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| Nycole Turmel conoodling with ultra-separatist candidate Bill Clennett and Francoise David, leader of Quebec solidaire. |
Either that, or Layton is deathly afraid that had he made Thomas Mulcair interim leader, there'd be no place for Layton to return.
Either way, it says a lot about the Ndp and what kind of party it will be going ahead without Jack Layton.
It isn't any secret that the Quebec caucus of the Ndp is riddled with separatists and/or separatists who have changed their politics and are now re-born federalists.
Those who change political sides are entitled to do so.
After all, if a drunk can become a teetotaller, Madame Turmel can become a federalist. It's rare, but it does happen.
Today she swears up and down that she is a federalist and always has been, but the facts don't bear her out.
Despite her denials, she can't hide from the truth that she was a vocal supporter and card-carrying member of the Quebec solidaire AND the Bloc Quebecois.
Here is a video of a press conference, a few years ago, in which Madame Turcotte professes loyalty to Quebec's radical separatist party, Quebec solidaire. She offers her unfettered endorsement of Bill Clennett, a union/separatist radical who is best remembered for being manhandled by Prime Minister Jean Chretien when he broke through the PM's security perimeter. YouTube
After the incident a furious Sheila Copps accused Clennett of being a radical separatist hiding behind a unionist label.
Ms. Turmel is unequivocal in her support for Mr. Clennett and Quebec Solidaire, telling the audience that she feels 'very close' to the QS political agenda.
Francois David, co-president of the ultra-separatist party declared that "The support of Ms Turmel is a great honour for me and serves our campaign well.".
"Asked to comment on her support of Québec solidaire, Ms. Turmel declared last Wednesday: “When I supported Quebec solidaire, it still hadn’t adopted the resolution declaring itself a sovereigntist party. It was before.”
However, in Quebec solidaire’s Declaration of Principles (Foundation) passed in 2006, the year before Ms. Turmel’s support to QS, the party declared itself a supporter of Quebec sovereignty. And Ms. Turmel supported the four Outaouais Bloc québécois candidates during the 2006 federal election, a clearly sovereigntist party." Link
After
being confronted about her support for Quebec Solidaire and the
ridiculous claim that she didn't know that the party was sovereignist,
she changed her tune.
"I supported the
progressive policies of the Quebec Solidaire, but such support
does not apply to sovereigntists objectives," LINK{FR}
Yesterday the Globe & Mail published a blockbuster story confirming that Madame Turmel was a member of the Bloc Quebecois for almost five years and only resigned last January when she knew she'd be a candidate for the Ndp. Yesterday she admitted that she still carries a Quebec Solidaire membership card, but promised to quit the party.
Yesterday the Globe & Mail published a blockbuster story confirming that Madame Turmel was a member of the Bloc Quebecois for almost five years and only resigned last January when she knew she'd be a candidate for the Ndp. Yesterday she admitted that she still carries a Quebec Solidaire membership card, but promised to quit the party.
And
so her claim of never being a separatist is tenuous at best, at worst an outright lie.
She, like other soft sovereignists are able to flit between the two camps, seemingly at will.
She, like other soft sovereignists are able to flit between the two camps, seemingly at will.
Today a federalist, yesterday a separatist, next week who knows what. I guess it all depends on the political winds.
There are however avowed separatists in the Quebec caucus who see no contradiction and make no apologies for their support of Quebec independence. This separatist wing of the NDP hasn't garnered much media attention, after all, the party was under the firm direction of Jack Layton, who was crafty enough to use the separatists to his own ends.
There are however avowed separatists in the Quebec caucus who see no contradiction and make no apologies for their support of Quebec independence. This separatist wing of the NDP hasn't garnered much media attention, after all, the party was under the firm direction of Jack Layton, who was crafty enough to use the separatists to his own ends.
As for Madame Turmel, I'm not sure Canadians outside Quebec could ever be comfortable with an ex-sovereignist as leader of the Ndp and so, she is indeed a lame duck and as such a perfect choice as interim leader, someone with no viable long-term leadership prospects, who poses no threat to those who aspire to the top job.
Those who are fans of Jack Layton and even those who are not,
nonetheless must agree that he is a masterful politician, probably the most skilled
in Canada.Keeping a party comprised of so many different elements united and focused seemed like child's play for Jack and like an orchestra conductor who waves his baton effortlessly, the ease at which Layton held his party together is actually quite astonishing.
