It's interesting watching the way the Conservatives have been screaming about the separatists being in the coalition, for a number of reasons.
First, the Bloc Quebecois is a direct result of Progressive Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney's attempt in the 1980s to take Quebec from federal Liberal domination by getting a lot of popular nationalist politicians to join the party. When they didn't get everything they wanted, they left the PCs and started the Bloc.
Second, if the Bloc has a real enemy in Parliament, it's the Liberals, not the Conservatives. Mulroney and Harper, if either could get away with it, would give Quebec pretty much anything it wanted, because the Conservatives tend to be against a strong, central, federal government. The Liberals were the ones who passed the Clarity Act, which makes it clear that Quebec can't just walk out of Canada when it feels like it. The Progressive Conservatives and NDP initially criticized it.
Third, the Bloc has been in the House of Commons for 18 years. Unlike Sinn Fein members getting elected to the British Parliament and refusing to take a seat there, they're very comfortable in Ottawa and in no apparent rush to leave. They're basically a regional party, just as the western-based Reform Party was before it merged with the Progressive Conservatives. And it's Reform territory that's talking about separating now, particularly Alberta.
I doubt Scraps would remember my name from my handful of posts in the Well's newmusic conf, where I first encountered him, but he's always been one of the most reliably interesting and intelligent participants in any online forum I've seen him in. Hoping for the best for him and Velma.
(Apology in advance for the drift away from science books...)
Readers' expectations are a funny thing. My wife and I found the first Carrie Bebris novel in a local bookstore. The back cover mentions Georgette Heyer, Stephanie Barron, Nick and Nora Charles, and of course Jane Austen, making it sound like something we'd both enjoy.
Funny how the book cover doesn't say anything about Mrs. Darcy solving crimes with her psychic powers. We went in with a mystery reader's expectations and found something playing by a very different set of rules. We haven't felt any need to buy the other books.
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