PQ Convention - Blah...Blah...Blah!

Reading news reports of the events at the PQ convention last weekend I am reminded of that famous New York Yankee baseball manger, Yogi Berra who once said; ""It's déjà vu all over again,"

Each PQ convention seems a clone of the previous, the only question at issue is whether the current leader survives or is cast aside in another cruel act of political fratricide.

Alas, the lovely Pauline was indeed confirmed as the leader, receiving a 93% approval rating,  impressive when one considers that she scores in the mid-twenties with the general public.

The day before her reconfirmation, Marois sat silently by as delegates voted to ban English public signage, holding her tongue, lest she upset the militant dogs ahead of her leadership review.
Readers may remember that this particular clause in Bill 101, among dozens of others, was overturned by the Supreme Court, years ago.
The delegates wanted to re-implement the very same clause and use the famous "Notwithstanding Clause" to opt out of the inevitable court defeat.

In most politcal parties, it is the 'Young Turks' wing of the party that pushes for radical new policies, but in the case of the PQ, it is the old and frustrated who most want to push the envelope, sensing that like Moses or Martin Luther King, they will never see the Promised Land.
"And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!"

Of course Pauline and the other PQ elected members were aghast at the idea of re-implementing the draconian policy that could best be described as lose/lose gambit.

As soon as her leadership was reaffirmed she set forth to scuttle the newly minted motion.

First she sent party bigwigs out to the podium to soften up delegates.
Makko Kotta told delegates then that "...We can reduce, but not outlaw English. We are on a quest for a new nation and this resolution can be potentially divisive"
...How generous!

"PQ language critic Pierre Curzi and former PQ language critic Louise Beaudoin were dispatched to send a message to the hard-liners through the media that the PQ in power would not revisit the sign issue.
"It is a position which could effectively be perceived as radical," Curzi told reporters at a hastily called news conference in the corridor. "We find it does, indeed, send us down a perilous path." LINK

After the delegates had been suitably cowered, Marois hit the stage to put the coup de grace on the proposal by calling for a new vote;

"I have no desire to get embroiled in another legal debate on the question of the language of signs, given that we have lost all the way to the United Nations.

"What I want is for us to put all our energies into winning our battles. I ask you to reject this proposal."

"With that, the party made a stunning flip-flop - agreeing to not touch the existing law: Bill 86, adopted by the Liberal government in 1993, allowing English on signs as long as French is predominant." LINK

It was a cunning piece of strategy, cynical but nonetheless effective. Marois let the militants run wild and then after receiving their blessing, undid the damage.

One thing the party did do was to re-affirm their intention to restrict access to English cegep to those ineligible under the terms of Bill 101, thus rejecting the conclusions of the Quebec's most senior language body, charged with defending the French language, the Conseil supérieur de la language française. In a report published just weeks before the PQ convention, it concluded that "...attendance in English cegep has virtually no effect on language shifts" 

As far as language militants were concerned, this unacceptable conclusion meant that the bloom was off of the rose of this hitherto august body which they attacked mercilessly in the press as a sellout.

LINK

No matter, it wasn't really about defending French, it was more about punishing the English 'colonialists.' 

I daresay that if Rene Levesque and Lionel Groulx popped out of the grave to advise them the same, they would reject the notion as well. 

To delegates, anti-English resolutions are just too delicious to pass up and no convention would be complete without a few nasty proposals, putting Anglos in their place.

One of the proponent's of the ban on English signage told reporters that it is 'normal' to have only one language on commercial signs, after all, he pontificated, when one goes to Italy, one doesn't expect to see English signs.

Hmmm.....No reporter dared to challenge the remarks by reminding him that Quebec is not a country, but rather a province in a predominantly English-speaking country! Ouch!

And so with a renewed sense of purpose and conviction that Quebec would soon be a sovereign state, the delegates left the convention in an upbeat and confident state of mind, oblivious to the reality that they'll be back again next year and the year after that and in ten years as well, ad nauseum.

The broken record continues to play the same tired tune over and over again, with the general public sick of hearing it, while to hardliners, it remains a rhapsodic symphony!