Conservatives 37% - Liberals 29% - Urban Agenda Dead?

[rbtaylor]

There is a long held belief among many in Quebec that it pays more into confederation than it gets back.

This was true at one time. Quebec and Eastern cost dollars bought most of the west and Northern Ontario from Hudsons Bay Company. If those dollars bought HBC outright and annex'd the lands, they would have been able to claim the oil dollars as their own.

I've read the Quebec budget as well as the rather large document on the fiscal imbalance and none of it mentions over payments to the feds. Most of the argument presented by the provincial government is that current Health Care and Education funding does not match (as a percentage) the peak funding that once was available.

Toronto makes the same argument to the province regarding public transit funding -- that todays funding does not match peak funding.

Still, it is a facinating to follow both sides of the argument because factually they are both correct. When both sides complain equally and oppositely, it is not surprising the Federal Liberals believe it to be balanced.