Alberta Diary: Post-Confederate Albertans in Ottawa, the PQ in Quebec: Can Canada afford a national leader with no national vision?

Prime Minister Stephen Harper takes note of Quebec’s aspirations. Alberta politicians may not be exactly as illustrated. Below: Mr. Harper exhibiting the post-Confederation Alberta zeitgeist (Calgary Herald photo); PQ Leader Pauline Marois. With the PQ back in power in Quebec City, no matter how tenuously, one prays Stephen Harper can

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Calgary Grit: Quebec Votes

Pauline Marois, perhaps Quebec’s first female Premier, tells a young girl that she too could one day run for office…assuming she speaks French, of course. The polls have closed across the Nation of Quebec. The campaign started as a truly unpredictable three-way race. It wasn’t hard to imagine a scenario

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Impolitical: "We want a country"

Who really thought the Quebec election would end up here? At a rally last night in Montreal, the separatists were unabashed and evidently feeling quite confident going into the weekend: “Not about changing government, about changing countries, says PQ leader Pauline Marois.” “I need a majority mandate to make Quebec

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Tattered Sleeve: The Cross is Boss: Marois 1, Frontwoodsers 0

As a proud fifth-generation anglo Québecker de souche, properly baptised by the Plymouth Trinity United Church of Sherbrooke, I must take a moment here to salute Parti-Québecois leader Pauline Marois for her bold statement pledging to keep my belle province the rightful Backwoods capital of North America.

Because here in Quebec, backwoods is where it’s at. And to underline that, Marois spent time on the campaign trail today defending her party’s proposal to secularize the province’s civil servants’ appearance, lest it offend the non-believers of whatever faith is projected by the bearer’s attire (sacred or not).

Unless, of course, the bearer’s faith happens to be Christianity (the “good”, or at least, “officially-sanctioned” faith, apparently).

Bravo, I say. I mean, I don’t know about you, but when I go down to the S.A.A.Q. to renew my driver’s license, the last thing I want to see is a fully-bilingual, smiling civil servant wearing a Scottish kilt. I don’t want to think about what’s behind that Sporran, thank you very much. There is nothing Catholic about the Scots, after all.

And it’s not just them, but those snooty Saudi-Arabian immigrant women – you know, the ones who aren’t even allowed to drive in their country of origin – but when they come here to pursue a better life pursuant to the United Nations declaration of Universal Human Rights, think they can go on following their Muslim faith and shit anyway. I mean, come on!

And I suppose there are other creeds with their ceremonial daggers and headscarves and other horrifyingly provocative faith-based attire. I just shudder to think. I mean, where did these Muslim people get the idea to have their women-folk cover up their hair with cloth anyway?

It’s just so …barbaric. I mean, really, how dare these carefully selected immigrants wear their headscarves and whatnot once they arrive here, just like they did their whole lives in their some-such places of origin? Why can’t they understand they can never become a true Québecois until they completely lay themselves down and take the holy ghost up the wazoo like the rest of us all did from the time ol’ Samuel de Champlain put his two fingers together in 1609 and whistled across the pond for La Vieille France to fork over a few hundred God-fearing Filles du Roi (yowza!).

Now that, my friends, was an inspired immigration policy. See, this is why it’s so important to wrest that from Ottawa. Oh, wait, I suppose that’s already happened. Shhh! Don’t tell them that until AFTER the election.

(ahem)

Seriously, any Péquiste with the slightest bit of self-respect – or respect for their visionary founder, Rene Levesque, and his strong sense of democracy – should be voting for either Solidarité Québec, or Option Québec. The PQ has gone so Backwoods, the only sound their pollsters will hear is the distinctive August buzz of mosquitoes and blackflies.

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Trashy's World: Sigh.

As much as I love elections, I cannot help but be annoyed when it comes time to hold one in la belle province… cuz language laws always shove their way to the forefront. Leader of the péquistes, Pauline Marois: The PQ leader expressed concerns that the English language was becoming

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Calgary Grit: Quebec Votes

Jean Charest has been around forever. He’s the longest serving Quebec Premier since Maurice Duplesis, and has been PLQ leader for over 14 years. Older Quebecers no doubt remember him from his role on the “Non” campaign in 1995, and his time as a curly haired Cabinet Minister in the

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