A reader from Quebec writes;
Duceppe has ordered a study to (attempt to) explain why Quebec city dwellers did not buy his lies. He talks of a “Quebec mystery”. Then, this jaw-dropper from his mouth: “Il y a quelque chose � Qu�bec qui n’a pas encore �t� exorcis� et le mouvement souverainiste dans son ensemble devra se questionner ” (my translation: “There is something in Quebec City that has not been exorcized, and the sovereignist mouvement as a whole will have to question itself”)
An editorialist at La Presse (usually a federalist newspaper from Montreal) starts his article like this: “The election of seven Conservative MPs in the Quebec City region is a surprise. Montrealers are pinching themselves as they look – with astonishement – what is going on in their capital. And the medias have sent special envoys and questionned specialists at Laval University, a bit like it is done when a city is suddenly struck by a tsunami or a hurricane.” He then explain there is no mystery. Quebec residents are public servants, familiar with how governments work, and are tired of seeing the liberals and the bloc neglect their region for more than 10 years.
They have also elected a lean and mean, financially conservative mayor, Andree Boucher, a move the big media has yet to digest and explain.
It reminds me of the puzzlement of the US leftists after Bush’s re-election.
La Presse article (in French).
I’m waiting for someone to blame it all on Duplessis.
Its funny, when I heard Duceppe say during the election “don’t let the conseravitives take our daycare from us”, I thought it was kind of ironic since if Duceppe got his way and seperated then they would have no National Daycare at all.
Duceppe is holding the Bloc together out of personal power and it has nothing to do with benefiting the Quebec people. I think a lot of people are starting to stand up and notice that. Hopefully more will come!
Good find. Great find!
One person has declared that the Conservative inroads in the region of the Quebec capital is the beginning of the end for the BQ. We’ll see, but it hurts them, no question. No wonder Duceppe is all apopleptic.
Sara, Quebec’s provincial daycare system is in place and is, I think, the model ex-PMPM used for the national one. As a result, separation wouldn’t remove it (although it might end up a lot higher than $7/day). Just think, with Harper’s plan people in Quebec will end up with daycare for a couple of bucks a day (watch the province raise the rates).
From what I’ve heard, the people most able to take advantage? Middleclass. Waiting lists are supposed to be quite long & it’s on a ‘lottery’ basis. Losers use private daycares (and pay probably what everyone else does).
Poor Duceppe! I guess he should have run for head of the PQ after all.
Having just moved from Quebec to Ontario, I can attest to the fact that Quebecers got a raw deal on daycare under the federal Liberals.
Every Quebecer pays higher provincial taxes to fund the daycare program, yet those with kids only get to deduct $7 per day from their federal tax returns, while Canadians elsewhere get to deduct the full amount of their non-subsidized daycare outlays.
It is quite astonishing though that Duceppe has the gall to suggest that Stephen Harper somehow threatens this already inequitable state of affairs.
While I wholeheartedly disagree with Duceppe’s politics, I’m not sure that “liar” is an appropriate label for him.
He’s a pretty straight-talker.
Maybe the voters in Quebec City are smarter than most of those in the rest of the province? They recognise the CPC for what it is, an opportunity to change the future ofr their children and theirs lives for the better…
As someone who has lived in both Quebec and Ontario I am equally mystified as to why Quebec city went ‘Conservative’. I don’t think the commentaries on this site have found the right answer yet. The English people of Quebec City have all but been wiped off the map. Quebec City has not been kind at all to English people. Much of the city expresses downright ‘racist’ sentiments about English people. I suspect that they voted for Harper because they think they can get an even bigger slice of the pie from Harper. I suspect they misunderstood Harper’s pledge to address fiscal imbalances to mean that they actually ‘deserve’ more money in Quebec, when in my opinion they are already massively overfunded. No, I don’t think for a minute that the people of Quebec City have all of a sudden searched their heart and found ‘love’ for English Canada. I think they are relishing the opportunity to represent themselves on the International scene as has been promised by Harper, and was not promised by anyone before him. Quebecers are EXTREMELY selfish voters. They don’t give a rat’s butt about the rest of Canada, never have, and never will.
And for those of you who comment about the daycare system in Quebec: Quebec is already receiving billions of dollars in equalization payments from the Federal government, thanks largely to Alberta and Ontario. So don’t you think that the daycare is already being funded via the equalization payment train by the rest of Canada and not by Quebecers???? Think about that.
ddd I disagree with you Quebec and Alberta both want the same thing, less gubmnt. the federalists in Quebec city recognize Harper for what he is and believe he can change the status quo by giving back power to the people. give him time and he’ll convince more.
BTW Quebec City and Calgary have been “official” twin cities since 1956!
