Pauline Steers a PQ Ship of Fools

During the election campaign that brought Pauline Marois to power, I fretted in several blog pieces that I didn't see much talent or experience on her roster, those who would make potentially good cabinet material.
After the election, the talent pool got even shallower and the pickings even slimmer as many of the more capable went down to electoral defeat.

Here is a brief review of the qualifications and experience that the new PQ cabinet members bring to the table. It isn't a pretty tale, with most woefully under-qualified and several so dogmatic that they actually pose a threat to our economy, democracy and way of life.

It's hard to condemn the whole kit and kaboodle so shortly after the election, but the monumental gaffes made in the first month augers poorly for the future and honestly when you start with shoddy construction material, it's impossible to build a very strong house.

Think I'm exaggerating?  ...Read on.

Let's start with the bottom row, those who represent the most important and powerful elements in the cabinet.

(Note; Clicking on the various cabinet ministers underlined names will take you to the National Assembly website detailing their biography)

One of the ministers that I held out hope for was Finance Minister, Nicolas Marceau who at least had some credentials as an economist which should have provided a strong foundation enabling him to succeed in the most important portfolio in the cabinet.
But alas his experience though impressive, is all academic and although a likable and charming character, he lacks the gravitas that a finance minister needs to exude.
Certainly he doesn't compare to Raymond Bachand who in all his years as finance minister under Charest looked and acted the part.
Marceau of course made a monumental gaffe in his first act as finance minister, when he announced that he was increasing taxes retroactively, a move so patently stupid, only someone who doesn't really understand tax law could commit such an egregious error. Soon after his announcement he was forced to retract the plan in the face of a public storm. It was to say the least, an embarrassing fiasco.
Usually those professionals in the Ministry, especially the deputy-minister, (who actually runs the department) would warn the Minister of the negative impact of such a reckless and rash policy, which leaves me to suspect somebody in the department wanted to teach the minister a lesson and hang him out to dry.
Either that or Marceau received advice that he refused to accept, I don't know which situation is worse.
At any rate he has become damaged material in the shortest of time, his credibility and confidence in shambles. Don't look for any bold policy decisions, as they say, once bitten twice shy.

 Then there is Marie Malavoy, a dishonest and hardline separatist (you'll remember, she was the one who broke the law on more than one occasion when she voted illegally while not even a citizen)

"Already howls of resistance are being raised and this on the francophone side where Malavoy is trying to put a sovereigntist and anti-English bent in the education of francophone children, despite overwhelming parental support for the wider teaching of English.

And so Madame Malavoy is rushing to restrict English in the early grades and is set to re-examine (and likely reverse) the not-yet implemented plan to give grade six students a half year taught exclusively in English as well as implementing other measures meant to indoctrinate and politicize students towards the PQ way of thinking. " Read my post Marie Malavoy is Quebec's Worst Nightmare

Like a Taliban mullah, she knows better than us and is ready to impose a dangerously narrow and regressive pedagogical regime.

Although Agnes Maltais has been a sitting member of the National assembly for over a decade, nothing in her record or in her background or experience would qualify her for the important portfolio of Labour Minister.
Armed only with a cegep degree, Maltais had a career in theatre where for the 18 years before she was elected to the National Assembly, she participated or was the director of various theatre companies, hardly a prerequisite for the job.
First elected in 1998, she spent the first couple of years in obscurity, perhaps a little timid as she remained firmly ensconced in the closet. When she came out in 2003 one expected to see her bloom but alas she remains a timid party hack with little drive and not much experience to depend on.  And so she remains a proxy for Marois, a Minister who serves at the beck and call of the Premier, much like Yolande James did for Jean Charest.
Incredibly, in addition to her duties as Labour minister she has also been named Minister of Employment and Social Solidarity AND Minister responsible for the Status of Women.
As if that wasn't enough, she is also the minister responsible for the Quebec City region.

The deputy Premier in the Marois cabinet is François Gendron who sits in the National Assembly since 1976, thirty-six years of mediocrity.
I bet you never even heard of him..

Mr. Gendron was a high school teacher and guidance counsellor before hitting the big time. Over 38 years he has built up am impressive resumé of committee and board appointments, none of which are the least bit important.
Chosen as deputy-Premier because of his steadfastness and because he represents no threat to Marois, he too brings little to the table, his experience way back when no preparation for his job as Minister of Agriculture.

Perhaps he doesn't need any real talent, the main job of the Minister of Agriculture is to shill for the UPA, Quebec's powerful farmer's monopoly that enforces rules and regulations that keeps the price of agricultural products artificially high.


That readers, is the power row of the Marois Cabinet, I shall save a review of Pauline's career and qualifications for a separate post.

If you weren't impressed, it is downhill from here, and so let me detail the bone fides of some of the other members of cabinet.

