Monday, July 11, 2011

Amir Khadir Losing His Shine

Khadir  and David in better times.
If one takes heed of the latest CROP poll published in La Presse, it may just be that Amir Khadir's political star is eclipsing.

The Quebec solidarnik has taken a preciptious tumble in popularity and the fortunes of the party he represents, as it's lone sitting member in the National Assembly, are no better.

As you can see by the polling numbers below, Kahdir's personal popularity has hit an all-time low as  he is now perceived by just 4% of Quebeckers as Premier material.
When you hit a number that low, you're taken about as seriously as  Bonnehomme Carnaval.

That being said, Khadir would probably be able to defend his seat in Mercier, it seems that half of those voters who make up that 4% number, live in the Plateau Mont-Royal!

That's no comfort to Francoise David and the rest of the Quebec Solidarniks, who must be thunderstruck by the numbers, which indicate clearly that they could not come close to electing any one else and are destined to remain a fringe element in Quebec politics.
Their biggest accomplishment is to split the separatist vote to the benefit of the federalist parties, so in that respect all I can Say is "Long live the QS!


Mr Khadir had remained popular in his constituency by maintaining an image as the Ralph Nader of Quebec politics, assailing government, entrenched politicians, as well as hectoring the rich and powerful, much to the delight of his supporters, who forgive his many excesses as a small price to pay for his defence of the 'little guy'.

It seems that Quebeckers have taken in stride Mr. Khadir's continuous attacks on the establishment and  even forgave him his support of a wildly unpopular boycott against a small Montreal Shoe merchant for selling Israeli shoes. It did not seem to harm him politically and so until quite recently Mr. Khadir appeared to be the ultimate Teflon politician.

I'd like to believe that the relentless pounding Khadir has taken in the press (and in the blogosphere) for his leftist views and his unpopular stances, has finally made an impact on his popularity but alas, I fear it is wishful thinking.
If Mr Khadir has suffered a permanent loss of support, it is not based on the cumulative effect of his past excesses, but rather it can be attributed to one issue and one issue alone.

Mr. Khadir is being widely lambasted for scuppering a National Assembly law that would hold Quebec City legally harmless for bypassing the tendering process in order to fast track the building of a hockey arena.

And so the people are not amused.
Over 70% of Quebec voters are in favour of the law and the arena project, most of them quite passionate about the issue.

As for Mr. Khadir, it may be acceptable to screw with the rich and famous, the monarchy, big business, Anglos, Canadians, Americans and Jews...but as for Quebeckers there is one inviolate rule;

DON'T SCREW WITH HOCKEY!   

Can it be that Quebeckers are so shallow? Is hockey a bigger issue than everything else?
More important than sovereignty?
More important than the deficit?
More important than high taxes?
More important than emergency room wait-times?
More important than foreign policy?
More important than crumbling infrastructure?


YUP! Apparently, it is! 

Poor Amir himself is stunned at this turn of events. Asked to comment on his Humpty-Dumpty fall, Mr. Khadir admitted that it is "Remarakable, something that can't be denied" Link{FR}

And so a lesson is learned...Sort of.

If anyone expects Mr. Khadir to change his opinions or in any way modify his political activism, they don't know him very well.

In a week where the Syrian government killed its weekly quota of 25 to 50 of its own citizens and while the Libyan government continues to prosecute a war of attrition on its own civilians which has already resulted upwards of 10,000 mostly civilian causalities, it is the government of Greece that is firmly in Mr. Khadir's sight for its refusal to sanction the departure from Greek ports of the Gaza blockade-busting flotilla.
And so, considering all that he has said and all that he has done, it is Mr. Khadir's position on the Quebec City arena, which is his undoing. Unbelievable!

But this is Quebec......

10 comments:

  1. Editor, to quote a former hockey player-turned-affable-broadcaster, "GOLLY GEEZ". My family went on an outing today, and we visited this conservation area where the big wooden deck was covered with the turd of ducks and Canada geese, and now you're still writing about Amir Khadir.

    How that guy became an M.D. with his skull full of turd is, I guess, as much a mystery of how Cadbury gets the caramel into the Caramilk bar. Amir Khadir IS turd, what with his hatred of Jews, hatred of capitalism and probably hatred of himself! Him and his father!

    Sadly, too many times, I have seen Quebec's Francophone society with a collective skull full of mush as well. Poor crash test dummies don't realize they're pushing to make an investment in an arena for a hockey team that does not exist. Gary Bettman already showed Jim Balsillie what happens when the cart is put before the horse, and loudly announces that fact.

    Quebec City is not a poor town because if its well overpaid civil servants that make up enough of the population to afford the cost of the better seats in a hockey arena. In the 1986-87 season, the conventional All-Star classic was replaced by a two-game (and what was supposed to be total-goal) series between the NHL's best and the Soviets' best. The Colisée was indeed packed, but most of the seats were reserved for the elite, many of whom flew into town for the event and a host of exclusive social events. Only about 500 seats were available for each of the two games for the general public, and the Winter Carnival was the general public's party.

