Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Parizeau's Party

The Tories are targeting ethnic voters and the Bloc...well...aren't:

Speaking to about 200 students at the University of Montreal, Mr. Duceppe blasted the "Canadian ideology of multiculturalism" and accused the federal government of failing to protect the French language in Quebec. Over all, Mr. Duceppe said, the other federal parties "are Canadian" and not up to the job when it comes to defending Quebec culture.

"The difference is that the Bloc is a party that is truly from Quebec, only from Quebec, totally from Quebec," Mr. Duceppe said.


Is there anything more useless in Canadian politics right now than the Bloc Quebecois? Seriously. This party totally needs to just go away...even if it means the Tories picking up a bushel of seats in Quebec.

Labels:

posted by calgarygrit at 2:22 p.m.

19 Comments:

  • AMEN!

    By Blogger Robert Vollman, at 2:42 p.m.  

  • Well I agree to an extent with you Dan. If people didn't already realize that there's a discriminatory current to the sovereignty movement here you have it. But the Conservatives and the soft-nationalist/autonomists that they are running against to face the Bloc Quebecois haven't proven any different.

    By Blogger Dan McKenzie, at 3:21 p.m.  

  • WOW, a calgarygrit endorsing the CPC?

    By Blogger Unknown, at 3:27 p.m.  

  • Oh, that'd be so sweet... *drool*

    By Blogger The Fwanksta, at 3:47 p.m.  

  • art - Well, ideally it would be better if the seats went to the Liberals...or the NDP...or the Greens...or the Marijuana Party...

    But the Bloc are such a ridiculous entity that it would be better for democracy to have the 3 federalist parties fighting over seats in Quebec, then have the Bloc walk off with their 40 or 50 seats.

    By Blogger calgarygrit, at 5:43 p.m.  

  • Oh, I don't know. As long as they're not taking a whole LOT of Quebec seats, they're pretty harmless, and they are doing a pretty good job at preventing a Harper "majority."

    By Blogger Idealistic Pragmatist, at 6:00 p.m.  

  • This is the first step to converting Calgary Grit....

    it seems my Tory-ray is working.

    now, the rest of you, step into the light...

    By Blogger Tarkwell Robotico, at 8:51 p.m.  

  • If I remember correctly (and someone please tell me if I don't), I think Lucien Bouchard promised that the Bloc would only be around a couple elections or so. We've had five (1993, 1997, 2000, 2004, and 2006) elections with the Bloc's participation. If I'm correct about Bouchard's promise, I think it is about time the Bloc lived up to its founder's promise.

    To idealistic pragmatist - I'm a Tory so feel free to take my opinion as a self-serving one, but you should remember that any seats the Bloc does take are unavailable to not just the Tories, but to all the other parties, including the Liberals. I agree that if the Bloc doesn't take too many seats it's relatively harmless, but as long as it exists there's no guarantee it will take only a few seats. Democracy is kind of unpredictable that way.

    By Blogger Brian in Calgary, at 8:55 p.m.  

  • The BQ is useless, in 1993 they were supposed to provide a federal delegation to unify and represent souverainistes in the event of a 1995 yes vote, not to become a permanent on the Canadian federal political stage, supporting, and being supported by, the very system they claim is wrong.

    By Blogger Borges, at 9:10 p.m.  

  • Totally agree, man. Enough is enough, they're last decade's news, time to nail that coffin shut.

    Dan McK: I'm often struck by how many people don't think there's any discriminatory angle to the separatists. I sure believe there is.

    By Blogger Jacques Beau Vert, at 9:11 p.m.  

  • I dislike the Bloc. A lot. I would never vote for it. I think a Québec secessionist party has no business on the federal scene.

    But, then again... as long as people keep voting for them, what can we do about it? If federalist parties are unable to propose a program that will satisfy Québec sovereignists, what are the sovereignists, a pretty important group of people, supposed to do?

    I'd also like to say that even though I am not a separatist, wanting Québec to be a country is a perfectly legitimate idea. Defending a Québec state is nationalist, of course... but so is defending the Canadian state. Wanting to make a country out of Québec is no more discriminating or racist than wanting to keep Canada intact as one "national" entity.