Jean-François Lisée is the Minister of International Relations and the designated point man in relation to the English community who is perhaps one of the cabinet's most dangerous fools.
He has written extensively about how wonderful the economic situation is in Quebec, almost all of his child-like missives thoroughly destroyed by brutal rebuttals in the blogosphere especially by a blogger named DAVID over at antagonist.net{Fr}
What makes Lisée so dangerous is that he is a fantasist who now has the power to act on his flights of fancy.
As of late Mr. Lisée is pandering to his constituency of language extremists, frightening Quebecers with the story that Montreal is going to the dogs (dogs= anglos & ethnics)
Read my blog piece Jean-François Lisée is Our Worst Nightmare

Diane de Courcy is another hardline ideologue who doesn't like the idea that employees be required to speak English as a condition of employment. Link

Madame De Courcy comes to government from the offices of the Commission scolaire de Montréal where she was the president of the largest and least successful school board in Quebec, boasting the highest dropout rate in the province country. (excluding native school boards)
Among Madame DeCourcy's bright ideas over at the school board was forbidding English (or any other foreign language from being spoken on the school playground)

Of all the ministers named, Martine Ouellet, is probably the most destructive nomination.

Jacques Brassard, an ex-PQ minister had plenty to say about her in a written opinion piece;

"But the worst is Martine Ouellet, a granola who occupies the most important economic Ministry of the State, that of natural resources. It is, I admit, the appointment that horrified me the most. 
It's like handing the  responsibility for guarding the hen house to the fox in the belief that it will encourage hens to lay eggs! Unbelievable!
The militant ecologist started to create havoc very quickly. Her statement concerning shale gas is an example of her ideological inflexibility. She has said that she doesn't foresee the day where secure technologies will allow for the exploration of shale gas! Aberrant!" Link{Fr}

Nicole Léger is the new Minister for Families and one of her first statements of public policy was to announce that she would force day cares to adopt entrance policies along the lines of Bill 101, in other words banning immigrants or francophones from attending English daycare.

This unguided missile was shot down quickly by Marois  and Diane DeCourcy who were none to pleased at the junior minister shooting her mouth off without prior consultation.

Madame Leger brings a wealth of experience to the table, she was an elementary school teacher and then a high school gym teacher before going to work for her famous papa as a secretary at Leger Marketing where she worked until her father's death.
Her biography tells us that she was a professional model for eight years, which is a little hard to believe, looking at her picture, but perhaps she was, ahem, .... a hand model!
Born with the proverbial silver spoon in her mouth, she remains, just the same, a political lightweight.

 The rookie Minister for Aboriginal Affairs Élizabeth Larouche seems to  have earned the job by default because her seat is deep in native territory.
For fourteen years Madame Laroouche pedaled newspaper advertising space and radio time as a sales rep in the Abitibi region, before spending five years as a secretary.
But over that career she's been a dedicated PQer as her long record of involvement indicates.
What any of this has to do with natives, is beyond me. I don't even think she speaks English, a must for dealing with Quebec natives.

Bernard Drainville the Minister of Democratic Institutions, is an ex-Radio Canada reporter who starts his tenure as Minister pretty much discredited. His defining political project, that of consultative public referendums was  dumped by the government as its implications became clear. Link
Bitterly disappointed, Drainville never the less sucked it up and accepted the ministerial limousine in good grace.
Some of the ideas he put forward in the darkest days of the PQ last year were so ridiculous that its hard to take the man seriously, despite his strong academic accomplishments. Link
Drainville is dead to Marois and represents cabinet deadwood from day one.

Mako Kotto is the only true ethnic in the cabinet, born in the Cameroons and rewarded for his loyalty with the stewardship of the Ministry of Culture. 

Mr. Kotto was a second rate actor and an ex-bloc Quebecois candidate, who recycled himself into the PQ, much to the relief of the party which boasted only one other electable ethnic,  Djemila Benhabib, who was defeated in Trois-Rivieres.

It would be cruel of me to say that his biggest contribution to the cabinet (and the caucus) is the fact that he adds a little colour, but hey, political correctness has never been my forté.

Oddly his nomination doesn't sit well with many of the faithful who are off-put by a Black non-native Quebecer acting as the protector of Quebec culture.
As for competence, it doesn't take much to be the Minister of Culure, sign a few cheques to provide funding for Quebecois talent, show up to the Fete National celebrations and hobnob with Quebec artistes. Not a bad gig, if I do say so myself.
He's been around forever, never making much of an impression, but for the Marois government he is desperately important and like most sell-outs, he is a hardliner.

Marjolain Dufour is president of the caucus and the only cabinet member who held a blue collar job while toiling for ALCOA for many years as a labourer. He distinguished himself as a union organizer which he parlayed into a seat in the National Assembly.
With a high school education, his only practical experience seems to be that of a union organizer.
At least he earned an honest living...

Pascal Bérubé the new Minister of Tourism, is another lightweight whose experience is pretty much limited to being a student representative, vice-president of the now famous FEUQ student union. He worked for a while as a political aide, but hasn't really any qualifications at all. But tourism is another throw away cabinet position, with occasional trips to New York and Paris as a definite perk.

