As it were–the Mickster on la belle province:
…
Ignatieff says he’s saddened to see how Canada and Quebec have become isolated, with the optimism of decades past having given way to disillusionment.
“The problem here is we don’t have anything to say to each other anymore,” he said. “There’s a kind of contract of mutual indifference, which is very striking for someone of my generation.”..
Video, plus reaction. In fact what he said is not exactly hot news despite all the Sturm und Drang—from 2010:
…
Among Quebecers, however, a mere 30.1% reported they were very attached to Canada compared to 71.6% in the rest of the country. The poll found 45.9% of Quebecers were very attached to their province – in line with the findings across the country…
Quebecers don’t want to leave the sugar daddy!! They keep holding the threat over the head of the rest of the country. I just wish they’d make up their minds and go. The rest of Canada could then move on, save a ton of money, and be happy ever after.
Ignatieff is dead right on this.
I don’t understand why the ROC wants them still. Seriously what’s in it for us?
He may be gifted academically, but he is completely out of his element in the political arena.
Iggy is a seditious drunk. What the hell does he know about Quebec? His kind are the reason Quebr’s want to separate in the first place.
Ivory Tower drunk like his friends BobfayRae and PaulMartinJr.
Not exactly what the LPOC has been selling lo this past 50 years or so. They portrayed themselves as committed to Canada. I remember Iggy selling himself as a true Canadian who just loved his country.
If the PQ wants to go, let ’em go is my motto.
What I am commenting about is the littany of lies that Canadians have been subjected to by the LPOC.
It has all been crap.
The CPC should be beating the drum loud and long with this story.
Never let the voters forget Iggy’s words.
This’ll ramp up the angst from the usual suspects with demands that the rest of Canada open our hearts and wallets… mostly wallets..
While I truly enjoy my French Canadian friends, the Quebec collective is an sickening bunch of whiners.
Go, stay, whatever, most people stopped giving a $hit back when Creature-Ann was prime minister.
Although “a mere 30.1% reported they were very attached to Canada” we have it on good authority that 99% are attached at the lips to the Canadian teat and love it so much they expect the milk to flow after the cut the cow in half.
Right.
After the disaster of yesterday, at least there might be a silver lining. If ever so slight.
Unfortunately, Fred is right
Give Quebeckers an ultimatum- they can leave Canada (but who will take them in?) but Quebec stays.
Enough of this garbage. It has gone on for too long.
It is time for Canada to leave Quebec
“Give Quebeckers an ultimatum- they can leave Canada (but who will take them in?) but Quebec stays.”
Florida.
I was over in France a few weeks ago and noticed I could understand the French somewhat, unlike around here, and a Frenchman said to me that they dub movies from Quebec into proper French. I figure it sounds to them as weird as an Australian accent sounds to us, but we don’t mind because we *like* Australians….
Er, excuse me, but mindlessly repeating something that’s been obvious and trite for half a century as if it were some new, profound insight does not make you “dead right”. It makes you an idiot. Of course Quebec has nothing in common with the rest of Canada. It didn’t when Ig actually lived here, and that’s a hell of a long time ago.
And of course, the idea that Quebec is actually close to independence and moving closer is a generation out of date. The second referendum is as close as Quebec will ever get. Every passing day makes independence less achievable; I’d say it’s long since past the point of impossibility.
Iggy’s just an ignorant gasbag.
Just hand me a referendum ballot, will you please?
I heard a good comparison calling Quebec the 130 year old teenager in the basement that keeps threatening to leave.
go and make sure the deficit cheque hits you on the a$$ as you leave.
“Ignatieff says he’s saddened to see how Canada and Quebec have become isolated”
Huh? Canada AND Quebec? Did Quebec separate without telling anyone??
Are the MSM still in love with Iggy? There’s no other reason to quote a failed third Party leader who only ran because he thought “PM of Canada” would look good on his resume,and would amuse his friends in England.
If Quebec wants another referendum,the Rest of Canada should also have one, to see if we want them to stay.
The results might sober them up a bit.
ebt …. exactly.
Tim, are sure we want to do that to Florida?
Actually, my travels in Quebec have been enjoyable. Quebecois French, like Acadian French, is something of a linguistic anomaly as the original speakers arrived in Canada before the language standardisation in the nineteenth century.
Just sharing.
Too bad the Bloc Quebecois does not run candidates in all parts of Canada.
Osumashi Kinyobe >
I believe the idea is to separate, not physically remove Quebecers. First to put them on their own currency and economy, cut funding, issue passports and then build fences and customs stations between them and us.
The problem is that they only want separation not a complete divorce. They still want land, money and benefits from Canada. Land is an issue because much of Quebec is first Nations land that they believe they would automatically inherit as theirs.
This why it’s not happening any time soon and their “threats” are no threats at all.
Canada would do very well without them, they cannot survive without Canada.
Iggy is just stirring the pot to whip up some reason for the LIEberals to ‘save Canada’ from itself.
