You can argue about the winners all day, but it sure is nice to see Gilles Duceppe have his ass handed to him, even if it's Stephen Harper doing the handing.
The Bloc Quebecois
has just announced they will be voting in favor Harper's motion re Quebec as a nation within Canada.
6 comments:
He didn't have his handed to him BCL, he got a nice victory. The only difference between his motion and Harper's motion is "in a united Canada." Realistically, that's a meaningless difference. What he wanted was recognition as a nation. Not only is that what he's getting, but he's getting all the parties voting in favour of recognizing it. It's a great day for Gilles.
And recognition as a nation means what? Legally, nothing! And Harper's version is even more vacuuous than Duceppe's. Yes of course the seperatists will want more, but for now they get nothing (but a fancy Xmas card from parliament). And whether they get more may hinge on who the Liberals pick as tehir leader. If you don't want to careen down the slippery slope, then: DON'T...PICK...IGGY! He's too stupid to handle the delicate politics of the days ahead of us.
We should be careful of two things going forward.
Harper thinks his use of the word "Qubebecois" instead of Quebec (the province) is a wonderful face saver. However, the Bloc, Charest, Ignatieff supporters, Ignatieff himself (on a good day), and most mainstream media, are blurring the words Quebec and Quebecois. By this time next week, people with think that all parties in Parliament passed a motion recognising the province of Quebec as a nation.
Secondly, even if words lack legal effect, they pack a powerful emotional punch. Put yourself in the position of a Quebecker: would you like to be patronized by having say to you that you belong to a nation but this is purely symbolic and has not legal effect? Would you feel wanted? Loved? Respected? Or perhaps just a little bit used ...?
Ignatieff and Harper do not understand that Quebeckers know words. Ignatieff recently confessed to having problems with the meaning of words, and it shows in his ridiculous and dangerous russian roulette playing with the nation notion motion. Harper, on the other hand, uses words more sparingly, and states his qualifications in a soft voice, putting the caveats on record but hoping nobody pays attention to them but focus on his main statement instead. With Harper the fine print is always very fine. With Ignatieff, he has never grasped what fine print means, but uses capitals all the time.
The Harper motion is really offensive to Quebeckers.
Yeah, I've got to say, for the first time in HISTORY a Prime Minister of Canada has stated in the House of Commons that the Quebecois are a nation, and now the Parliament of Canada will vote OVERWHELMINGLY in favour of a resolution that 6 months ago would have been a pipe dream (and I mean a CRACK pipe) for the BQ.
I certainly don't think Ducceppe had his ass handed to him. I think he looked around, realized people were trip[ping over themselves to help him achieve his goal of national recognition, and that he had managed to get the Parliament of Canada to do more in recognizing Quebec's nationalist ambitions then, arguably, anyone EVER has. So, he
decided to kick up his feet and dance in celebration with everyone else.
It wasn't so long ago that the country was almost torn apart because a Prime Minister wanted to (in a completely legally meaningless preamble) refer to Quebec as a "distinct society". Now Parliament's going to vote (OVERWHELMINGLY!) to recognize the Quebecoise nation. If you told Ducceppe a year ago that he could get this resolution through Parliament with wide, even enthusiastic all-party support, he would have slapped you. Hell, he would have laughed at the suggestion of even offering the motion to stir up trouble.
People act like Ducceppe's decision to vote with everyone else is some big capitulation. I think Duceppe is getting more than he ever could have hoped for previously. He never thought his original resolution had a hope in Hell. If he'd thought he could have gotten this new resolution through Parliament he would have tried long ago. I don't think, in 2005, this new resolution would have had a snowball's chance. Ducceppe's gone from trying to divide the Liberals with a motion that couldn't possibly pass, to actually PASSING almost the exact same motion with broad enthusiastic support. I think it's Christmas Day and New Year's all rolled into one.
Mostly, I think Ducceppe simply couldn't refuse taking "yes" for an answer.
We're days away from "You've acknowledged our nationhood, overwhelmingly, now start treating us as such you duplicitous hypocrits". Plus, Aboriginal Canadians are just THRILLED that Parliament is going to acknowledge the nationhood of the Quebecois, without so much as a "by your leave" to the Cree, or the Iroquois, or the Haida....
I'm not as doom and gloom as Coyne, but I think this'll get a lot worse before it gets better. I guess, as a nation(s?), we just have to go through this every decade or so. Hold on tight everyone.
I'm sorry, but I disagree. Gilles Duceppe was on Quebec radio telling his would-be nation of Quebecois that this is the FIRST step of the long term plan to get more power and re-negotiate with the Rest Of Canada from "nation" to "nation", as equals.
Step 1: this Nation motion.
Step 2: ?
...
Step 5: referendum.
We could argue about this all day, but I'll just say one thing. You don't turn the shade of red Duceppe did when Harper announced his motion if you think things are working out as planned. You turn that shade of red when you're having heart problems.
Duceppe lost.
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