The language and culture barriers between Quebec and the rest of Canada fuel the proliferation of shallow stereotypes. Looking at La Belle Province from Halifax or Vancouver or Toronto, it’s easy to imagine legions of leftists in a sea of sovereigntists. The political reality is much more complex, of course, and Paul Beaudry proves the point. A natural born contrarian, he grew up francophone, federalist and conservative in Montreal. Then he discovered libertarianism, which further antagonized his teachers and inhibited his social life. Today, though, with separatist and socialist fortunes ebbing in Quebec, Beaudry no longer feels like a lonely right-wing counter-revolutionary.

The Quebec conservative scene has been shaken-up by the emergence of a new political movement — and now official political party — called the Coalition pour l’avenir du Québec (CAQ). Paul Beaudry argues that despite media spin, the coalition is not to be considered “conservative” in any sense of the word, and that the right-of-centre Action démocratique du Québec (ADQ) should rebuff attempts at a merger.

Conventional wisdom quickly cemented around the notion that to deal with the economic windstorm, governments had to come to the rescue with funding to save failing businesses. In the long-term this does more harm to the business world than anything because businesses fail to curb risky behaviour and are enabled to continue poor decisions, knowing the state will be there to rescue them.