Category: La Belle Province

[It seems worth noting that this post took two days to write. I wanted to think about it first -Dennis]

I like Steve; really, I do. Everybody who comes by here knows that. But sometimes, just sometimes, he leaves me shaking my head, wondering “just what the [bleep] is he thinking??” This is one of those times.

As most of you already know already, HMPM Harper basically put Ping and Pong on either side of the third rail of Canadian politics yesterday when he rose in the Commons to take what could well be the biggest political risk that we have seen any politician gamble on since… well, I can’t think of when. Just what did he have to say that could be so risky? Well, amongst other things:

“Mr. Speaker, tomorrow the Bloc Quebecois will present the House with an unusual request that we here at the federal Parliament define the Quebecois nation.

“As a consequence, with the support of the government and with the support of our party, I will be putting on the Notice Paper later today the following motion:

“That this House recognize that the Quebecois form a nation within a united Canada.

“Once again, the leader of the Bloc and his separatist friends are not concerned with defining who Quebecers are but rather what they want them to become, a separate country.

“The separatists do not need the Parliament of Canada to define what is meant by the sociological termination. My preference has been well known. I believe that this is not the job of the federal Parliament. It is the job of the legislature of Quebec, but the Bloc Quebecois has asked us to define this and perhaps that is a good thing, because it reminds us that all Canadians have a say in the future of this country.

“Having been asked by the Bloc to define the Quebecois, we must take a position. Our position is clear. Do the Quebecois form a nation within Canada? The answer is yes. Do the Quebecois form an independent nation? The answer is no and the answer will always be no, because Quebecers of all political persuasions, from Cartier and Laurier to Mulroney and Trudeau, have led this country and millions like them of all political persuasions have helped to build it.

“With their English- and French-speaking fellow citizens and people drawn from all nationalities of this earth, they have been part of making this country what it is, the greatest country in the world.

“To millions more who live in a dangerous and dividing world, this country is a shining example of the harmony and unity to which all peoples are capable and to which all humanity should aspire.

“I say to my federalist colleagues and I also say to the separatist side that we here will do what we must, what our forefathers have always done to preserve this country, Canada, strong, united, independent and free.”

Call me whatever you like (and I’m sure some of you can think of plenty), but this whole idea gives me nebulous but implacable sense of unease. It’s like hearing the sound of a distant siren and finding yourself wondering, for no good reason, if your house is on fire.

Sound silly? Fine. It feels silly; but it still isn’t going away. That’s why I’m trying to take as much time as I can to try to digest this before shooting my mouth off, instead of just shooting from the lip as usual.

On the one hand, such a declaration smacks of capitulation to the PQ, Blocheads and the other motley assortments that would gladly rip my country apart. But if that’s so, then why is Gilles Duceppe in such a piss-up-a-rope mood over it? See what I mean:

The glum look on Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe’s red face was also worth the price of a Commons admission. His chance to boost Quebec resentment against the Liberals and put Harper in a deadly python squeeze over the Quebec nation question in the next election evaporated minutes after the prime minister started speaking.

Could it have anything to do with the fact that this won’t actually change anything, legally or constitutionally speaking? After taking a day to step back and get a good, long sniff of this, I’m more and more coming to the same conclusion that many other observers have already come to. The emerging consensus is that this is a move worthy of a master chessplayer. In one stroke, Harper has taken some wind out of the Bloc’s sails:

Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe says his party will vote in favour of the motion, which calls the Quebecois a nation within a united Canada.

…beaten the Librano$ to the punch:

The grim face of interim leader Bill Graham and sagging shoulders among Liberals even as they struggled to their feet to give Harper a standing ovation told the story of a party beaten to the punch and whacked in the head.

…and shown the Dippers to be incapable of taking a stand on just about anything:

NDP Leader Jack Layton said Wednesday his caucus would support both the Tory and BQ motions.

All in all, not a bad day. Some people have suggested one possibly huge fly in the ointment, however:

Good for a snicker, but not likely to happen. Yes, this may piss off a few people in the West but, with all three federalist parties on board, any protest vote has no place to go.

All in all, I still haven’t made up my mind about this yet. But at least I feel a little better about it than I did 48hrs ago. One thing is for certain: this is either a political master stroke worthy of some of history’s greats, or Ping and Pong are toast. There will be no middle ground on this one.

E minus 4 days and counting.

It continues. The Freeps — wisely, in my opinion — chose to water down CAP foghorn Will Arlow’s little suggestion, made to CCH students yesterday and Lizzie “forty whacks is fine if it’s not a tree” May got back into the fray by trying to hop on Meg Walker’s women’s issues hobbyhorse.

