Monday, October 23, 2006

How do you say "suck and blow" in French?

The Globe and Mail is reporting this morning that Gilles Duceppe is waving the sovereignty banner again, predicting Quebec will be a separate country by 2015. Fine, right, whatever. But then, on the heels of that, get this:

"Other Bloc initiatives include... demanding that the provincial capital obtain its share of federal funding to develop science and technology research centres. "Quebec is capable of great things. It has the means and it is capable of doing it," Mr. Duceppe said..."

...Yeah, and as the first sentence highlights, the "means" is called Canada. Is this nonsense ever going to end?

Meanwhile, Michael "Meech" Ignatieff has just gotten the Quebec wing of the Liberal Party to endorse his idea of officially recognizing Quebec's "nationhood". While I'm not opposed to something like this in principal, my fear — and I think the fear of most people — is what sort of blackmail this opens us up to. It seems to imply expectations on Quebec's behalf that no single nation, like Canada, could possibly accommodate, which would pretty much inevitably lead to the break-up of the country. It's one of those instances where if you keep tinkering with something fragile but workable in order to "perfect it", you fuck it up for good. I'd rather have a watch that lost five minutes a day than one that didn't work at all. But, ultimately, there's votes in them thar hills... them'uns in Chibougamau gotta be catered to, I plumb reckon! Right, Brian — I mean, Mike?

God help Canada... a country where almost nothing's wrong (relatively speaking), and nobody, but nobody, can just step back and say, "man, did we ever get a sweet break landing here".

2 comments:

laura k said...

And look at that pseudo-neocon Ignatieff kissing up to them. It's disgusting.

Anonymous said...

It's how conservative thought works in Canada... even if one is supposedly a "Liberal". Promise Quebec the moon to get power because you don't really believe they'll lower the lifeboats, and you'll fire at them if they do. This is no way to run a country.