For those who still dream of seeing Jean Charest come back as national leader in Ottawa, the time has come to start mourning.
The Quebec premier’s political career is coming to a very sad end and it could happen much sooner than expected.
Repeated charges of corruption and collusion in Quebec’s construction industry and allegations that Liberal bagmen influence the distribution of contracts and nominations of public officials, threaten Charest’s future.
In a desperate attempt to stifle these allegations, Charest announced the creation of a public inquiry last April. The commission, headed by former Supreme Court Judge Michel Bastarache, was given a limited mandate to look only at the process of nomination of judges in la belle province after ex-justice minister Marc Bellemare alleged publicly that he had been pressured by Liberal fundraisers to nominate three judges and claimed it was with Charest’s full knowledge and consent.
The commission started last Tuesday and it is already obvious to many observers that Charest’s days as premier are numbered.
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Having had random discussions recently with folks who live in Quebec here are some observations they made. Frankly I’m not sure what to make of some of this other than let’s pray they are at the beginning of a badly needy Tea Party movement
- There is a stirring of a movement, essentially libertarians, called Réseau Liberté-Québec (freedom Quebec network) … looking for more Liberty and responsibility with the help of some of the founders who are in non-establishment media that counters the far left media in Quebec. The movement is trying to gain traction where Mario Dumont and the ADQ left off.
- Mad Max Bernier has been called a Quebec basher by Charest’s Finance Minister for criticizing federal handouts.
- Perhaps this is the most interesting comment I heard “Quebec has been so corrupt for so long that it is unrealistic to blame Charest for it”.
- The Quebec debt load is very scary. Allophones are thinking of taking their retirement funds across the border to Ontario in case Quebec collapses like Greece.
- Small business does not pay taxes, it is an underground economy, anyone who pays taxes cannot survive.
- Big business, like the pharmaceutical industry, survives on government subsidies and low cost hydro deals.
Love to pile on. At one time, Charest had potential, but choose to embrace the murky world of Quebec politics. It would be a revolution if Quebec woke up and looked at its political institutions and demanded accountability and responsibility. Its easy to be a victim – you never have to change, you just need someone (Canada) to be the caregiver. cheers
Bang on Nom…I remember those days from years past when Quebec companies moved out of there heading down the 401 to Toronto & area and from what you are describing, it may happen again but with anglophones moving their money to safer areas in the rest of Canada.
Well, Quebec brought this on themselves as they continue to spend our money on their social programs while racking up huge debts.
I wonder if our left leaning PM will continue to drop more of our money there like he recently did with his F18 maintenace contract to prop up their dying ecoomy and vote buying?
UV, I’m not for cutting Quebec out of normal contract allocations, particularly since Quebec now does their fair share of troop allocation in risky situations. What needs to be stopped is “equalization” payments and conservative voters need to keep the pressure on that because it isn’t a case of PMSH being “left leaning” (left of whom?) , it is a case of the majority of MPs being left.
The message we need to get across to Ontario voters is that if we want to keep more of our own taxes here then beware: a vote for Liberals is a vote for the Bloc in terms of equalization payments continuing to flow out of Ontario to Quebec.
‘Left of Centre’ Nom. As for Charest, its amazing how hes gone from head of the federal conservative party to the far left in Quebec.
Its getting more difficult to tell who stands for what without a party brochure. No wonder so many Canadians are voting with their feet.
UV how do you define the “centre”?
Linda McQuaig and Margaret Atwood, those chattering class defenders of freedom of speech (sarc off) are against the new Sun TV because they think we already have a media that is too right wing.
Technically, isn’t the centre where the middle of the elected 308 MPs stand on issues? Isn’t PMSH far to the right of that middle?
“It’s getting more difficult to tell who stands for what without a party brochure”
That’s because the government has its mitts on every facet of our lives. The Canadian economy is now sized at $1.5 trillion GDP … much larger than whole empires were a century ago when government did not attempt to run everything. That is why it is hard to tell without a “party brochure”…government is too damn BIG to describe and the independent media in Quebec may actually be leading the way on Tea Parties in order to shrink government.
How do you define the centre. Well, consisting of neither the left nor the right, Nom.
And they’ll have a real fight in the defining the right in Quebec which is known for its social programs paid for by the ROC. Good luck with that one!
I agree that (liberal) governments want to control every aspect of our lives, just look at whats going on here in liberal Ontario. Heck, even in NB the liberal government wants to bribe the voters by promising to give them another holiday should they be returned to power. Sound familiar (family day)?
Same government, similar to Quebec that practices discriminating against its anglophones. Heck, even Harpers jumping on that band wagon by transferring many silly servant jobs to that province.
Heres a list of whats going on in NB:
http://www.asnb.ca/
Strange country this Canada where a minority rules over the majority.
One thing I’ll give the liberals, federally and provincially credit for. Their right there when the right drops the ball, no matter how small it is and will run with it to the finish line. Touchdone!
Like here in Ontario when John Tory dropped the ball on funding religious schools, even though we do it for Catholics. And the rest of his platform by then was completely ignored by the MSM. So bring on Fox north so other points of view are made public.
Remember, it only takes one fumble to make a guberment.
“How do you define the centre. Well, consisting of neither the left nor the right”
So I guess the center would be the 100 MPs in the middle of the 308. And you are saying that PMSH is in the 100 “left leaning”. In other words you are saying there are 200 MPs more right wing than PMSH.
I doubt you mean that UV. I’m just trying to figure out how in the real world of Canadian segmented politics you conclude he’s “left leaning”.
Speaking of “fumbles”; let’s not have PMSH through the baby out with the water in Quebec. Quebec could very well lead the way to a Conservative majority long before the large progressive elitist tribes in Toronto or Vancouver ever vote in a few Conservative MPs. Sure, the most socialist region in Canada is Quebec. But Charest is getting the toss soon and we also see Quebec is the most advanced in thinking on Heath Care (successfully suing and winning in the Supreme Court) with Quebecor driving toward getting Conservatives a right wing TV station and now Quebec on the lead with Tea Parties.
Don’t just blame Quebec for taking our money; why not blame Ontario for being so stupid and not insisting on keeping it here?
We won’t get far until we rebalance the perversity of the Bloc power-base stemming from the 75 fixed MP seats in Quebec no matter what their relative demographics are. The fix unfortunately will be to grow the Parliament from 308 to about 400 seats and we end of getting more useless MPs to dream up ways to “rule” us. But we’ll rebalance eventually and then we can shrink MPs to 100 and decentralize Ottawa. That process is just like the Senate, we have to appoint Senators to get control of something that is an anachronism. It’s sloppy, but these are strategies that will eventually work.
Hopefully your right Nom but it could turn out to be another ‘pie in the sky’ dream as Quebecers just love their social programs, right to the bitter end.
And I did read somewhere that Ontario’s Premier McTaxeverything was calling for a better deal on the federal transfer payment system. I believe it took place about the time we started receiving a pittance back from the feds.
Lets not forget that Iffy was a big supporter of the american right in that he backed Bush’s invasion of Iraq and torture of prisoners. Rumor has it that he was even a card carrying republican while in the states all those many years.
So who knows whose what eh?