Unlike 'Uncle Tom' Mulcair, who would throw Canada under the bus in a heartbeat to further his own political ends, Jack was masterful at 'shucking and jiving.' Despite the rhetoric and the Sherbrooke declaration, under Layton, there wasn't any doubt over the Ndp's bone fides as a federalist party and promoter of the Canada brand.
And so until Layton recovers or resigns, the Ndp will tread water with Nycol Turmel. When and if Layton's absence become permanent, Mulcair will grab the top prize.
He is ruthless and determined. He scares people within his own caucus. Running against him and losing would be the kiss of death, so possible contenders will be reluctant to try.
Mean, arrogant, feisty and determined, his pit-bull characterization is well deserved. He will make life miserable for the ruling Conservatives and he will no doubt command a lot of face time on television.
He is naturally combative and aggressive and has the ability to argue effectively against anything. He also has no scruples or real agenda other than Tom Mulcair.
His personality is diametrically opposed to Layton's, but that could play in his favour.
Others who try to emulate Layton's 'good ole boy' persona will pale in comparison.
No doubt the Ndp will be a different party under Mulcair, but perhaps, just perhaps, it will become a better and more effective opposition.
Instead of pushing an unrealistic socialist agenda, Mulcair will be more useful in hammering the government over its errors and policy gaffes. He can and will inflict a lot of pain on the Conservatives and even supporters of the government should agree that in light of a majority government, an effective opposition is in the country's best interest.
The idea of Mulcair as opposition leader should strike fear in the ruling Conservatives and those that are dismissive or underestimate him will suffer for it.
I hate to admit it, but Canada will be better off with a rat like Mulcair leading the opposition.
One of my fave movies of all time is Lean on Me, a true story about a high school in Paterson, NJ that became a cesspool of violence. Movies have a knack for dramatizing, but early in the movie, Robert Guillaume, of Benson fame on TV, playing the role of Dr. Frank Napier, the superintendent of schools, discusses his strategy with the mayor of Paterson, by stating that in order to retain control over the school, 75% of the student body would need to pass a basic skills test, and he said to the mayor "What we need is [to bring in as the school's principal] someone who has nothing to lose, and then decide what we want to do with him."
ReplyDeleteEnter one Joe Louis Clark, a good man in principle (pardon the pun), but a maverick who keeps his eye on the goal but alienates everyone in his path while doing it. While his detractors were hard at work trying to get him fired, he reached the students by providing them a safe environment, free of the drug traffickers and other miscreant 10% of the school misfits who intimidated and disrupted the other 90%. Unfortunately, he broke the law in achieving this.
Enter Nycole Turmoil. Like Eastside High's Joe Clark (no relation, I'm sure to our beloved former Alberta politician), Turmoil is that body to fill in for Layton until it is determined whether or not Jack is back. Hopefully she'll keep her caucus together (fat chance), and when the decision is made whether Jack will come back or fade into the sunset, she'll be sent to the showers like most pinch hitters in baseball. Good for an at-bat only, then back to bench warming.
Once the Jack question is answered, either he'll come back, or Mulcair bully his way to dictator of the NDP.
Mulcair has been a career politician since 1994 in muh ol' Chomedey home (but I high-tailed my way out of Quebec, thankfully, ten years before he arrived), but when he tried to take on HIS boss, Premier John James "Goldilocks" Charest, we KNOW who left with his tail between his legs.
Yes, Mulcair WILL perform great theatrics as an opposition leader, certainly less bland than Turmoil, he'll be fire and brimstone and very good at rebuttal, but the bus he'll try to throw Canada under will back up over him because an all-bilingual bench of Supreme Court judges just ain't gonna be tolerated in the West, and I certainly won't tolerate here in South Central Ontario, you can bet your boots on that! All federal organizations are going to be bilingual? In a pig's eye! With any luck, that bus will then run forward over him and back again!
Like I've written in this blog before, perhaps you can suck and blow simultaneously in a five-week campaign, but doing it over a four-year mandate is a horse of a different colour! Too, I'd love to see how Mulcair will try to reach out to the electorate outside Quebec after alienating them into second class citizens. With any luck, the electorate won't be THAT stupid!
I couldn't have said it better.
ReplyDelete"Much as a I hate dislike Mulcair, he is probably the best man for the job and perhaps the perfect leader of the opposition."
these clowns are all RAT PUKES... I said it before, I'll say it again.. Quebec should be partitioned now...