Daniel Breton, the Minister of Sustainable Development, Environment, Wildlife and Parks is a hardline environmentalist.
His first brush with the press was not particularly auspicious as it was revealed that he was a member of a militant environmental group which he denied, notwithstanding the evidence to the contrary.

"In 2005, he founded the  MCN21 movement - 'Masters of the  21st century.'
The movement promotes renewable energy, the nationalization of wind energy on the model of the nationalization of electricity in 1963 and the gradual replacement of fossil fuels in Quebec. In 2010, he campaigned for a moratorium on the exploitation of shale gas in the St. Lawrence River Valley. Wikipedia{fr}

An ex-member of the Green party and the Ndp, he is also one of the most dangerous members of Pauline's cabinet, with the capacity and the will to forestall much needed economic development.

Sylvain Gaudreault is another political nobody who hasn't done much before arriving in the big leagues.
I do give him credit for tenacity, as an openly gay candidate he faced a cruel and sadistic campaign of homophobia, running in the least gay-friendly region of Quebec, the Saguenay.
That being said, there is absolutely nothing but nothing in his background that qualifies him to take on the Transport Ministry, especially with the ongoing corruption and incompetence levels plaguing the Ministry.
For the last seven years before being elected to the National Assembly, he was a cegep teacher of history and of media art.

Pierre Duchesne, as you might remember is a Radio-Canada journalist who quit his job after a promise from Pauline of a soft seat and a subsequent cabinet position.
He got into hot water even before the election, accused of continuing on in his job covering the National Assembly, while negotiating a job with the PQ, an egregious breach of ethics. His lame-ass denials were pitiful as he claimed that he first he quit his cushy job before negotiating a position with the PQ.
Mr. Duchesne left Radio-Canada on June 15th and was named a candidate for the PQ on June 30th. He then pretended that he never discussed a job before he left. Hmmm....
Unfortunately, Mr. Duchesne hasn't brought his journalistic integrity over with him from the CBC, he also spouts the nonsense about French being threatened in Montreal because of the mother-tongue issue;

"The sustainability of the Quebec nation is not guaranteed and the status quo won't guarantee it," Education Minister Pierre Duchesne said."We're a nationalist government that will do everything to promote this language" Link

It's hard to understand how such a hardliner could ever muster the required journalistic impartiality to conduct his job fairly, covering the National Assembly for all these years.
I remember Mario Dumont complaining that he was ambushed in an interview that he gave to Duchesne while he was leader of the ADQ.  Link{Fr}
At any rate, what his experience at Radio-Canada has to do with being Minister of Higher Education is beyond me and he remains just another political appointment without any qualifications at all.


Readers, that's enough for today, I've covered over half the cabinet and in truth, they represent the weakest elements.
The rest of the cabinet will be discussed at a later date, but suffice to say that the above collection of under-qualified political hacks represents a sad commentary on our political leadership.

Note the utter lack of business experience, almost everyone of these ministers cashed a government-funded or union cheque in one way or another, in their previous life.
Private industry, which actually pays the bills for all this is completely ignored and the under-representation of anglos is staggering.
Imagine, they couldn't even find one anglo sellout to fill out the ranks and foster the fiction of inclusiveness!

I seriously doubt that any of these cabinet ministers could successfully run a depanneur (which is not that easy.) and therein lies the problem.

While the media and the PQ government remains obsessed with language and sovereignty, the issues of good governance is ignored by all.

Almost all of the above are woefully out of touch with reality and have spent their professional life in a vacuum, sitting on committees and working in jobs surrounded by like-minded, out-of-touch unionists, functionaries and political wanks.

It's frightening, not because of this government's sovereigntist bent (which is a pipe dream), but rather its utter lack of experience and know-how in running a functioning $75 billion enterprise, which is the ship of state.

But no matter, Pauline is sailing on, captaining a crew of willing fools and dullards, with the certitude of the ignorant faithful.
As I watch radical mullahs from the Middle East on television, lecturing us on the superiority of Islamic fundamentalism, I feel a painful dose of deju vu.

We have our own dogmatic fools here in Quebec who feed us the same insane nonsense, that is that Francophones are in mortal danger of assimilation and unless they wage an unremitting language war and vote for sovereignty they will be destroyed by the great Satan.
Just like the Islamist mullahs, they cannot see or comprehend the economic cost of their policies and frankly, to most it just doesn't matter.

It is as if we have given control of the family budget to our twelve-year old daughter who decides to spend half the family budget on Justin Bieber tickets,  a perfectly sound and rationale investment according to her.

The saddest part of all, is that on Pauline's ship of fools, it is we the taxpayers who are forced to provide the muscle, condemned to an eternity of hard labour, nothing more than slaves rowing in a galley.
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As I said before, I'll devote a post to Pauline herself and her suitability to be Premier, it won't be pretty.