Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Gilles Duceppe Queers Any Chance of Arena Subsidy

Years ago, I met a young employee of mine while visiting one of the retail locations that I supervised in eastern Ontario. The young lady, who was no more than sixteen or seventeen, seemed remarkably happy to have a minimum wage, part-time job and I asked her why. She explained that her father was a Jehovah's Witness and for as long as she could remember he dragged her door to door like an ornament, trying to convince people to embrace the faith, hoping that the little girl would stop people from cursing him out and slamming the door in his face. Having a real job liberated her from this humiliating obligation and she was mightily pleased. Yikes!
When I asked her what drove her father to do what he does, in the face of so much hostility, she had but one word to offer- "Faith."
To her father, she explained,  it didn't matter haw many people slammed the door in his face or cursed him out, it was a mission of love, misguided or not.

Gilles Duceppe reminds me of this fellow. It doesn't matter how many people tell him he's an idiot, he merrily goes on his way, unperturbed, preaching the gospel of Quebec sovereignty to people who are as sorely annoyed with him as they are at those who ring their doorbell on a Sunday morning to preach the gospel of Jehovah.

Now, hot on the heels of his wildly successful trip across Canada (sarcasm,) he's announced that he's undertaking another similar trip to the USA and destinations afar. Ding dong!  LINK

It's hard to imagine what he intends to accomplish and after playing to empty halls across Canada, one can only imagine what his reception will be in the likes of Plano, Texas. 

No matter, Mr. Duceppe is the 'Jehovah's Witness' of the sovereignty movement and regardless of the rough reception he may receive, the obligation to proselytize is deeply seated and primal.

One can only stand back and watch with a morbid fascination, the scorn and disdain that he embraces in a pointless quest to convince the unconvincables.

I never realized to what extent his fantasy manifested itself until his suggestion this week that Stephen Harper help fund a new arena in Quebec City in  order to attract the return of an NHL franchise.

Now the idea, might make quite a bit of sense politically. Since Quebec City  is the last bastion of Conservative support in Quebec, an arena project can actually bring in an additional three or four seats and maintain what the Conservatives already hold in Quebec.
Hockey is that important.

But perhaps Gilles Duceppe should have read my "Opposite" piece to understand that in order to get Harper to support an arena project, he would have been better off to have argued against any federal participation. LINK

In spite of all the abuse he has heaped on Canadians, day in and day out, these past twenty years, he still believes that he can influence Stephen Harper and the Conservatives on behalf of Quebec.

Like all dreamers, Duceppe shrugs off negative criticism and Stephen Harper's mocking portrayal of him in the press, on the campaign trail and even in Parliament itself. As the saying goes, it is like 'water off a duck's back.'

Duceppe's fantasy is such that he has no idea that he has likely queered any chance of federal aid in relation to a new arena in Quebec City, because it would be seen in English Canada as pandering to Duceppe and the Quebec first lobby.

Wait! Perhaps that's what he wants and he's cleverly alienating Harper from Quebeckers?

Nah.....on second thought, he's not that smart, just deluded.

13 comments:

  1. Duceppe and others like him want their cake and eat it too just as it shows in the case of the return of the Nordiques in Quebec city. One of the only place in Quebec that voted for the party in power.

    So much for Montreal still locked into this useless blue pig VS red pig old fashionned and cliché debate.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mississauga Guy said...

    So this humanoid yutz is now taking his carousel of lies and larceny to the good ol' US of A and probably elsewhere. Sounds like an old Mully trick--the farewell tour. After 20 years and a colossal pension coming his way, he's probably winding down and this gives him a chance to see America, maybe the world...at the expense of the FEDERAL taxpayer. Unlike Mully who went boar hunting with Boris Yeltsin and other fun recreation with world leaders, Duceppe will have to accept the rubber chicken circuit...although I'm sure he's eating quite well at the five star hotels where he's staying.

    Duceppe is just another example of a squealing Quebec pig feeding at the federal trough. Eating and squealing, eating and squealing...and laughing all the way to the bank.

    Proof positive there is a case for turning the tables on Quebec and telling them to leave in lieu of their threatening us. Enough living off the fat of the land...someone else's land, that is, and spending OPM--other people's money.

    Gilles Duceppe is the proverbial leach Max Dettweiler was to Captain Von Trapp in the Sound of Music. At least in the movie Max did one noble deed. He aided in the Von Trapp's family escape from Austria so the captain would not have to serve in the Nazi navy. I cannot see Gilles Duceppe so much as saying or doing one iota, one shred of a noble deed for Canada as a whole...unless, of course, it somehow serves a purpose in and for Quebec.

    ReplyDelete
  3. One thing I would like to argue is the notion that Duceppe does what he does out of 'faith' of his cause.

    That maybe one factor, but I do believe that his personal interests drive him to do so. Look, besides the Bloc, where else can he go? His Maoist ideology is far too extreme for both Tories and the Grits. His position as the Leader of the Bloc is certainly much better than being a hospital orderly.

