Canada (Quebec): 3 PQ MNAs quit over Quebec City arena financing bill

[RogueBeaver]

http://www.cyberpresse.ca/actualites/quebec-canada/politique-quebecoise/201106/06/01-4406449-trois-deputes-claquent-la-porte-du-pq.php?utm_categorieinterne=trafficdrivers&utm_contenuinterne=cyberpresse_B4_manchettes_231_accueil_POS1 


The sh**t just hit the fan for Mme Marois. Biggest names in her caucus quit over something this idiotic. Should've let it be a free vote rather than a 3-line whip purely for whipping up support in Quebec City. Plus Khadir is using obscure rules to filibuster... a cluster all around.

[Hash]

Good on them. It's ridiculous that this stupid arena should be financed by the provincial government/provincial taxpayers. More proof of how ridiculously idiotic this country is.

[MaxQue]

Good to see than I'm not the only one to have a problem with Bill 204 and with PQ's behaviour in that subject.

I'm not eager to see next election, I have really no clue how I'll vote. For now, I lean QS, because he is not a sell-out to Quebec City mayor, at least.

[RogueBeaver]

The crisis deepens: a fourth quitter and a fifth racing to resign before being expelled from caucus. This time explicitly calling for Marois' resignation.

http://www.ledevoir.com/politique/quebec/324946/ou-s-arretera-l-hemorragie

My opinion is very different than most of the militantes posting on the Le Devoir comments section: this is self-interested opportunism for those who are quitting because of Marois' leadership style. She's been leader for 4 years with multiple leadership reviews, the last a 93% score, and she fought a close election 3 years ago. With all those opportunities no one raised a peep about it. There is a third option: just absent yourself from the AN for the vote! Grow up and say you're contesting the next leadership review if her leadership is an issue.

Also, LOL at the LD commenters who thought Duceppe should lead the PQ. Do they think he'd put up with these stunts any more than Marois did?

[Hatman 🍁]

I fully support $$$ being used to build an arena. Quebec City needs their hockey team back.

Good on them. It's ridiculous that this stupid arena should be financed by the provincial government/provincial taxpayers. More proof of how ridiculously idiotic this country is.

*rolls eyes*

[2952-0-0]

I fully support $$$ being used to build an arena. Quebec City needs their hockey team back.

Good on them. It's ridiculous that this stupid arena should be financed by the provincial government/provincial taxpayers. More proof of how ridiculously idiotic this country is.

*rolls eyes*

But is it really worth enacting a law specifically shielding this sketchy financing deal from judicial oversight? Especially when the arena has been slammed as a political football for about a year now? There are a hundred better ways to spend tax dollars than subsidising a for-profit arena and multimillionaire hockey players in order to win a few seats in the next election. As a NDP partisan, you should know that.

[Hatman 🍁]

I fully support $$$ being used to build an arena. Quebec City needs their hockey team back.

Good on them. It's ridiculous that this stupid arena should be financed by the provincial government/provincial taxpayers. More proof of how ridiculously idiotic this country is.

*rolls eyes*

But is it really worth enacting a law specifically shielding this sketchy financing deal from judicial oversight? Especially when the arena has been slammed as a political football for about a year now? There are a hundred better ways to spend tax dollars than subsidising a for-profit arena and multimillionaire hockey players in order to win a few seats in the next election. As a NDP partisan, you should know that.

Well, I support the principle of helping to fund this arena in particular.  I don't support any  "law specifically shielding this sketchy financing deal from judicial oversight", obviously.  But, I hadn't heard about this.

Now, I realize I probably don't agree with the NDP on this issue, because leftists are usually anti-development.  This is not a view I share with leftists (depending on the development of course). I do know that a hockey team will be great for the Quebec City economy, and that's good. Hockey players shouldn't be earning millions of dollars, but that's a different thing.

Can the money be better spent elsewhere? I suppose, but it's really not that much in the scheme of things.

[danny]

Hockey players shouldn't be earning millions of dollars, but that's a different thing.

Why shouldn't they? If people are spending millions to see them what is wrong with the players earning that money? Would it be better if they didn't make millions and then the owners made even more millions than they already do instead?

