Lawrence Martin provides a good review of the bad news that the separatists in Quebec have been receiving over the last few months. Let's hope it continues.
...An ugly winter, one of the worst seasons the separatists have seen, has sent each of their parties, the Bloc Québécois and the Parti Québécois, from high standing to lower ground.For starters, the scandal that was their bread and butter is history. The defeat of the Liberals erased it. This is post-Gomery Quebec. There is no big-time separatist grievance left. The so-called fiscal imbalance? It won't cut it.
On top of this development came the surprise rise of the Conservatives. A few months ago, they were next to invisible in the province. Overnight, they've become a force. The Bloc had a lock. No longer. The Conservatives, most every pollster agrees, have the potential to cut deeply into the Bloc's dominance in the next election.
In tandem with the Tory surge comes a lift for Jean Charest. Before the election, the PQ was a big favourite to win the province and call another referendum. But Stephen Harper's victory stirs the hopes of Mr. Charest, who is now doing better in the polls. A former Conservative himself, he is a nice fit for the new government in Ottawa. Quebeckers envisage dividends via a Charest-Harper alliance.
These developments were sobering enough for the secessionists. But their season of discontent wasn't over. There was the birth last month of a new political party to challenge the Péquistes. The creation of Quebec Solidaire is not something to be lightly dismissed. It is a party that supports a sovereign Quebec but distinguishes itself from the more modern and moderate PQ with a heavily activist platform -- social justice, pacifism, feminism, environmentalism -- all the isms in the leftist playbook.
Comments (6)
Ya, Martin makes it sound like Charest and Harper can deliver on those expectations (which give the high expectations is virtually impossible). Watch for them to rag the puck until after the elections and hope voters buy it.
Posted by Greg | March 9, 2006 12:21 PM
Posted on March 9, 2006 12:21
Apparently Socialist Greg doesn’t care for Harper. That’s the rumour, anyway. I think the turtlenecks may have driven SG over the edge.
Posted by Occam's Carbuncle | March 9, 2006 12:51 PM
Posted on March 9, 2006 12:51
I think it’s his hair more than anything OC. :p
Posted by Greg | March 9, 2006 1:54 PM
Posted on March 9, 2006 13:54
In that case I understand. The Ken doll thing is disturbing.
Posted by Occam's Carbuncle | March 9, 2006 2:07 PM
Posted on March 9, 2006 14:07
If Quebec Solidaire was sans le separatism its platform sounds like the NDP. It certainly sounds very “progressive”.
Boy am I ever glad Conservatives were able to drop “Progressive”, every time I hear the word I think of payroll withholding taxes.
Posted by nomdenet | March 9, 2006 2:19 PM
Posted on March 9, 2006 14:19
It’s fascinating change a couple of years makes. Not so long ago, the Liberals threatened that a vote for Conservative is a vote for Québéc separatists. Since our last election, the Liberal hoax is laid bare. As recent as last autumn; I couldn’t envision a Conservative foot hold in Quebec, and the corresponding fall of the Bloc Québécois! On top of that, Mr. Harper was ridiculed by much of the press (including Andrew Coyne— a favorite of mine) for his version of a new federalism, in the earlier part of 2005. Yet Mr. Harper’s approach appears to heal the festering wound the liberal party has inflicted on our nation’s moral.
Posted by Lunenburg Guy | March 10, 2006 5:48 AM
Posted on March 10, 2006 05:48