    I suspect that all his antics are his way to keep him on his seat as long as possible. No matter how people ridicule him, at the end of the day he is the one who will laughing to the bank in his retirement days.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I remember all the awful flak that Eric Lindros took as a young rookie because (horror of horrors) he didn't want to play in Quebec city. He felt it was a too small market being a French-speaking city and his career would be better if he went elsewhere. The crap he got from the Quebecois for "insulting" Quebec. Subsequent events showed how right his decision was. In any case no public money should ever be spent building stadiums for privately owned sports clubs. Just look at how the taxpayers in Toronto here got screwed by the Skydome fiasco. The Toronto guy.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Gilles Duceppe is living "dans le monde de fantasme"

    Could someone tell me one thing that he has done good for the entirety of Canada. Canada is moving forward with or without Quebec. When the number of seats at the Commons are increased to reflect the changing demographics of the country, Quebec's anti-english (canadian) political weight will be subtantially reduced.

    I believe Harper has for the most part abandoned any real zest for more seats from Quebec. After all, in the last election he increased equalization to Quebec by a factor of nearly two. 4.5 to 8.5 billion dollars. This to satisfy the "fiscal imbalance" which Duceppe had invented. After this the people of Quebec kicked Harper and his ranks in the mouthes over a small cut to arts "travel" funding.

    I doubt that Harper has any intention to further alienate the ROC by giving Quebec funding for a new coloseum on the chance that Quebec City might get another NHL team or host the Olympic games in the future. Hell, Quebec might not be a part of Canada when these Olympics roll around.

    Troy is right in that Duceppe will be laughing at Canada for the rest of his lifewhile living it up on his pension which will be provided by the people he has opposed all his life. F'king ridiculous really, isn't it? Only in Canada.

    As I said, Canada would be a much stronger country if Quebec would decide to leave, which I doubt will ever happen. The advantages to the ROC if Quebec would "take the door" are numerous and the disadvantages are only those invented by greedy federalist politicians who have only thier own interests at heart (juste comme M. Duceppe- qui est le meme chose)

    ReplyDelete
  6. "Just look at how the taxpayers in Toronto here got screwed by the Skydome fiasco."

    What about the BIG O in Montreal. If the feds want to fund the Quebec City Arena by some miracle, they had better build in a 300% Contingency as no doubt the construction sector and trade unions will drive the cost into the clouds.

    ReplyDelete
  7. “c'est cette même loi qui a contribué fortement a la sauvegarde du caractère Francais de Montréal”

    They keep saying it, while at the same time organizations like the MMF pop up on the landscape and justify their existence using the “decline of French” as argument. So either Quebec language laws did NOT work and the MMF has a raison-d’etre (notwithstanding the horrendous tactics and goals it has set out for itself), OR the laws worked, and organizations like MMF, SSJB, IF, RRQ, are unnecessary and redundant.

    One or the other. The rules of logic need to apply.

    ReplyDelete
  8. @Adski

    Je vous signale que vous êtes sur le post ultérieur.encore a coté de vos pompes.Que se passe-t-il Adski? Manque de sommeil?

    Lisez attentivement : c'est cette même loi qui a CONTRIBUÉ FORTEMENT a la sauvegarde du caractère Francais de Montréal.Cela veut dire qu'elle a CONTRIBUÉ,je n'affirme pas qu'elle fait tout le travail.

    Elle n'est qu'un outil parmi d'autres,dont les organismes que vous évoquez.
    S.V.P Allez sur le bon post afin ne pas semer la confusion.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I hope you're right that the arena won't get any federal funding. Generally, when given two options, politicians usually chose the stupidist or most self-serving one (frequently, but not always, the same option).

    ReplyDelete
  10. Dartagnan divague encore, selon toi les lois dont tu parles donc contribuent à protéger le français. Hmm précédemment tu affirmais que le reste du travail est de détruire le reste de la communauté anglophone et le caractère bilingue de Montréal.
    Alors c'est quoi le but? Le nettoyage ethnique? Ou la promotion du français? Je pense que tu lies les 2 ensembles et selon ton extrémisme la disparition de la communauté anglophone du Québec = la protection du français. Désolant comme pensée, tu fais pitié.

    ReplyDelete
  11. @anon 3:41

    "Le nettoyage ethnique? Ou la promotion du français?"

    Je ne sais pas si c'est votre cas mais moi je suis capable de marcher et de mâcher une gomme en même temps.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Dartagnan said...@September 1, 2010 4:21 PM

    "je suis capable de marcher et de mâcher une
    gomme en même temps"

    What's this? Our resident separtist/french
    language "professor"/wannabe nazi resorting
    to English sayings to insult. Tsk, tsk.

    On topic (or off facist troll), would love
    to hear ol' condom head explain to an
    American audience how he's not a seditious
    little traitor. Would love to hear him compare
    Quebec to Hawaii (distinct language/culture).

    Maybe he'll explain how in Quebec's courts
    you don't have the right to question your
    accuser, or the language laws, or how the
    government can set %50 plus 1 of REGISTERED
    voters as the requirement (as opposed to
    %50 plus 1 of votes) and call itself
    democratic.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Je crois que cette nouvelle est pertinente (French):

    http://fr.canoe.ca/sports/nouvelles/hockey/lnh/archives/2010/09/20100901-171727.html

    ReplyDelete