After 40 odd years of navel gazing and an Adscam inpired referendum plot this stuff is just getting really old…
As a german speaking Quebecois Lotusland dweller the proposition that I need a passport for Quebec is about as inspiring as the thought of visiting East Germany absent the barb wire and shepherd dogs!
I mean really who gives a Scottish Nationalist caber toss to go down that haggis strewn road again?
Stick a Braveheart broadsword in it lads, the ‘divide and conquer’ Lieberal schtick won’t right the electoral Costa Concordia boat cruise.
Vaya a bordo, cazzo! Now we have Iggy Schismatic the last of the iconoclasts?
Here’s a plan Alberta sends some oil in return for some Quebec maple syrup.
You can call it an interprovincial exchange of sticky fluids known as free trade.
There that sounds sexy enough…!
Cheers
Hans Rupprecht, Commander in Chief
1st Saint Nicolaas Army
Army Group “True North”
I still think Alberta should’a separated in the 1980’s.
Quebec?? Aren’t they gone yet? This is taking an hell of a long time to happen for people who profess such contempt for the rest of the country.
Like I always say in these instances; “is there anything I can do to speed up this separating process”?
We need a Canada-wide binding referendum on the question:
Should Quebec Leave Canada and Become a Separate Sovereign Country?
Yes/No
I live in the Province of Quebec. There are some excellent people here but way too many of the whining, leftist, entitlement crowd. I say be pro-active, stop their blackmail and hold a referendum on dumping Quebec. Canada, however, determines the borders. Give them Quebec City and the the areas north of it along the St. Lawrence. Let all the whiners live there in their own wacky state. Keep the rest of the territory as a province for us Canadians who live in Quebec and actually want to contribute to Canada.
cdh >
Well put!
I’m with you.
I believe at one time, Quebecers where asked politely about certain conditions should they separate.
It was thought that they would still have the jolly old Canadian dollar as currency. True, cowards in Ottawa, might make such an arrangement.
It was thought the numerous federal civil servants WOULD NOT LOSE THEIR JOBS. In other words, bleed the rest of Canada dry and still keep what they could blackmail from the remainder of us.
No doubt others would hope that Quebec would then come back into the fold. If left on their own, I believe that the corruption would kick in double plus. There would be a Quebec dollar floating at about forty cents. The politicos would run for the border.
All that would have to be done is to let ’em float free. No more blackmail monies.
Let me fix that headline for you:
“Mickey I. is dead, right?”
Looking over my post, I do find it a bit subjective. I will make amends. I boarded with a French-Canadian lady in Sault Ste Marie, Ontario for five years. Young lads and a home from home.
In my travels to Medicine Hat and Lethbridge Alberta, I met working class French-Canadians. As in my adopted home town of Sault Ste Marie, Ontario, and at the local steel plant, I have found them to be the salt of the earth, generous to a fault and happy go lucky.
Cross my heart!
The Quebecois, like many a First Nations band, want sovereignty… right up to where the money gets cut off. Sovereignty, and keep those checks rolling in here.
Anybody notice we all used to have much better relations with Quebec when the government was about a tenth the size it is now? Could it be that socialism, not federalism, is the true problem we all suffer from?
Could it be that Iggy is a brass plated buffoon and that’s the reason nobody voted for him?
The Phantom >
It very well could be!
ignore iggy ignorant.
as an academic he poses with propositions that hold no appreciable consequences for himself other than the need for more questions – it’s cerebral exercise and he is good at it and so very pleased that anyone could take notice.
he could just as easily have stated belief in the loch ness monster. who cares? he doesn’t – he’s a gloomy-doomy-washed-up politician.
quebec is in the midst of a serious rethinking of itself despite any news to the contrary. margaret thatcher put it succinctly when she said “socialism fails when you run out of other people’s money to spend.” it’s time to pay the piper.
I don’t know, Knight. Why should the Quebeckers (usually the Anglophones) be forced to leave or live in separation when this cold political climate is the fault of whiners?
Iggy always makes more sense out of the coffin at sundown.
Peter (Lock City),
The idea that Quebec could have kept using the Canadian dollar was a fiction that was peddled by the separatists to advance their cause.
In my opinion they would have been welcome to try.
You only need to look at the eurozone to see how that would have worked out for them.
Had they been successful on either the first or the second referundum votes, the many years of missing transfer payments would have turned them upside down.
Quebec won t separate until Alberta cuts off their allowance and stops funding their 7 dollar daycare, low student tuitions and their enviro-nazi groups who insist on returning to the 19th century.Then they will whine to the Feds,the UN and anyone else that will listen to their simpering poor us BS.They are finally starting to realize that France considers them a bunch of illiterate hillbillys who may be trainable as low level servants with enough training.As far as Iggy is concerned he was never any thing more than a political opportunist looking to enhance his resume,hell if the Shawinigan Strangler and Mr Dithers could be Prime Minister how hard could it be?
Everyone here knows what I think of the French Canadians. All I’ll add is that over the last several weeks their leaders went to great lengths to engineer the election of a collaborationist government in Alberta. Jean Charest and his cronies can count on Jean’s girl in Edmonton to send them the money to pay the mortgages on their Florida cottages, the Muslim bomb factories who clean their toilets and the Haitian girls who clean their pipes.