Interesting point in the La Presse article, there are almost as many Conservative voters in Quebec as there are in Alberta.
In other words, one can argue that the Conservative Party is as much of Quebec-based movement as it is an Alberta-based movement in terms of sheer numbers of supporters at this point in time.
According to Elections Canada:
Alberta Cons: 930,817 (65.0%)
Quebec Cons: 906,741 (24.6%)
If the Quebec Conservative vote increased to 25.3%, there would be more Quebec Cons than Alberta Cons.
The current premier of Quebec is currently a registered Conservative. Dumont voted for the Conservatives. Even separatists like Bouchard were in favor of free trade.
Un Quebecois conservateur is clearly not a mystere!
I’ve several times heard interesting comparisons between Texas and Quebec (and not just because they’re the only two jurisdictions who haven’t joined the North American power grids – blackout? Quelle blackout?).
One of the best is that the residents of both jurisdictions understand politics to a much greater degree than most of us do. Now, this is not to say that they just always jump on the winning team – they’re much more skilled than that – they do have certain principles that they are attempting to advance.
Texas: Note that their senators are almost always one fiscal conservative and one social conservative, not two of the same. Sure, they’re generally always conservatives (like I said about the principles – Texas is a conservative place), but everyone knows that if you look like you’re dogmatic and looney, you won’t get anywhere.
Quebec: In every election, they manage to find a way to come out of it with influence beyond their population size. Voting Bloc at a time when the entire country was going Liberal (and Reform weren’t a serious option for you at the time) was a masterstroke – a few more Liberals wouldn’t have given you any more power or Cabinet posts, but inflating the threat of sovereignty sure makes them listen to you! Now, in this election, *enough* of a turn of the tide makes it clear that Quebeckers are not going to be blindly loyal to a party, but clear that they’d like the Conservatives to shift their way *at least a little bit more, thank you very much* – if they’d swung more, they could have destroyed either the Bloc (who might be useful in the future) or the Liberals (who might *also* be useful in the future, depending on how things go). They didn’t want to do that.
Very effective.
Now, to be clear, I disagree with the sort of simplistic selfishness that I think dddkinnear is suggesting – Instead I think that there’s a good number of (particularly francophone) Quebeckers who live and breathe politics on a level that may be difficult to comprehend in much of the ROC, and they have a picture of how they want the country to work, and how to go about getting it. Sure, that vision is Quebec-centric, but that’s not the same thing as an absolutist “don’t give a rats’ butt about the rest of Canada.”
Obviously, not every Quebecker fits this mould – a few thousand even voted NDP in this election, and we can see how effective *that* was in, say, Beauce. …but there’s enough of them that the Federal Parliament always ends up giving more influence to Quebec that it might have otherwise had.
Hey Kinnear: Speak White!
There is no explaining Quebec. The head of the FEDERAL public service union in Quebec urged it’s members to vote for the Bloc. I guess they must be under the impression that the Country of Quebec would hire them after separation. I bet they also think their taxes would drop in half after they stop sending transfer payments to Ontario and Alberta.
Hi,
I figured I would leave just another quick comment on this. I’m originaly from Quebec City, been living in Montreal for 2 years, but I am moving back to QC in a few months.
I am very proud of my home region for their election decisions. It’s hard to point at one thing that caused the conservative wins, I can give a few here.
First there is the fact that the BQ has done absolutly nothing for the region at all since it started. And with the corruption of the Liberals exposed, poeple took the time to look beyond the anti-harper propaganda.
Second, there are a lot of local issues that need fixing badly, and while other parties ignored the region, once again taking it for granted, the conservatives promised action. The zoo closing down, the airport in bad need of changes, etc…
Third, for many years one of the only right of center radio station was broadcasting on Quebec City’s air wave, until the CRTC decided to close it down. It’s still alive, surviving due to their decision to bring the closure to court. This was and still is the most listened to radio station and it happens to cover 8 of the queber conservative regions. This is a major issue here, at the time of the closure 50000 poeple walked to protest. And only the conservative party promised action, the BQ was pleased to see it close as it was an anti-union and anti-separation voice and poeple havent forgotten.
And last there are a lot of poeple like me who want less governement and more money back in our pockets.
I think you need to look at the media reports of separatists in Quebec musing out loud how they would pay for a separate Quebec? I think the number mentioned was $4 BILLION dollars.
Now just how do you get independence and yet keep the rest of Canada on the hook? I think once those stories hit the news in Quebec, a thinking Quebecois would have to listern to Steven Harper.
Quebecois and Western Canadians have more in common than you think. I think the Quebecois decided now was the time to change horses and pick the one going in the right direction.