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Simeon Mitropolitski is a Canadian analyst, of Bulgarian origin, and a former syndicated columnist with the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA). He is the author of several hundred articles dealing with hot political and economic topics, both national and international.

He was part of the first group of Bulgarian intellectuals and students that began the opposition movement that finally put an end to the communist regime in this country in 1989, and in 1996-1997 participated in international observation teams during the elections in several Balkan countries - Romania, Albania and Bulgaria.

In 2002 Simeon and his family moved from Bulgaria to Canada where they live now in Montreal, province of Quebec. Simeon is a Master of Political Science from McGill University and a B.A. of Political Science and History.

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Canadian federal and Quebec provincial politics are heading toward a joyful Christmas after many weeks of uncertainties. On the federal level, the opposition parties formed earlier a large coalition to bring down the Conservative government. Only the last minute decision by the Governor General to prorogate (suspend the activity of) the parliament until the end of January postponed 2009 what appeared to be the inevitable fall of the government. On provincial level, in Quebec, the general election gave the ruling Liberal Party a small majority to manage the economy during the turbulent times ahead.

It seemed not far ago that Canadian federal politics would get a period of peace and calm for at least a year until the main opposition Liberal Party (despite the identical name, the Liberal Party of Canada and the Liberal Party of Quebec are two completely different formations) find its new leader. The events of the last couple of weeks made these predictions inexact. The opposition parties, the Liberals plus the left-leaning New Democrats, supported by the Quebec-based separatist bloc, decided to challenge the minority government by forming a coalition. The Prime Minister Harper, an usually clever politician, didn't estimate well the growing discontent to his government over his economic policy and based his calculations on the fact that the opposition couldn't provide viable alternative without a well-positioned leader. Harper was wrong. The opposition could manage to unite at light speed. He now has more than a month to fix the situation, by offering to the new Liberal Party leadership the much-needed cash for the dying automobile industry in the province of Ontario (the stronghold of the Liberal Party of Canada).

In Quebec, the election campaign was rather dull. The Premier Charest wanted to regain the majority he lost in 2007. He did get what he wanted, but the majority won't be as comfortable as he hoped; barely over the half of the new provincial assembly will be Liberals. In practical terms, he will have free hand to rule the province for four, maybe five years. With the plans of the main opposition party not to call for a referendum over the independence of the province during its first term in office, this will postpone the eventual referendum for 2020. For Quebec this means political and social stability for a while. Right now, no more than 38 percent of the population of Quebec wants separation from Canada, and even fewer want independence at any (economic) cost. By 2020 these numbers may eventually drop even lower. The main political question in Canada, what to do and how to deal with the Quebec nationalist movement, may eventually die from natural causes.

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