ReplyDeleteI doubt that the interim leader will garner any suppot outside of Quebec and in fact will raise a lot of eyebrows in the West. Muclair is an obvious opportunist He could give a rat's ass for bilingualism and only uses it as a tool for raising support for his own agenda. Notice how he neatly he avoids commenting on anything related to the draconian language laws in Quebec. Now that the NDP has been infiltrated by separatists, it will be very interesting to see how things go forward. I was of this opinion from the start.
ReplyDeleteEvery party on the hill is filled with these anti-English language, pro bill 101 bigots. They are all over the hill, in every department. You can call them separatists, traitors, opportunists, scum bags…one and the same. This had been going on for decades since Trudeau brought these anti-English language bigots to Ottawa from Kebec in the 1960”s.
ReplyDeleteThe simple facts are as more francophone’s get hired for all government positions less and less English speakers are working for their own governments across the country. Don’t believe me; Go check the stats for yourself. Francophone’s are over-represented in all levels of government including hospitals, law, policing...etc. No fairness, no representation by population. They call it bilingualism, yet the term is never defined on purpose and believe me it doesn’t mean fluency in 2 languages in Canada, at least to the French it doesn’t. No political party will speak for the English speaking majority in this province and country. Practical bilingualism, where numbers warrant… is never defined on purpose. In Ontario, NB it now means segregation. The French (they are actually metis, a mixed race, not french) are demanding French only facilities all over the province, not bilingual, French only. $ Bilingualism is really nothing more then a hiring quota for francophone’s and that is a fact…just ask yourself, why are francophone’s over-represented in all government jobs and how come more and more positions are being designated bilingual all the time? And just as important, how come they are NOT fluently bilingual? Some can barely speak English!
Go learn our proud, real BNA and UEL history. These were the builders of our country since 1763, not this phony, revisionist lie, spin, nonsense, this bilingual, multicultural,2 founding nations, linguistic duality lie, spin, propaganda that we’ve been living with since Trudeau and Kebec (original spelling) forced this upon the nation. We’ve been part of the British Empire since 1763 and officially and English speaking country for over 200 years, again just the facts...We were never a bilingual country. This is one big expensive lie/fraud that’s been going on for over 5 decades now.
So while Quebec bans the English language (bill 22, bill 178, bill 101…), wipes out its real BNA, UEL history, while ethnic language cleansing is going on in Quebec, the rest of the country is forced to fund whatever the French (metis) demand. All in the name of bilingualism (forced French)… This is going on in every province. Go check.
See what’s really going on? What are they really up to? “First Quebec, then we take over the rest of the country, one step at a time…through bilingualism…” PT, “How to take over a country through bilingualism…” SD. How? First comes the right to communicate with gov't in a minority language (ie French),then comes bilingualism, then comes the right to work in the language of choice(ie French), then comes a bilingual boss,(ie French) then comes a exclusively French department and on it goes until its all French. Its happening all over the country, Ontario, New Brunswick… Go check the stats for yourself.
Liberal, Tory, NDP same old story. No party, no politician has touched this issue since it was forced upon the nation. The public has complained for decades yet the scum bag politicians remain silent. They are not listening to the people. Liberal, Tory same old story.
Where do we turn?
The above comment (from 11:50) is tinged with more than a hint of racism. Your assertion that the Québecois are all really Métis begs a few Quéstions: 1) Upon what "facts" are you basing this assumption? I know enough Québec family histories that the small percentage of Native, English, Scottish, Haitian and Irish admixture into some of the population hardly Qualifies them as Métis. 2) Even if the were, who cares? French (like English) is a linguistic category in Canada. Ask all those "English" Canadians with German, Ukranian, Russian, Polish, oh yeah and Métis blood in the West. There's no racial purity test of direct decent from France or England in this Canada required to be part of the Anglophone or Francophone Communities.
ReplyDeleteAs for bilingualism, the fact that the historic Francophone 20-30% of our Country was persecuted for much of our history doesn't mean we were on the right track. If you really care about Canada, you'd stop needlessly poking Francophones in the eye.
I'm a die hard Federalist but I know a few things about Canada. Firstly, there wouldn't be Canada as we know it without the contributions of Nation builders like Georges Etienne Cartier, Wilfred Laurier, St. Laurent, Trudeau, Mulroney, Chrétien and the many other "Kebecers" that contributed to this country. The West wouldn't have been settled without "Les Voyageurs" (See St. Boniface, MB) nor Atlantic Canada without the contribution of Les Acadiens et Acadiennes.
