Separtists Descend Into Fantasy World

BQ election loss brutal for faithful

To most pundits and casual observers as well, the May 2, federal election and the resulting collapse of the Bloc Quebecois, signalled that Quebec voters were tired of being represented by unproductive separatists in Ottawa or were exasperated with the constant political obsession with a referendum and a sovereignty project that is clearly unrealizable, a perceived waste of effort and political capital (in the voter's mind.)

This second conclusion may be the most dangerous development for separatist hard-liners.
Many of those who would vote 'YES' in a referendum signalled that they have reached the pragmatic conclusion that given no chance of winning, they'd rather forgo the humiliation of another painful defeat.

Have these 'soft' separatists given up altogether or have they decided to forgo sovereignty for now and perhaps revisit the option at a later date?
Separatist militants are desperately hoping for the latter, because accepting that Quebeckers have given up on sovereignty is absolutely unthinkable.

It's taken the hardliners about three months to get over the initial shock of the election debacle and the resulting trauma, a period in wherein hardliners vented their anger rather nastily, describing those Quebec voters who opted for the Ndp as lazy, ignorant and politically naive betrayers.

The anger-filled columns in vigile.net and on other separatist websites all shared a common theme.
Rage, scorn and disbelief, remindful of the emotions that one can expect when dumped rather brutally and unexpectedly, by a longtime partner.
These hate-filled missives of the frustrated separatist been-done-wrongs, were actually fun reads. The acerbic prose dripping with angst, paints a vivid picture not of the subjects, but rather writers. Here's a good example{Fr}.

Judging by what's being published now, it appears that most of these separatist have gotten over the initial shock and disbelief. They've moved on from the first initial stages of grief, Denial and Anger (according to the Kubler-Ross description of the 5 stages of grief,)  and now firmly reside in the third stage, Bargaining.

If only we do this........things will change. Yup, bargaining.

Trying desperately to come up with a solution to revive a sovereignty project on life-support, militants have descended into unreality, lurching from one desperate solution to another, turning on each other in the process.

To a federalist like myself, watching the movement fracture, with militants ripping and tearing at each other's throats, is the very definition of schadenfreude.

Pauline Marois. Haughtiness or preparing for the guillotine?

For the Parti Quebecois, times are decidedly tough, with desertions by hardliners all the more painful as those who leave embark on a scorched earth campaign towards the party.
This coupled with the fiercest of attacks by party militants, who believe that the party has lost its relevancy and that the leader, Pauline Marois, has betrayed them, is placing the party at risk, firmly betwixt a rock and a hard place.

But what's a girl to do?

If Pauline embarks on the suicidal hardline path that militants demand, the party will, come next election, in all likelihood, suffer the same fate that its federal counterpart suffered.
That possibility is very real, as even hard line journalist Josee Legault admits. Link{Fr}    Alternate link{Fr}

If the PQ maintains its current course, waiting for those mythical 'winning conditions' it risks losing more and more of it's radical wing.
The party is already bleeding members, hardliners who believe that if you're going to lose, you may as well stand on your principles.  Hard to argue with that, I suppose.
For the Parti Quebecois, the choice it faces in determining it's future course (militancy versus pragmatism) is decidedly a lose/lose situation, maddeningly reminiscent of Sophie's Choice

And so a new debate (Bargaining) is taking place among Quebec sovereigntists, one that has come to the rather startling consensus that the independence movement has failed because it is not radical enough!
I'm not kidding or making it up!

Jean-Martin Aussant, leading the charge!

Yup, these sovereigntists have concluded that they need to be more militant in order to succeed!

In other words, if nobody wants to buy your apples, you've got to raise the price to be successful!

Jean-Martin Aussant, one those deserter MPs from the Parti Quebecois is in the process of creating a new independence party- OPTION QUEBEC, which can best be described as the PQ on steroids.

New Movement + new flag = same old story.

Yesterday, Seventy-seven sovereigntist militants, signed a manifesto which was published online, entitled  "Breaking the Impasse," another long-winded denunciation of the Parti Quebecois, Canada and federalism. Ho-Hum, not a particularly big deal.

Nowhere in the document does it propose how a new party will be successful pedalling what has been so forcefully rejected by the public already.

It's like adding more curry to a dish and returning it to a customer who previously sent it back to the kitchen because it was too spicy.

There is only one word to describe this new separatist initiative- FANTASY.

Me, I'm okay with all this.

Another separatist party will split the sovereignist vote into three instead of two and if they are hell-bent to embark on another self-destructive journey of discovery, far be it for me to complain.

All this won't save Jean Charest or the Liberal party, but it will insure a majority government for Francois Legault and his centrist party which has proposed to ignore the separatist question.

All in all, that's about the best we Anglos can hope for...