Bloc party

Let's expand on my comment over at Cathie's as to how the Bloc can best force Harper to eat his party's anti-Quebec words from the last couple of weeks.

The starting point - as identified by Greg and Dan - is for the Libs and NDP to signal their intention to vote against the budget, forcing Harper to rely on the Bloc to prop up his government. But the Bloc should do far more than just offer its support; after all, the Cons haven't been shy about depending on Bloc votes before, and can easily say their position hasn't changed as a result.

Instead, the Bloc should signal that it's willing to negotiate with the Cons, but won't offer its support unless a package is forthcoming which is acceptable to Quebec in its view. And of course, that view should be informed based on input from Pauline Marois, Jacques Parizeau and others who have been vilified throughout the Con-created crisis.

Moreover, the Bloc should hold the Cons to their rhetoric about no back-room deals. Rather, the Bloc should present its demands publicly, and insist in return that the Cons similarly let the public know exactly what Bloc demands they're willing to give into.

It should go without saying that the Bloc's fallback would be to continue supporting the coalition - giving the Cons the choice between publicly negotiating with Duceppe, or losing power. And indeed, the ideal outcome would be for the Bloc to ultimately reject the Cons' offers - resulting in Harper exposing his own rhetoric as a lie and earning the ire of the anti-Quebec elements which his party is currently inflaming, while receiving his well-deserved comeuppance in Parliament as well.

The prospect of that scenario is probably exactly why the Cons' first priority for now seems to be to try to win Libs over to their side rather than dealing with the only party which has ever supported a Con budget on the merits. But if the coalition parties stay strong, then Harper wouldn't seem to have much choice in the matter - and the result would definitely be worth a few Nelson-laughs.