Is Scotland the next Quebec?

jkitleft Sun May 06, 2007 at 05:35:34 PM GMT Print-friendly version Facebook

In Canada, elections are taking place almost every other year. Parties find it hard to gain a majority. Why? Due to the dominance of Bloc Quebecois in Quebec. They held 51 out of 75 seats in Quebec at the last election.

With the victory of SNP in the elections, I'm wondering whether this will translate into Scottish Westminster success. Let's be clear, Scotland is not on the road to independence, despite the Media trying to put the fear of god into people at the Ballot Box. For some people, SNP are the leftist alternative to Labour, and have shown this on Thursday. Support for independence has not shot up in 4 years. It is the consequence of the party that is making left-wingers increasingly uncomfortable to be in.

To get back to my point, Scotland will not vote yes in an independence referendum. This has been shown in Quebec, where Bloc Quebecois are the dominant party, but independence referendums fail every time. But could it be that (if the situation extended to Wales as well, if Plaid somehow became dominant) the Tories and Labour will find it hard to form a majority government, like the Liberals and Conservatives in Canada have found increasingly hard to do.






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Is Scotland the next Quebec? | 3 comments (3 topical)

Re: Is Scotland the next Quebec? (#1)

by BePringle on Sun May 06, 2007 at 08:18:21 PM GMT

Are you sure that you are not confusing Bloc Québécois, a [i]federal[/i] party that contests seats in the House of Commons, with Parti Québécois, a [i]provincial[/i] party that contests seats in Quebec's regional parliament? The Bloc do make it difficult to form a majority government in Ottawa, yes, as they sweep most of the available seats in the province of Quebec... Overall the NDP (Labour's Canadian sister party) gathers far far more votes across nationally than the BQ, yet due to the FPTP system, the NDP's number of won seats have always been outnumbered by BQ. (See [URL=http://idealisticpragmatist.blogspot.com/2007/03/harpers-worst-enemy-bloc-qubcois.html]here[/UR L] for more.) However, if a proportional representation type system was introduced for Canadian federal elections, the Bloc's proportion of seats would fall dramatically. Labour and the Tories don't have to worry about the SNP unless or until they win most of the Scottish seats in the House of Commons, and only then if FPTP is still in place for Westminster elections. (Let's be honest, PR will inevitably be used for UK general elections some time in the future.)


Re: Is Scotland the next Quebec? (#2)

by Mikael on Sun May 06, 2007 at 08:53:13 PM GMT

He is confusing the two Parties, though their programmes are virtually the same. Having said that, the Bloc sometimes attempts to make use of a Left-wing phraseology, whilst the PQ always talks the same ol'right-wing talk!


[ Parent ]

Re: Is Scotland the next Quebec? (#3)

by jkitleft on Sun May 06, 2007 at 09:19:46 PM GMT

Sorry, i meant to say Bloc were dominant in Quebec elections for Ottawa


Is Scotland the next Quebec? | 3 comments (3 topical)