    By Blogger jeagag, at 9:24 p.m.  

  • brian in calgary,

    I'm a Tory so feel free to take my opinion as a self-serving one, but you should remember that any seats the Bloc does take are unavailable to not just the Tories, but to all the other parties, including the Liberals.

    Well, as a New Democrat, the Liberals' fortunes in Quebec are of little concern to me. But my point is that it's the existence of the Bloc that's screwing with the normal functioning of the first-past-the-post voting system that Calgary Grit loves so much and preventing Harper from getting his majority. If the Bloc disappears, this changes. Even if a lot of their seats go to the Liberals and/or the NDP.

    Have a look at the link I left in the last comment--it's all there (with colourful graphs, even!).

    By Blogger Idealistic Pragmatist, at 9:33 p.m.  

  • Though the NDP is the mysterious party the media neglected to mention in its stories about the Liberals losing Outremont.

    By Blogger leonsp, at 9:42 p.m.  

  • "wanting Québec to be a country is a perfectly legitimate idea."

    only if we agree that legitimate and stupid are not mutually exclusive descriptions.

    By Blogger Tarkwell Robotico, at 9:52 p.m.  

  • Wanting to make a country out of Québec is no more discriminating or racist than wanting to keep Canada intact as one "national" entity.

    Very true jeagag, but the issue is that the separatist movement is not, at it's heart, just about the province of Quebec as a nation. It is very much about a French, WHITE, nation. Separatists will try to thinly disguise this, but it's always there.

    By Blogger Toby, at 9:08 a.m.  

  • toby - while some Québec separatists are clearly racist, I don't think the rate is much higher than in the rest of the population. I don't think it's a particularly racist movement by nature, in fact I think that's misunderstanding what the movement stands for. There are two openly separatist parties in Québec, the PQ and Québec Solidaire. The latter is the most "inclusive" of all Québec parties, much more than even the Liberal Party. Its first candidate was a lesbian, and one of their two leaders is Amir Khadir, an Iranian immigrant (a very interesting one, I might add - I asked for an interview a few years back and he invited me for breakfast at his home). The PQ is not a particularly racist party either - they're super glad to welcome maghrebin, lebanes, haitian, senegalese and otherwise French immigrants. Sure, it discriminates, quite evidently, in favour of French immigrants, but not white.

    The sovereignist is not a racially exclusive movement. If I had to slip myself into the skin of a typical separatist, I'd think that Québec has a distinct culture, based mostly on language. It has always and always will have different goals than the rest of Canada, especially since its weight in the federation has been steadily decreasing over Canada's entire history, and as such it would be better for Québec to gain independance from the ROC. Québec needs immigrants, for sure, and it'd be amazing if they were French, they'd be better at integrating Québec society. The problem separatists have is not with blacks or arabs, but with the Canadian federation. It's very different. For the average separatist, Québec sees the ROC as Canada sees the United States. That's all.

    The main "racist", or immigration-questioning movement in Québec does not support the PQ, but the ADQ. Sure, there are some fringe racist movements in the sovereignist movement, but they are really, really small and unimportant.

    By Blogger jeagag, at 12:51 p.m.  

  • Yves Michaud is a fringe PQ activist?

    By Blogger Tarkwell Robotico, at 4:34 p.m.  

  • Yves Michaud is a very intelligent man with a very strong nationalism - I don't see the PQ agreeing with his most radical statements. I'm sure Stephen Harper would be glad to have Don Cherry within his team, that doesn't make the CPC a racist party.

    I always find it odd trying to defend the sovereignist movement when dealing with the ROC. It's not very natural for me :).

    By Blogger jeagag, at 9:26 p.m.  

  • I agree Grit. I would prefer any of the three main parties to the Bloc. I do believe, the writing is on the wall for the Bloc, and in the next general election, I would expect their islands of support to shrink. There will always be a hardcore vote to support them, but their days of holding forty seats is over.

    By Blogger NorthBayTrapper, at 11:05 p.m.  

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