    Be that as it may, this time Bettman MAY cave in only because there are enough teams struggling to fill the seats in their arenas. Even when the Carolina Hurricanes were on the way to their one and only Stanley Cup victory they had trouble filling the seats. I believe about 4,000 tickets PER GAME were given away, even in the final series, and they hosted a game seven!

    In Quebec City, they would have scalped those tickets for several hundred dollars each, maybe over a thousand. Anyway, we can speculate about this until the cows come home.

    If anything merits attention in this blog, it's probably François Legault since he seems to be making the most waves, and is leading in support as an untried and untested leader. It looks like he'll be another player of games at taunting Ottawa for more money, or else.......Only this time I hope Harper will tell him where to go, and dare Legault to take Quebec with him.

    Oh, and by the way, for our younger readers, "Mr. GOLLY GEEZ" is Howie Meeker, a former player for the Toronto Maple Leafs in the forties and fifties, and yes, a former federal member of parliament...while playing hockey! He was also a very colorful broadcast analyst on Hockey Night in Canada. He WAS very much worth watching!

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  2. Un petit commentaire en français si tu permets... tes analyses sont toujours très excellentes. C'est dommage, mais Amir est extrême dans tout ce qu'il fait et c'est son manque de justesse qui tue en ce moment son parti politique. Il a du bon et du mauvais dans cet homme, pas que du mauvais. Il a bien raison en ce qui attrait au dossier du stade pour la ville de Québec. On se permet au Québec d'attribuer des contrats d'envergure sans appel d'offre. C'est inacceptable. Mais la prise de position d'Amir Khadir dans ce dossier à sûrement contribuer à sa baisse de popularité parce que franchement, au Québec, on s'en fou d'être droit ou pas, on veut ce qu'on veut et c'est tout. Et Québec veut son équipe de hockey... Ce qui est très drôle d'ailleurs. Les Québécois et le hockey, c'est sacré. Amir Khadir l'aura appris à ses dépends. Je t'adore toi et ton blog. Pas de chien, pas d'anglais et pas d'Amir Khadir non plus ok? Love.

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  3. Thank God for Amir,the only honest politician in Quebec.

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  4. Le hockey est le sujet le plus médiatisé au Québec.Seul les catastrophes de grande envergure peuvent le déclasser le temps de la nouvelle.Je crois que c'était le deuxième sujet après WTC en 2001.

    Vraiment pathétique!

    http://www.influencecommunication.com/fr/entreprise/services/analyse-quantitative

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  5. "Aucun 29%"

    'None of the above' wins. Should be on every
    ballot in every election.

    The "vraiment pathétique" part of this is the
    (historically) best team in hockey is already
    in Quebec (Montreal). What if they quit trying
    to build the best French-speaking team and just
    build the best hockey team? Forced mediocrity
    sucks!

    DD

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  6. DD: "Should be on every ballot in every election."

    Absolutely. It would be great for tempering these people's arrogance. You win an election, but you lose to "none of the above". Ouch. That smarts.

    With the system we have today, these things are carefully tucked away. The absentee rate and spoilt ballot (like my friend's who writes "merde" across his voting card before dropping it in the box) is conveniently buried under the cloak of silence. A guy can win an election with 20% of the popular vote and still boast to be the pick of "all" Quebeckers/Canadians, while in fact 80% of eligible voters didn't even come close to casting a vote for him. This is why I flinch when I hear them utter this kind of nonsense (Duceppe was a champion of this, btw).

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  7. @ DD July 12, 2011 6:54 AM

    I don't think the drive to bring an NHL franchise to Quebec City is based on the desire to have a "more French" team than the Canadiens. I think fans in Q.C. just want to root for their own NHL team again.

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  8. @Ed

    My point was at one time the only team ANY
    Quebecker cared about (before it was "languaged"
    into mediocrity) was in Montreal. In 1950s
    Quebec, the suggestion we needed another team
    would have been (at a minimum) laughed at.

    DD

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  9. Anglodude lets be honest, you have a hate on for Khadir because like many he is calling out Israel and its radical Zionist expansion into the West Bank.This Irgun-Herut-Likud polity is a long way from the kibbutz and Exodus and its why Israel is losing support world wide.Israel is your key issue but for Quebecor and PKP ,Khadr is not playing to more corporate welfare.The empire will make an all out effort to destroy him and will take huge pieces out of him, but you know what integrity and honesty might prevail.I hope so.

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  10. A lot of wishful thinking in your analysis here. Go to threehundredeight.com and look at their predictions. Poll averages show Amir Khadir's party, Quebec Solidaire, with a significantly higher score than in the last provincial election and show Khadir himself coasting to easy victory in Mercier riding, picking up an additional seat in Gouin and with a decent chance of picking up several others. QS is on a roll, Amir Khadir is highly respected in his community and your rant is way, way off-base.

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