Before the momentous May 2 election catapulted the NDP party into the role of Official Opposition when they knocked out the Bloc and won 59 of Quebec’s 75 seats, Jack Layton was quizzed on the party’s policies with regard to Quebec independence, and th…
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Accidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week.- thwap is among a few bloggers to rightly slam the Cons’ obscene message to flooded Quebeckers that the only way they can hope for help is if somebody stands to profit from it:Toews (is) justifying removing Canadian F…
Continue readingThe Happy Wanderer: NDP On Quebec
The NDP leader Jack Layton said that Quebec would just need 50% +1 to be it’s own country. That is just crazy. You can’t just destroy and split up a country with a simple majority. I would not accept if just 50% +1 of Quebec wants to be it’s own countr…
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Separatism angels dancing on the point of Jack’s needle …
What a short honeymoon!
Having romped home with 59 of Quebec’s 75 seats in the House, Jack Layton has fumbled his first attempt to reconcile the soft nationalist / sovereignist / independence leanings of many of his Quebec MPs in the NDP caucus.
For …
CuriosityCat: Separatism redux, courtesy of Jack Layton’s NDP
Separatism Redux
The centre of gravity of the NDP has shifted to the two largest provinces – Ontario and Quebec. In a sense, having ousted the Bloc Quebecois from power in Ottawa, the NDP under Jack Layton and Thomas Mulcair has also done a bit of …
Impolitical: Not clear enough, Jack
Don’t mess with the hard-fought clarity rules on secession, please: New Democratic Party Leader Jack Layton found himself embroiled in the riptides of Quebec constitutional politics Tuesday after he avoided publicly reaffirming his own party’s positi…
Continue readingArt Threat: St-Henri, the 26th of August – Documentary offers a cinematic look at a vibrant Montreal neighbourhood
Shannon Walsh’s feature documentary À St-Henri le 26 août (known in English as St-Henri, the 26th of August) takes the viewer on a visceral and honest journey through the bilingual, working-class neighbourhood St-Henri in Montreal. The film follows a day in the life of about a dozen diverse residents as they navigate the neighbourhood, each […]
Continue readingThey Call Me "Mr. Sinister": If You Take Quebec Out Of The Mix…
It is a phrase I am hearing Conservative pundits,using more and more, most recently on Power and Politics a few minutes ago (Joan Crocker insists that without Quebec, Canadians were evenly split on Iraq). It is an inane stance, since Quebec is a part o…
Continue readinggay persons of color: Participate: 2011 Queer of the Year Contest
For some light-hearted fun with serious prizes to be won, consider entering the 2011 Queer of the Year Contest, an annual international competition open to anyone in the world, of all genders and sexual orientations, who has personality, talent, a heal…
Continue readingRight of Center Ice: The Candidate
Like dipping a single toe into the lake from the dock before jumping in, Ruth-Ellen Brosseau robocalled her constituents yesterday. It was the first thing she has done to earn their trust as their MP since filling out (in whole or part) of her nomination papers. For many on Pro
Continue readingThe Equivocator: Ceci n’est pas un député.
I have no problem with Ruth Ellen Brosseau, she is probably very nice. However, I strongly dislike almost everything she represents. The argument that the NDP have been using to defend their accidental MP is that “she will just work … Continue reading →
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: The Landslide Election Victory That Isn’t
I initially had a vague plan for this post but have decided to go with whatever comes to mind to create an election commentary medley of sorts. Actually, it more resembles a rather large balloon filled with statistics and cynicism and it keeps growing! The Conservatives have won a majority government and this ensures their […]
Continue readingFirst-past-the-post creates a conservative English Canada vs. a progressive Quebec
The NDP scored a number of firsts for itself in the 2011 election: the first time with seats in the triple digits, the first time as Official Opposition, the first time with strength in Quebec, and so on.
This is also the first time it has beaten the …
Continue readingPample the Moose: Quebec NDP: The Kids [Could Be] All Right
Monday was an exciting night for Quebec university NDP clubs, as a number of members of their executives were elected to the House of Commons, amidst a wave that elected NDP members in almost 80% of Quebec’s ridings (on the strength of about 43% of the…
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: A progressive paradox for Québec and Canada
The mood in the progressive milieu here in Québec seems rather grim this morning. In Québec history we call the twenty year period when anti-union, right wing populist Duplessis ruled, the “Era of the Great Darkness”, and many by email or on social media have spontaneously referred to the upcoming period in an analogous way. […]
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: BQ Demise- Not Good
We have a lost a lot with the demise of the Bloc Quebecois as a significant presence in Parliament. Social policy in Quebec has been more progressive than elsewhere in Canada for a long time. This is particularly important for policy related to women’s rights, including labour and social policy that allow women’s full participation […]
Continue readingPolygonic: Québec’s NDP revolution: the new normal, or a BQ holiday?
Québec doesn’t do things by halves, does it? Some of us have begged and implored the NDP to focus its energies on Québec: to play to its social democratic credentials, and to take the Bloc to task as arrogant, single-minded, comfortable and lazy, and prone to taking its voters for granted. The idea being that […]
Continue readingThe Adventures of Diva Rachel: Jack bumps Gilles: Duceppe may lose seat?
I have trouble believe this one.Gilles Duceppe in a fight for even his own riding.Duceppe’s campaign volunteers are of uncertain minds when asked how they think Monday’s result will go.Michel Chapdelaine was more blunt. He seems to think the Bloc w…
Continue readingPample the Moose: NDP in Quebec: Who are these prospective MPs?
With all the excitement/panic/drama surrounding the apparent NDP wave in Quebec, it’s fair to wonder who might suddenly become the new crop of MPs from Quebec if polling data translates into seats in the House of Commons. I, for one, am very curious. Here in Guelph, the NDP ran fourth in the 2008 election, and even today, a week before the election, there is still no candidate bio on the website for the local candidate, Bobbi Stewart. I have no idea from the website who she is, other than the election preparedness chair for the local riding association.If that’s the case in Ontario, it’s no surprise that speculation is rampant about the Quebec crop of candidates for the party. The Globe and Mail has started digging, and has turned up at least a handful of university students. I’m not surprised at all. When I volunteered for the local NDP candidate in Outremont in the 2004 election, I was rather surprised to discover that the entire provincial campaign was being run out of a single office on St. Laurent Blvd, and that most of the candidates for the province were in fact the campaign management team, based almost entirely out of Montreal, many of them university students, and most of them under thirty years of age. A quick glance through the list of candidates seems to indicate that this is again the case in at least a sizeable number of ridings.As a person who genuinely would love to see the NDP replace the Bloc as the choice of Quebec voters, I’m hoping that some of the blue seats in that province will turn orange, and that the newly elected MPs will do a good job. It’s just that nagging memory of the ADQ surge to become the official opposition in Quebec in 2007 that has me a little concerned of what could happen when a series of placeholder candidates suddenly become MPs. Let’s just say that I’m hopeful, yet concerned…
Continue readingParliamANT Hill: This Election Comes Down to a Choice (Cartoon of the Day)
Inspired by this story: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/second-reading/brian-topp/this-election-comes-down-to-a-choice/article1997456/
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