UPDATE QUEBEC: One man was killed and another injured in a shooting outside a victory celebration for Pauline Marois, the Associated Press is reporting. Ms. Marois, leader of Parti Quebecois, was not injured. Police arrested a 62-year-old businessman, who will be charged today.
The MSM is definitely irrelevant!
They held an election in Quebec this week, and the Parti Quebecois won with 33 percent of the vote, enough to form a coalition government and run the province. The only reason I know all this is because of a post and a thread of comments on Clarissa’s Blog. Blogging beats MSM, again.
Pauline Marois. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Seems to me the Quebec election ought to be newsworthy in America, if only because the Parti Quebecois allegedly advocates separation of Quebec from the rest of Canada. Possibly many U.S. citizens would need a map to find Quebec, or even Canada. Hint: Canada spans the continent from Atlantic to Pacific, directly north of the U.S.
Hard for me to say how serious Parti Quebecois is about separation, since the myopic U.S. media totally ignored the election. The consensus appears to be: It ain’t going to happen. Howsoever, the French-Canadian party apparently has some interesting positions, not limited to preservation of the French language. Their platform makes many Canadians downright distraught.
The Parti Quebecois is led by Pauline Marois. I’d never heard of her, but I get most of my news via U.S. cable news channels.
I’ve always been interested in all things Canadian. My grandfather was French-Canadian. He could speak both English and French fluently, but he couldn’t read or write. But that’s another story.
Parti Quebecois has been around for a long time. Its separatist views used to be peculiar among major nations, back when the world political and economic situation was more stable.
Nowadays, I’m inclined to take political independence movements more seriously. After all, the Soviet Union broke up into pieces. And look what happened to Yugoslavia!
Crazy Texans talk periodically about seceding from the U.S. (You have to hope they’re crazy.) There is, after all, precedent for secession. “Precedent” is a fancy way of saying, “It’s happened before.” It was unpleasant and very bloody.
Lately, the European Union is looking wobbly. This whole notion of unions, federations, and nation-states bears closer inspection, I think.
— John Hayden
Canadian Flag in Quebec City (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Québec Province in Canada.(Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Related articles
- Parti Quebecois wins minority in Quebec election (ctvnews.ca)
- Parti Québécois wins Quebec election (thestar.com)
- One killed in Quebec speech shooting (english.ruvr.ru)
- Separatist Party Wins Quebec Elections (nytimes.com)
- PQ (Parti Quebecois) returns to power in Quebec (democraticunderground.com)
- Security incident mars win for Quebec separatists (dailystar.com.lb)
Living Simply And Still On The Grid 
The governing of Canada, by politicians, began to slide, in the 80’s, when it started to treat government like a business, instead of a government. These politicians still are interested in the business elite, and the “bottom line”, topped with the blend of power that only governments command. There was arrogance in the words of Jean Charest’s attempt to legislate that: any protest (to government changes) required a limited notice (i.e. 48 hours) to their government, along with a map of the protest route. Anything not submitted, or approved, was deemed as illegal, and therefore justifiable, if the police introduced their hardware into the equation. This left a strong emphasis on the “proverbial nanny” proscribing anyone protesting political legislation, that they would be discredited, and criminalized.
Quebec students were having none of it! They were also protecting the last bastion of decent tuition fee for the reciprosity of a post secondary degree; this a must (by the way) in today’s competion for the decently paid job or career. The rest of us lost that battle, with our own related provincial governments – so why are we trying to drag anyone else down into the bucket? I think in trying to rule with an iron fist, this politician (now retiring) forgot that most of these students are also voters. If they didn’t nail him at this election, how many more rights would have been eroded, by the next time around?
As for separatism – let’s see what she’s made of? Isn’t it interesting that when we really screw it up badly in politics (Canada’s that is), that the voters elect a female head of state – to clean up the mess. This will make it 3 provinces, and I also think 1 territory. Hopefully Marois will not forget that Innuvik exists, which anything north of Lower Canada. They too have their own thoughts about life in politics.
If it isn’t obvious, I’m cheering for the students!
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Thanks for your help in better understanding Canadian politics. Fascinating stuff. I’ve always thought Canada was more politically advanced than the U.S., because Canada has universal health care. Among all the industrialized countries of the world, U.S. voters are the only ones who seem to have a problem with health care.
Arrogance is one vice that governments everywhere would do well to give up. I’m cheering for the students, as well.
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