Don't give in to anti-Bloc paranoia!

Was listening to Rex Murphy today on the CBC's "Cross Country Checkup" and on more than one occasion he made reference to a Liberal/NDP coalition requiring the support from a party that "plans to breakup the country". He seemed to actively encourage that kind of talk from callers.

Frankly I'm sick of hearing about the separatist bogeyman.

Hello! I've got news for everyone!

Canada is not the only country in the world with a "separatist" party in its parliament.

I just so happened to be in Barcelona, Spain last March during their election campaign.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's Socialist Workers Party (PSOE) government was re-elected. It's a minority government and guess who's support they rely on? THE SEPARATISTS!

Only thing is Spain doesn't just have one separatist party in the Cortes (Parliament), they have a whole bunch of separatist parties. They have Catalan separatists, Basque separatists, Galician separatists and even Canary Island separatists.

And the separatists themselves don't have just one party. The main Catalan separatist party "Convergencia i Union" (CiU) is itself a coalition of two Catalan separatist parties. (The party banners you see in this street scene photo of Barcelona are from the CiU) Then of course there's the "ERC"...the "Republican Left of Catalonia".

On top of that there are a whole bunch of separatist and regional parties that didn't manage to get anyone elected.

Yet, Spain hasn't fallen apart.

Even in the UK there are separatist and regional parties...like the Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP), Plaid Cymru (Welsh Nationalists), and from Northern Ireland, the Democratic Unionists, Ulster Unionists, Sinn Fein and the Social Democratic & Labour Party.

Life goes on! Governments implement their policies.

Even if the Parti Quebecois wins every seat in the upcoming provincial election, holds a referendum and gets a 99.9% vote in favour of sovereignty-association, Quebec is still going to be on the other side of the Ottawa River.

Hell, the federal government does so little these days that quite frankly, there isn't much to "separate from".

The reformatories are also playing the "western alienation" card.

In two of the four western provinces, the majority of folks didn't vote for Harper's party. Less than half of British Columbians voted reformatory (44.5%). Only 48.8% of Manitobans voted reformatory.

In Alberta, the 35% of the electorate who didn't vote reformatory are represented by a single NDP MP. In Saskatchewan, the 46% of the electorate who didn't vote reformatory are represented by a single Liberal MP.

So not all western Canadians are reformatories! They're simply being drowned out in the mainstream media by right-wingers.

So who's trying to "break up the country"? Harper and his minions as they desperately cling to power. But it looks like it ain't gonna work this time. Bye bye Stevie!