Surely if they were in any hurry to leave, Dr. Ignatieff, they wouldn’t have gone to all that bother?
cdh, Osumashi—yes, Lower Canada is a beautiful province. Its potential will be limitless if one day we get a government willing to consider what the French Canadian traitors truly deserve, and resettle Lower Canada with people who fear the Lord and not a hard day’s work.
Britain herself is a generation from falling into Islamic hands. Loyal Britons will need a refuge. Why not Lower Canada?
Ignatieff (who can’t get it through his thick head):
“America)It’s your country, just as much as it is MINE”…”Rise up… Rise up”.
Yeah …right.
More like throw up.
Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme…….maudit merde.
It is refreshing to hear the guy open up about his true patriot love… of England and the US where he spent his whole damn life. I’d say he’ll be gone from this country in another year or so. That’s fine. It’s ok to be an ex-patriot Canadian and travel the world or whatever. But if you want to be Prime Minister you should be from Canada.
We need a Canada-wide binding referendum on the question:
Should Quebec Leave Canada and Become a Separate Sovereign Country?
Yes/No
Oh and BTW: Rupert’s Land? It’s off the table.
They can have a strip of land trois arpents deep on either side of the river. That’ll be their country.
“Among Quebecers, however, a mere 30.1% reported they were very attached to Canada compared to 71.6% in the rest of the country. The poll found 45.9% of Quebecers were very attached to their province – in line with the findings across the country…”
By my reckoning at least 24% don’t care for either Canada or Quebec.
The trouble is if we punt em they will still depend on canada for everything including our military , our currency, our legislative process , our courts , so on and so forth i am all for punting them only if they are 100% cut off from us for eternity and anything we provide them comes with an invoice/bill that they pay up front and in full!
I think we can also start showing the aftermath of the Yugoslavian civil war. Many Quebec soldiers lost their taste for “le Quebec libre” after they saw the devastation civil war brings about to a country. Remember the Sarajevo Olympics in 1980–that country doesn’t exist anymore. Remember the Montreal Olympics in 1976…that province as we know it could cease to exist. And most in not all of the devastation would be in Quebec and not in any other part of Canada. Imagine a larger New Brunswick and Labrador’s boundaries running to the US border.
Of course in Iggy’s world Canada is Southern Ontario. The rest of us live in the colonies.
I think Ignatieff is right – Quebec is isolated from Canada and does not consider itself as part of Canada. It considers itself as held hostage BY Canada.
Hostage for what? It may seem bizarre but many Quebecers consider that ‘Canada’ (the Emperor) retains Quebec for its taxes and its resources.
They refuse to accept that Quebec taxes are far, far below the money put into Quebec by the ROC.
They refuse to accept that they take far more money from the ROC that they put into it.
They totally ignore that the big industries located in Quebec are not there by choice but as bribes to Quebec to locate there and hire its workers.
They ignore that the Govt offices and head offices of banks etc located in Montreal are there for the same reason – as tactics to entice Quebec to stay.
But the isolation of Quebec from Canada is, in my view, enormous. This has been aided by the Charter’s disastrous rule of bilingualism, which has forced the federal bureaucracy into an enclave held by fiefdoms in the Ottawa-Montreal corridor.
And, the increasing isolation of Quebec has been assisted by such rules as the Quebec language law which has disabled Quebecers from themselves becoming bilingual and thus, feeling able to move to or even visit other parts of Canada.
Plus, such interesting measures as their control over immigration, where they select only francophones and rarely ‘visible minorities’.
So, Ignatieff is right. The isolation between the two zones if stronger than it’s ever been. Would Quebec actually separate? I strongly doubt it. It doesn’t have to concern itself with money, with security, it has, almost, sovereignty-with-no-responsibilities. Not bad, not bad.
Quebecers need to realize that true freedom comes from God, not a church or government. The “great darkness” of the Maurice Duplessis era has been abandoned for a greater darkness of becoming wards of the state. Language laws have isolated Quebec culture. Socialism has enervated it. Stop the financial transfusion and the people of Quebec will have an opportunity for freedom.
btw, isn’t there a big difference in that Scotland is a net contributor, whereas Quebec is a tribute collector?
We should not draw such a firm line between provincial and federal attachment. There are folks in PEI who have never been anywhere else. They are deeply attached to PEI and don’t really give much thought to anywhere else. If they go on holiday, it is likely to Boston or Florida. They are content, even happy and proud in a general way to be part of Canada, but the Island is their home. Many people in Quebec feel the same way.
Mr Ignatieff’s problem is that, like most Liberals, he cannot accept that being attached to Canada and being attached to the Federal Government are different things. I think that Mr Harper actually gets this, as does the wayward but underappreciated Maxine Berner.
Let’s get Bob Rae’s take on this…..a lose -lose situation for him.
What we need is Mr. Harper on the news asking for Rae’s views.