Ontario's Loss of Clout is whose gain?

Dear Windsor Star Editors & Barbara Yaffe,

Ms Yaffe's article "Ontario's loss of clout" Fri May 12/06 was well-written in a nice easy readable style.

In my view, it accurately represents the current conventional-wisdom feeling towards the pretty-darn-good-so-far Conservative minority government.

But this is a chess game. Phase I may look like it's favouring Quebec and is motivated by seat-pandering in the next election as Ms Yaffe suggests, but there's more to come.

It's decided already.

Phase II (the big Fed-Prov conference on equalization and fiscal imbalance etc) may look like it's favouring ALL the provinces at the expense of the (former) bloated central gov'ts bureaucracy and expensive 'big' programs idea of how Canada is administered.

But Phase III (and the real agenda) will favour the oil-and-gas-fired stewards of the Alberta economy.

Mr Harper thinks he's managing things (and the media) quite well - and indeed he is (as anyone with a plan and some savvy could with the arsenal of weapons inherent in the office of 'Friendly Dictator' of Canada)

But the question-of-the day remains: Would Mr Harper (or anyone) be taking the steps he's planning if oil was $15/barrel?