From the province of Quebec comes a proposal for - wait for it - a new tax. The province's coalition of mostly government-funded anti-obesity groups and health agencies, the Pounds Coalition, is urging Quebec's political leaders to adopt a tax on any soft drinks that contain sugar. The group wants to raise the price of a can of Coke by ten per cent, and they figure every penny of new tax will bring $8 million of revenue into Quebec's treasury.

Oddly enough, the health crusaders made no mention at all of taxing poutine, Quebec's national snack. One helping of poutine contains six times as many calories as a bottle of Coke, along with 70 grams of fat and 2,484 milligrams of sodium.

Of course, any Quebec politician who endorsed a special tax on poutine would soon find themselves constitionally barred from running for office - the same treatment PQ leader Pauline Marois is proposing for newcomers to La Belle Province who don't speak French well enough to satisfy Quebec's language police.