[MaxQue]

I agree with Earl, on that one.

I support building that arena, that should be good for the economy, but that law is too much.
I don't like Quebecor (Sun Media, for our English friends) having even more power in Quebec. They already have too much.

[Hatman 🍁]

I agree with Earl, on that one.

I support building that arena, that should be good for the economy, but that law is too much.
I don't like Quebecor (Sun Media, for our English friends) having even more power in Quebec. They already have too much.

Indeed, I hate Sun Media. But, I really want Quebec City to have a hockey team, so I am willing to let it slide. It's not like I would like very many NHL owners, any ways.  As far as I know, there are no left wing billionaires in this country. (I once did a survey of CEOs that asked who they were going to vote for, and not one said NDP, and very few even said Liberal)

Hockey players shouldn't be earning millions of dollars, but that's a different thing.

Why shouldn't they? If people are spending millions to see them what is wrong with the players earning that money? Would it be better if they didn't make millions and then the owners made even more millions than they already do instead?

No one deserves that much money. Hockey players in the 50s and 60s were so poor, they needed summer jobs. They do work very hard mind you, but none of them deserve more than $200,000.

As for the owners, well they don't deserve most of their money either. Not very many owners make money on hockey teams anyways. It would be preferable if all teams could be owned by co-operatives like the Green Bay Packers. It would be harder to buy teams up, but it could work. Fans could all by shares for $100 or something, to try and try and get enough money to buy a team (and have a reserve fund). Each fan would have a vote to elect a member for the NHL board of governors, etc. All the management decisions would be done democratically by the fans. Wouldn't that be cool? After all, it's the fans that really care about these things.

[MaxQue]

Well, all the thing around the arena hurted PQ

Poll CROP-Gesca.

Liberals: 28
PQ: 27 (ouch!)
QS: 17 (?!?!)
ADQ: 15
Greens: 9

[2952-0-0]

Well, all the thing around the arena hurted PQ

Poll CROP-Gesca.

Liberals: 28
PQ: 27 (ouch!)
QS: 17 (?!?!)
ADQ: 15
Greens: 9

Is there much of a mental association between the NDP and QS, or is it a sign perhaps that voters want an NDP-like provincial party? Both parties have orange as their sign, but QS would be at the far-left fringe of any serious NDP at the federal or anglophone provincial level.

[MaxQue]

It is more than QS opposed to the royal visit of the Duke of Cambridge while PQ said nothing, than QS is opposing the arena bill while PQ is supporting it.

People are angry at Pauline being incompetant and unable to lead her party, won't vote Liberal because of corruption scandals and are laughing of ADQ which are totally unable to make talk about themselves, so, they go to QS, which has a lot of presence in media. Their presence is often controversial, but it pays.

NDP surge perhaps helped, but I doubt it.

In short, Marois whored out the Quebec City, and the rest of Quebec left her.

[Hatman 🍁]

Message for QS: Get good, credible candidates for the election. It may be a god send.

[Holmes]

Federalist lefties in Quebec don't really have much of a choice, do they?

[Hash]

Federalist lefties in Quebec don't really have much of a choice, do they?

Most parties in Quebec are quite awful. QS and the Greenies are the most decent out of an awful bunch.

[MaxQue]

Since then, three more MNAs left.

On June 7, Jean-Martin Aussant (Nicolet-Yamaska) left, for the same reasons than the other three. He is toying with the idea of forming a new independantist party.

Today, two other MNAs left.

Benoît Charette (Deux-Montagnes) left because he wanted the party to not do a referendum in a first term, because the population doesn't want a referendum.

Finally, René Gauvreau (Groulx) has been expelled from PQ caucus because he continued to hire one of his aides after he was charged for thief.

http://www.canada.com/news/Parti+Quebecois+loses+sixth+member/4981033/story.html

So, the seats total in Assembly is strange.
65 Liberals
46 PQ
9 independants (none was elected in 2008!)
4 ADQ
1 QS

[Хahar 🤔]

Federalist lefties in Quebec don't really have much of a choice, do they?

Vote nationalist and then No on a referendum.