When the premiers of all the provinces and territories finally gather in Ottawa in November, there will be some roses and then some thorns amongst them. Premier Danny Williams of Newfoundland, Premier Dalton McGuinty of Ontario and Premier Jean Charest of Quebec would be the three thorns.

I read at National Newswatch that Mr. Charest has already presented Ottawa with a list which includes more money for post secondary education (he received money for it earlier but chose to use it to offer 700 million cuts to personal income taxes annually ). His mistake, we pay again. Quebec has received a lot of money. Now he has even more of a list for Ottawa. It is alleged that Charest wants to keep the gun registry, have a cap and trade system on carbon credits, talk about differences on senate reform, wants a federal securities regulator, wants to talk about the treatment of young offenders and is asking for more economic development grants and arts grants. According to Mr. Mario Dumont the premier got very involved in the federal election and more supportive of the bloc than Mr. Harper. He says no, he was speaking for Quebec. It’s not pretty whatever it was.

Dalton McGuinty feels his province sends far too much money to Ottawa every year, and does not get any of it back. He claims a deficit of 18.1 billion. He will have front and center his disappointment and disapproval of the federal formula for calculating equalization payments, which he feels is unfair to Ontario taxpayers. Mr McGuinty wants his province to remain eligible for equalization payments because the risk is that Ontario could become a have not province. He fears the federal government has a deep seeded mindset that Ontario shall never benefit from equilization payments. This premier can, if something irks him, take a pot shot at any minister, or the government, at any time. That is the way he seems to be and he can be relied upon to always have a shopping list in his hand.

Danny Williams, has lucrative oil resources, his province is now earning more than the national average. He is the one who keeps accusing our Prime Minister of breaking his word to the province on an equalization agreement over offshore oil resources. He has been throwing darts like this since 2007, yet his province is definitely not suffering. Worse, he has completely maligned the Prime Minister worldwide and has managed to get his province to not vote in a single conservative MP.

If we are to make improvements in Canada, we need the premiers of every province to come onside, step out of their provincial bubble and save Canada. That would mean working with the federal government. Haven’t we had enough fighting and sandbox tactics? Saving Canada from any future economic threat should be the number one priority.

Let’s hope we see some sort of breakthrough in cooperation and dialogue soon. We need the three amigo’s onside, now!! Is this possible?