair that Newfoundland and Laborador had their deal inked with the Feds and not Quebec. Quebec should at least control what is their’s.  Now, we gets a deal with the feds all of a sudden.  Apparently, La Belle Province would get to keep 100% of the royalties.   However, there appears to be a teeny tiny catch.

Although the deal was still a secret in both capitals on Wednesday, Mr. Charest struck a conciliatory tone, vowing to limit his interventions in the next federal election campaign. The Quebec Liberals attacked the Conservative Party’s cultural policies in the 2008 campaign, in which the Tories failed to make any ground in the province.

Yes, Jean Charest had to sell out some, didn’t he? Ah, Jean, you were more fun when you were adversarial to Stevie Spiteful!! Now, you’re really becoming a drag! For those who don’t remember, in the 2008 federal election, Jean Charest actively campaigned against Stevie Spiteful and for the Bloc Quebecois.  Although, given Charest’s lack of popularity these days, I somehow believed that Charest was going to lay low this federal election; that somehow the BQ would prefer not to have Charest’s name too attached to their campaign.

Ah yes, and of course, there’s the typical bribery that is involved. Reality is  (depending how effective the environmental groups who have been demanding moratoriums on deep water drilling in the Gulf of St-Lawrence will be or not),  the Gaspesie area (Bloc strongholds typically; never conservative) does have a chronic unemployment problem and such a deal could provide jobs. Well paying jobs.

The timing fun doesn’t end here though. Apparently, according to those Harpercons, they want the Bloc to think twice before voting against them in tomorrow’s non-confidence vote:

The official added that if the Bloc votes to bring down the federal government on Friday, the party will have to explain to Quebeckers why it shut down Parliament before it could enact the Old Harry deal.

Wait a minute! I thought this was a done deal?  No, of course not!  They’ve got to beat Duceppe, who actually stands to gain in the upcoming election in La Belle Province, to submission, somehow don’t they?

So, what we have here is pork served up in deep oil along with some political coercion and submission perhaps?  Charming.

As for you Mr. Charest, whatever respect I had for ya, is now gone!