According to the 2006 census, 22% of Canadians have French as a first language and while 40% of Quebeckers are bilingual in English and French, only 10% of Canadians outside Quebec are.
"I'm a die hard Federalist but I know a few things about Canada. Firstly, there wouldn't be Canada as we know it without the contributions of Nation builders like Georges Etienne Cartier, Wilfred Laurier, St. Laurent, Trudeau, Mulroney, Chrétien and the many other "Kebecers""
ReplyDeleteYou have to be kidding.
Trudeau was an idiot commie (use to hang out with Mao and the gang in Red China, good friends with dictator Fidel Castro from Cuba) Brought us the OLA which has cost 100's of billions of dollars with no real results other than to offer preferential treatment to Francos from Quebec) The National Energy Program which nearly bankrupt Albertans and had a negative impact on all western Canada. Yeh, I still remember him giving the finger to the farmers of Western Canada.
Mulroney will come to be known as one of the most corrupt politians Canada has ever known (Airbus etc etc etc)
Chretein makes me ill. Shawinigate, Sponsorship.
Nice fellow.
These are not great builders, they are but corrupt and deceitful politicians from Quebec where bribes, payouts and other edgy practices are common.
"The days when elites in Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal shaped the national agenda are well and truly past. The funeral was held May 2. The new consensus is between Ontario and the West. Quebec is outside that consensus."
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/opinion/quebecs-profound-isolation/article2117494/
"Quebec is outside that consensus"
ReplyDeleteCorrect and just as Quebec is not part of my Canada. By their own volition. End of Story
Good luck to the new independance party of the NDP.
...to adski: That article by John Ibbitson is music to my eyes. Quebec politics is redundant...too left, too antiquated; besides, I'm sick and tired of the French fact. Hopefully, before too long, those arrogant SOBs in Eastern Ontario will be told to go to Quebec if they want to live a French-only life.
ReplyDeleteGuess what? Even if they separate, who's going to deal with them in French. The language would lose relevance outside Quebec in the Real Canada, and the Americans don't give a rat's ass about Québécois culture or language. If they want to trade outside their borders, they better learn English, or at worst, Spanish. Inside Quebec they can do whatever the hell they want, but if they're trying to show up English North America, faggedaboudit! They can go crying to St-Pierre and Miquelon, a French satellite full of s--t disturbers who can do virtually nothing but squeak like little field mice.
With any luck, the separation of Quebec will lead to their partition and that will even weaken their already half-dead fiscal position. We'll welcome Western Montreal that contains what's left of the city's riches and the East can remain with Quebec. That includes the rusting remnants of the oil refineries and the decomposing Olympic Stadium, not to mention most of the slums.
Equalization payments for Quebec? FAGEDDABOUDIT! Ontario has 40% of the population, it's working its way to 40% of the constituencies as it should, and the City of Toronto has more (private) money than all of Quebec put together. The Third Millennium Golden Rule: "He who has all the gold, makes the rules."
Ontario right now has rust on its belt, Ontario has 40% of the population, Ontario has 40% of the vote, Ontario needs Equalization payments. Quebec has 22% of the population and falling (since the church can't dictate the "small bread" of society make more small bread) they're dying off as fast as they grew for 200 years up to 1960, and I hope Harps leans on Quebec ruthlessly when the next Equalization talks come around in 2014. Ontario got Harps a majority government, so if he and the Conservatives know what's good for them, they'll remember Ontario for giving him his majority and remind Quebec what the penalty is for cutting him out.
By the time the next election rolls around in 2015, unless the Conservatives get too full of themselves, the NDP won't see the opposition benches again in the lifetimes of ANY voters alive today. Who will Quebec run to next? If Quebec chooses to vote themselves out (and I don't consider separation a dead issue, except perhaps for now), they will get what they deserve, and it won't be pretty.
I think the Liberals will reinvent themselves, and with four years to really examine themselves, I think they'll modernize. Now they're going through the morphing process the right went through in the 1990s. Their best bet is to get rid of the Old Guard. It's obsolete and antiquated.
Vous êtes un homme malheureux n'est-pas Mr.Sauga?
ReplyDeleteJ'ai rarement vu quelqu'un d'aussi hargneux et revenchard.Vous puez la frustration a plein nez.
Vous avez échouer votre vie au Québec et alors?
Faites-nous plaisir et du coup faites-vous du bien,quittez donc le Québec totalement!Votre "Québec bashing" ne sert absolument a rien sauf a donner des érections sporadiques a votre petit ami adski.