Quebec: April 7, 2014

[Hatman 🍁]

Good! Hopefully PQ finally wins an absolute majority.

I didn't realize you were a fan of Front nationale-style xenophobia from the PQ?

Anotnio is a bit of a troll, don't mind him.

[Zanas]

Well, I prefer a win for the PQ than for the PLQ. I wouldn't mind a few more seats for QS. Actually, I think what I would prefer above all would be a PQ minority relying on QS support for majority. I realize it would be opening a can of worms, but hey I don't live there !

[Hatman 🍁]

Last election, I was rooting for the PQ to win more seats than the Liberals, to be honest. I hated Charest's neo-liberal ideology, his handling of the student strike, etc. However, the PQ has turned out to be far-right when it comes to cultural issues, like you'd find in Europe with parities like Front National. I do not support racist parties. And so, I I'm back to rooting for the Liberals

I should note that if I lived in Quebec, I'd be voting UCQ.

[MaxQue]

However, the PQ has turned out to be far-right when it comes to cultural issues, like you'd find in Europe with parities like Front National. I do not support racist parties.

I'm seeing than the English media have continued their desinformation campaign.

EDIT: To be clear, I don't agree at all with that policy, but the FN comparison is over the top. And English Canada media LOVES Quebec-bashing.

[DC Al Fine]

However, the PQ has turned out to be far-right when it comes to cultural issues, like you'd find in Europe with parities like Front National. I do not support racist parties.

I'm seeing than the English media have continued their desinformation campaign.

Well, they have a habit of making minorities... uncomfortable

[MaxQue]

However, the PQ has turned out to be far-right when it comes to cultural issues, like you'd find in Europe with parities like Front National. I do not support racist parties.

I'm seeing than the English media have continued their desinformation campaign.

Well, they have a habit of making minorities... uncomfortable

Like every party, they cater to theit core base. It's not like if immigrants would vote for independance.

[Marokai Backbeat]

The PQ's rhetoric is often heated, but in practice, in 2014, they are little more than boring center-leftist bureaucrats and their cultural politics barely goes further than symbolic. They're certainly not the devil they're made out to be. How far could they possibly go from the status quo, anyway? They have no chance at independence; they'll poke the fire at some pet issue once or twice a year and that's about the extent of it. And deep down, the PQ knows this.

[lilTommy]

The PQ has done the math, they can afford to sacrifice the multicultural, multilingual Montreal in order to gain in the francophone regions which are much more apt to swing from CAQ to PQ then on the Island to swing PLQ to PQ. Any gains made by QS would be more then offset by gains in the regions. Plus there are very few riding on the island that will swing, those that do are 3-4 way races now.
for me it's QS over PQ because they are more decidedly Social Democratic/Socialist then the PQ; I'd love for the NPDQ to be viable, but not the case; UCQ was a good shot but didn't go anywhere really, perhaps this time if they can grab some bigger named candidates.
Anyway, just read the gov't is fast tracking the Euthanasia law... sometimes i love quebec, other times, not

[RogueBeaver]

Most of the Charter has a consensus around it. Only 2-3 provisions are the wedge ones. Marokai's right. Looking at the polls, support for sovereignty among people our age is weakest.

[MaxQue]

Again, I can only stress than English news in Canada aren't a fair news source about PQ.
It would be like judging Obama by listening only to Fox News.

[RogueBeaver]

Who's citing a ROC news source?

[Hash]

EDIT: To be clear, I don't agree at all with that policy, but the FN comparison is over the top. And English Canada media LOVES Quebec-bashing.

It's about time someone said it. Reading some people on here and the English media, you'd think that the PQ was the second coming of Hitler or something.

[MaxQue]

Who's citing a ROC news source?

Nobody, but I'm quite sure than Earl and DL did Front National comparisons because of what they heard in news.

[RogueBeaver]

On that note: ROC seems to forget that it was their beloved Charest who passed that niqab ban.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

The PQ certainly isn't far-right or fascistic or anything, but it is kind of a bit racist. But then the Liberals are kind of entirely corrupt.

[Citizen Hats]

On that note: ROC seems to forget that it was their beloved Charest who passed that niqab ban.

Beloved Charest?

though most of the country will root for the PLQ, they are continually disappointing

[RogueBeaver]

Good articles from Gagnon and Le Devoir on the state of play.

[MaxQue]

The PQ certainly isn't far-right or fascistic or anything, but it is kind of a bit racist. But then the Liberals are kind of entirely corrupt.

I certainly won't contradict it. There was always a segment of the base which was, but, until the 90's, the leadership wasn't pursuing policies in that sense.

Rene Levesque policies weren't racist (he may have been through, he pursued pro-gay rights polices despite being personnaly homophobic), but the Charter is.

And before someone brings language rights, English isn't a race.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Either I know nothing about Québec, or people who compare PQ to FN know nothing about France. I'd bet on the latter.

[MaxQue]

Jacques Duchesneau, the "integrity" guy in CAQ retires and won't seek a second term in St. Jerome.

[RogueBeaver]

No surprise.

[BigSkyBob]

The PQ certainly isn't far-right or fascistic or anything, but it is kind of a bit racist. But then the Liberals are kind of entirely corrupt.

I certainly won't contradict it. There was always a segment of the base which was, but, until the 90's, the leadership wasn't pursuing policies in that sense.

Rene Levesque policies weren't racist (he may have been through, he pursued pro-gay rights polices despite being personnaly homophobic), but the Charter is.

And before someone brings language rights, English isn't a race.

I have a basic sympathy for those wanting to preserve their cultural identity and political autonomy. I have no sympathy for a movement that would deny parents the choice to educate their children in the language that will further their children's eventual quest for employment in places like Toronto and Alberta simply because of an accident of birth.

Comparisons with the FN are completely unfair. It is "mainstream" French parties that are fining their own citizens for using "le hoovercraft," and, compound nouns.  Heaven forbid someone say "passport number" rather than the more wordy "the number of the passport." Apparently, that nonsense has crossed the pond.

Frankly, the linguistic destiny of North America was sealed in Haiti over two centuries ago. [It was probably decided by the English decision to, and the French refusal to, sentence folks to transportation long before the Haitian uprising.]  Outlawing the local McDonald's from selling "French fries" because "French fries" isn't the French term reeks of desperate reaction from folks who know they are on the wrong side of history.  At least, they aren't demanding that local franchises be named "Fils de Donald," yet.

[MaxQue]

Oh, great, the English suprematist troll is back again.

[Hatman 🍁]

It wont be the first time someone has told me English Canadians like myself just don't understand Quebec politics (often it come from me expressing my concerns about the pro sovereignty views of Quebec solidaire). Fair enough. I don't live in Quebec (and I don't speak French), so I can only judge the parties from what I hear in the English media. And it doesn't matter if it's CBC or Sun News, the media hates the PQ in the ROC.

I'm also a child of the 1990s, and the Quebec referendum (and the lead up) was a traumatic experience for a 9 year old living on the Ontario-Quebec border.

[RogueBeaver]

Part of the problem is that apart from Paul Wells, there's a serious lack of good ROC commentators on Quebec. The Ontarian media could help themselves by having a sovereigntist contributor. Gazette had that with Bourgault, Josée Legault and a first one whose name escapes me ATM.