“The best place for a woman at the cabinet table is as prime minister,” May told a crowd of about 200 people, gathered by the group Women Our Votes Count, to prolonged applause.

Interesting line of thought for the leader of a party that’s never elected a single MP. 😕

Walker, meanwhile, was out courting the homeless vote. 🙄 No, I didn’t mistype that. She was out courting the homeless vote with er, ahem… ambiguous success:

“You can make a difference,” Walker told more than two dozen women during a lunch-hour stop at My Sisters’ Place, a drop-in centre for women who don’t have a home or are at risk of homelessness.

[…]

“The homeless don’t vote and politicians are not interested in us because we don’t,” one woman told Walker.

Whatever. You figure it out, I’m busy.

Meanwhile, London’s favourite sauropod, the Board of Control, is all miffed at Tory Dianne Haskett because she won’t fill out one of their little questionairres:

That “startled” Controller Gord Hume.

“I’m disappointed,” he said. “Any federal politician who has the opportunity to stand up and fight for their municipality is missing a great opportunity to understand our issues and commit to helping this city.”

[…]

Haskett, a former London mayor, said she doesn’t respond to questionnaires, preferring to answer questions “with my own voice.”

Hey, Gordy, let me ask ya something: Seeing as how all you bozos on the Bored (which Joe Swan vowed to get rid of, until he ran for it 🙄 ) are about as useful as a third boob on a dying nun anyway, just why the hell should anybody, let alone a candidate in the middle of a race, waste their time on one of your little paperwork dog and pony shows? The only ones Haskett owes any kind of answers to are the voters and I don’t know about you, but I’m having a hard time finding somebody that doesn’t know where Dianne stands on most issues.

Finally, my nomination for Grand Clanger du Campaign comes from none other than, you guessed it, Weird Willy Arlow again:

– Will Arlow of the Canadian Action Party wants north London to become “an airship terminus for the world.” He figures when fossil fuels run out in 50 to 70 years, only the very rich and the military will be able to afford travel by plane. The rest of us will travel by 300-kilometre-an-hour, lighter-than-air dirigibles. He wants London in on the ground floor by getting to work on the plan now. He says the project could tap expertise at the University of Western Ontario and lead to 6,500 new jobs.

Is it just me, or does anyone else suspect that ol’ Willy might be spending too much time outside without his tinfoil hat lately? 😆

Anyways… here’s today’s links:

The Freeps
Homelessness highlighted as growing national ‘crisis’
Campaign notebook
Students urged to use ‘bull detector’
May champions women’s issues
Haskett holdout miffs controllers

The Montreal Gazette
Two outsiders hope to join the opposition benches after Monday’s byelections

The Ottawa Sun
A vote for me is a vote tougher bail conditions, Haskett says

E minus 5 days and counting.

Hang in there. Just five more days. Must… keep… brain from… falling… out…

The scramble for votes in London North Centre is starting to look like a game of full-contact musical chairs. Even high school kids aren’t immune, it seems. Say what you want about the Canadian Action Party’s Will Arlow, but he sure seems to know how to talk to kids:

Another cynical note was struck by Will Arlow of the Canadian Action Party, who advised his listeners “Politicians lie their faces off to get elected.” He urged students to press into service their “bullshit detectors” when measuring promises.

-Willy to an audience of about 700 students at Catholic Central high school

Nice going, Willy; real classy. Even a trashmouth like me at least tries to watch his language around kids. About those detectors, Willy: I think you already fried ’em. 🙄

The great Talker To Americans, Rick Mercer, popped up — fully clothed, thank God — to “endorse” Tory Dianne Haskett on his blog. Hey, Rick; a little hint for ya: you’re only the kiss of death when you actually endorse somebody. But nice try, anyway. 😉

Green leader/candidate Liz May-or-may-not, on the other hand, took a break from the campaign to appoint Adriane Carr and Claude William Genest as deputy leaders to her party. At least she wasn’t banging on my door.

In an interesting bit of turnabout-is-fair-play, the Haskett crew has fired one across Pearson’s bow over his silence on just who he thinks should lead the Librano$ into their next electoral defeat. Kind of odd, considering:

“Why is Pearson afraid to share his leadership choice with the people of London?” taunts a news release issued yesterday by the Haskett campaign. Pearson’s sudden vow of silence is rather odd, however, given that earlier in the campaign, he readily acknowledged his candidate was Stephane Dion.

