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Barry Wilson, Executive producer, CTV Montreal Published Friday, December 5, 2014 2:01PM EST

Have drivers become the new smokers? Back in the day, whenever the government needed to squeeze people a little more, they went for the puffers or sometimes, the drinkers.

Now, if you drive in Quebec the government looks at you and sees dollar signs.

We are taxed on our insurance our licences and our gas. There are special taxes to pay for public transportation. There are extra taxes if you live on the island of Montreal and if you ride a motorcycle then see your bank manager. Gas falls to below a buck in many places in Canada, but not here.

In this week's so-called mini-budget, the government decided to go to the well again with another hit on drivers with higher gas taxes and insurance premiums. Then the finance minister in his best "cat that ate the canary face" denied Quebecers would be paying more in taxes.

Well there's about half a dozen measures that will cost you and I more, regardless of what they are called. In fact, one study says an average Quebec family will be paying an extra $1,300 in 2015 in non-taxes, and this is just the beginning wait until the real budget in the spring.

Now I'm all in favour of bringing some sanity to public finances in Quebec, but can the government please be honest and take a serious look at the real problem the huge over bloated Quebec bureaucracy and our nanny state obsession? It seems everyone praises the Quebec model, but no one follows it.

Peladeau throws his hat into the ring

So PKP is officially in the hunt for arguably the worst job in Canadian politics leader of the Parti Quebecois.

The MNA for Quebecor had his campaign launch this week, where once again he pledged to remove Quebec from those awful Canadian shackles. He actually had the nerve to say Quebec is not free.

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Postscript: Liberals should tackle the real issues