But events surrounding her these last months have been nothing short of extraordinary and even as an uniformed observer I'd like to make some general observations.
At least it will allow readers a platform to sound off in the comments section.
First things first.
If you are a federalist like myself, you cannot help but hope Madame Marois hangs on as long as she can. The destructive forces surrounding her leadership serve to discredit the entire sovereignty movement and realistically, as long as she is leader, the PQ isn't going to win any elections.
The utter lack of faith in her within her own caucus and the very public displays of disrespect, is an unheralded situation that leaves the electorate convinced that the party is unfit to govern, sovereignty or federalism aside.
Could you imagine how you'd feel if the door to the cockpit of a plane you've just boarded was left open and you heard the pilot and co-pilot screaming at each other before takeoff? LEMME OFF!!
Readers, I'd like you to consider the situation in the Quebec Liberal party, where scandal after scandal has ripped through the party, yet Premier Charest endures, untouched by insurrection among the party faithful.
Solidarity is just about the only thing the Liberals have left and perhaps the PQ could take a lesson, but as I said, as a federalist, I hope not!
Every political party in Canada understands that without solidarity and loyalty towards the leader, a party cannot expect to win the confidence of the people. Everybody except the Peekists, that is and so it is no surprise they are paying the price in the opinion polls.
One thing I've discovered about Pauline of late is that she's made of sterner stuff than her predecessors, the PQ leaders before her, who abandoned the job rather abruptly, either pushed or in a fit of pique.
The PQ caucus has always been a hotbed of discontent, with every member seeming to have leadership aspirations which they hope to enhance by backstabbing the leader.
And so, it's been a PQ tradition to dump their leaders rather unceremoniously and without much respect.
The fact that Levesque, Parizeau, Boisclair, Bouchard and Landry went so quietly and without a fuss belied the fact that the PQ is a political party steeped in the tradition of patricide and perhaps soon to be, matricide.
But Marois' fall from grace has little to do with her leadership skills as is claimed by the backstabbers. She is, simply put, the fall girl for the political fortunes of sovereignty, which seems to have fallen out of favour with Quebecers, who cringe at the thought of another losing referendum.
Like a cellar dwelling hockey team, it's the coach who gets the blame and subsequently the axe for poor performance.
For the PQ, blaming Pauline is just about the only choice they can make, the other option is to admit that the party platform which is based on sovereignty just doesn't resonate with Quebecers any more. That scenario is unthinkable and so Pauline must be the problem.
But Marois isn't going quietly, something PQ veterans seem to be astounded at.
By sticking around in the face of so much adversity and hostility Madame Marois displays an utter 'sang froid,' and stubbornness that I never knew she had. Her capacity to soldier on in the face of so much back-stabbing, is simply amazing.
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| Madame et Messier PaulineMarois |
Her detestable husband, Claude Blanchet, is wealthy in his own right. While Marois was a cabinet minister in the PQ government of Jacques Parizeau, her husband was appointed, as director of a new Quebec government investment agency, the Société générale de financement du Québec but was eventually forced out over charges of gross incompetence. During his five year tenure at the helm of the agency, it lost over $800 million, during which time, he and senior management paid themselves generous bonuses, year after losing year!' When he was finally ousted, he negotiated himself an $80,000 pension for life, as well as hundreds of thousands of dollars in severance!
I've been told off the record, by businessmen who know him professionally, that he's the type of guy that you count your fingers after shaking hands with him.
The power couple live in a controversial eight million mansion on Île Bizard, which was the subject of considerable controversy at one point. It was alleged in the Montreal Gazette that the couple paid off someone in order to legitimize a zoning change for the property. Read: How estate was built on public, farm lands.
See breathtaking pictures of the chateau Here
The couple sued the Gazette for $2 million over the article, but when the controversy petered out as expected, they settled out of court with the newspaper. The Gazette in the strangest of settlements, admitted that the story could have caused the couple harm, but was in fact true...Huh? Link{Fr}
So Madame Marois is not any stranger to being attacked over personal ethics and like Premier Charest is an expert at the political game of shuck and jive.
Like the Energizer bunny, Madame Marois just keeps going and going, but at this point it's fair to ask, why she is trying so hard to maintain her position, which by all counts appears untenable.
What on earth is a girl to do?
While I hope she stays, the Christmas recess might give Pauline the quiet time necessary to decide that it might be time to give up the ghost.
The loss of the by-election on Monday, in Bonaventure, while expected(it's a Liberal stronghold,) is still frustrating for Peekists. Watching the hated Premier Charest hold a riding while being so unpopular must be galling and even though PQ support actually rose, it remains little consolation to hardliners in the caucus, a third of whom need another term in the National assembly to become eligible for a pension.
Now with polls indicating that the PQ can do better with Gilles Duceppe at the helm, perhaps even winning, the pressure on Marois to leave is enormous.
If she does leave, I hope she blows up the party as a parting gift.
How?
She could either give a speech wherein she buries the sovereignty option or worse still stay on long enough to put a referendum back on the front burner.
If she publicly commits to a referendum within six months of taking power, come Hell or high water, it would satisfy the militants, but destroy any chance of electoral success at the polls.
As Christmas approaches, I can't think of a better present for federalists.
Ah....to dream!