The televised all-candidates debate at the London City Press Club (broadcast on Rogers) somehow evolved into one hell of a game of Go Fish:

Conservative Dianne Haskett played the tough-on-crime card, Liberal Glen Pearson the we-can-make-Canadians-proud-again card, Green Party leader Elizabeth May the make-history-with-me card and New Democrat Megan Walker the we-can-stand-up-to-Stephen-Harper card.

Fringe candidates Will Arlow of the Canadian Action Party, Steve Hunter of the Progressive Canadian Party and independent Robert Ede played the we-deserve-a- chance card, arguing all major parties are doing a poor job.

And when the hell did Stronach become a brunette, anyway? 😕

The Freeps
Debate draws best cards
CCH students get their fill of political baloney
New-look Belinda boosts Pearson
Campaign notebook

Catholic World News
cat got your tongue?

E minus 6 days and counting.

The election machine grinds along in London North Centre and Repentigny. After what seems a long and distinguished absence from the Repentigny race, BQ leader has finally popped out of his hole. Legend has it that, if he sees his shadow, we will have six more years of grumblymooching before the next referendum.

Back in London, Freeps columnist Rory the Tory Leishman sounded off today with 7 damned good reasons why Haskett isn’t just the best choice in the riding; if you think about it, she’s the only choice in the riding. Meanwhile, Haskett herself stuck a pin in the “she’s a religious fanatic” baloon by being the only one of seven candidates to decline to answer a series of morality-based questions from the Christian group Citizen Impact London. As Jack Baribeau, president of Citizen Impact, put it:

Baribeau said he engaged in “a little bit of arm-twisting,” but it did no good.

“Dianne has never done things in an orthodox way . . . I had to respect her approach.”

So much for the canard of Haskett being some sort of blindly obedient zealot. 🙄

The Librano$’ Barbie Girl also slid through town, stopping long enough to stump for Grit Glen Pearson, but couldn’t even seem to impress the hopeless Lefties of Richmond Row:

“So they come in here and the photographers climb on chairs. Whoop-de-doo. I’ve got friends who support the Green Party, so if I did vote, I’d probably vote Green anyway.”

She also served as one helluva handy reminder of just who it is that really is the candidate to beat in this race:

Stronach didn’t dodge any questions, using most as a launching pad to attack the Conservative government led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Time for the links:

The Ministry of What You Should Think
Duceppe defends priest candidate in Repentigny byelection

The Freeps
Haskett only choice in London byelection
Haskett refuses group’s queries
Stronach stumps on behalf of Glen Pearson

E minus 7 days and counting.

Well, this makes for an interesting, if hardly surprising, turn in the London North Centre race: it seems that longtime NDP bedbuddy, the CAW, won’t be getting in line behind Dipper Megan Walker after all. Yup, the biggest union in the city is hopping on the Librano$’ Glen Pearson’s bandwagon. This really shouldn’t come as any kind of surprise to anybody though, considering that it’s been obvious for a while that the unions, one by one, are writing off Smirkin’ Jack! and Co. as a lost cause.

Two reasons can be speculated for this: 1) the Dippers, while they may have their roots in down-to-earth types such as Joe Lunchbox and Farmer Bob, have been abandoning that base for years as they shift more and more to the elitist Looney Left and 2) unions have jumped on the “Anybody But Harper” boogeyman bandwagon and have come to the conclusion that Grits have a better chance of winning than Dippers and have chosen to go with a “strategic voting” strategy accordingly.

Isn’t it interesting, though, that in spite of all the hairballs hacked up by the MSM about Haskett being “too far to the Right” to win, every other campaign seems to be targeting her like she’s the candidate to beat (which she is, of course 😉 )…

Meanwhile, in Repentigny, Raymond Gravel seems to have gotten the hang of politics; he’s learned how to waffle.

Read more in the links du jour:

The Freeps
Blog furor drags byelection battle into gutter
CAW local plans to back Pearson
Still chance to sway voters
Campaign notebook

Canada.com
Bloc candidate vows to abstain on issues contrary to Catholic ideology

E minus 8 days and counting.

Moving into the home stretch now, ladies and gents. With the byelections in London North Centre and Repentigny barely more than a week away now, we can finally start to think that we can see the light at the end of the tunnel and not worry so much that it might just be the lamp on an oncoming choochoo.

And now, on to the links:

Da Freeps
Down the stretch they come

CTV
London, Ont. an important political test market

Ottawa Citizen
Front-runners in Ont. byelection fight for left-wing votes