PQ Report Card a Sad Indictment of Dismal Failure...Part one

The PQ Ship of Fools

With the election of a new Liberal party leader Philippe Couillard  and an uptick in the polls, it's not unreasonable to look forward to the demise of this PQ government, if not in the short term, perhaps in the medium term.

New leaders of any political party enjoy a brief honeymoon that only the smartest take advantage of.

If the Liberals are adept, they'd quickly work to dump the PQ government  and plunge the province into a quicky type election, but it's unlikely as the CAQ fearing a Liberal majority will be compelled to support the moribund PQ government.

Since nobody can really predict what will happen, we may or may not be stuck with a PQ government that can best be described as not quite up to snuff.

When the PQ was first elected I wrote a piece describing the utter lack of potential cabinet talent within the PQ ranks and the unmitigated disaster that awaited us as a bunch of incompetent fools were handed the reins of power.  Read: Pauline Steers a PQ Ship of Fools
I think it's fair to say that time has borne me out and that this opinion wasn't just a partisan shot.

While I generally disdain all pequists, past and present, I  am the first to say that many PQ governments of the past were made up of men and women with a certain level of competence, responsibility and yes, honour, all of which is sadly lacking in Pauline's motley crew.

Let me provide a report card on the ministers of this government, cognizant of the fact that I am not  a fan, something like a Montreal Canadiens fan rating the Boston Bruins, player by player.

Nicolas Marceau- C
Minister of Finance. 

Of all the PQ ministers, Nicolas Marceau came with perhaps the highest credentials with a solid academic background. However it turns out that being book-smart is no replacement for experience, something he apparently sorely lacks.
His first move as finance minister was utterly disastrous, not only raising taxes, but doing it retroactively.

What is wrong with retro-activity?
Well, it is like Loblaws raising the price of the groceries you bought last year and sending you an additional bill now.  Not many people would be fine with that.

The outcry in the press was more than he and the government could stand as he sheepishly reversed his position, a harbinger of a string of about-faces that would plague the Marois government in the future months.
Marceau's gaffe didn't just surprise me because he should have known better, what really amazed  me was that his deputy-minister and professional staff didn't  steer him away from the disaster, after all, they are professionals and could not have been blind to the impending disaster.
Either Marceau over-rode their advice or they let him commit hari-kiri in public, neither scenario, very encouraging.
Marceau has never recovered and has kept his head down, his reputation in tatters, something that no minister of finance can afford.

Martine Ouellet- F
Minister of Natural Resources. 

There's no polite way of saying it, the Minister of Natural Resources, Martine Ouellet is an idiot, a dangerous fool who doesn't even understand the difference between money spent and money saved.

In complaining about Ottawa's loan guarantee to Newfoundland's potential underwater electricity transmission line, she told Quebec taxpayers a bold-faced lie in intimating that it is costing Canadian taxpayers $900 million dollars, when in fact it is costing next to nothing.
I've told you this before, it is akin to counter-signing a car loan at the bank for your brother, because his credit is not as good as yours. Because of your guarantee, the bank will charge a lower interest rate, saving a couple of thousand dollars in interest.
If the loan is repaid, the guarantor is not out of pocket a dime, a concept the minister has trouble understanding.
In this interview, Martine Ouellet is explained as such by an incredulous Radio-Canada interviewer, who is hard-placed to mask her disdain for the sad-sack minister.
There's no doubt in my mind that the young interviewer would make a better Minister than Ouellet!

Watch the video and laugh or cry. Ouellet is truly an idiot par excellence.

But that's not all, Ouellet who has previously voiced her opinion that shale gas can never be safely exploited, has sent the file for study to the BAPE, an environmental agency for study, without understanding that any conclusions that agency draws further down the road are actually moot.
Because of the vast amount of shale gas already brought to market in North America, the price has collapsed, making new development uneconomic.
And so it doesn't really matter what conclusions are reached, NOBODY IS INTERESTED IN DRILLING anymore and as we say in English, That ship has sailed.
If the politically-challenged minister doesn't understand that metaphor, here's another.
"YOU'VE MISSED THE BOAT!"
Sending the shale gas file for environmental assessment now is like asking the agency to study the efficacy and safety of the production of typewriters. 

Then there is the fiasco of the new plan to raise mining royalties, a cornerstone of Ouellet's election campaign, where she promised to up royalties by $350 million. Ouellet reminds me of the little girl selling lemonade in front of her house for $100 a glass, believing that she only need sell one to be successful.
The Marois government backed off that commitment as if it were radioactive, citing changing circumstances, infuriating the Minister to the point that she almost resigned.
Nah.....just kidding, a ministerial limousine is nothing to trifle with!

Clearly in over her head, Ouellet is plainly an embarrassment to herself, the government and all Quebecers.

Agnes Maltais- D
Minister of Unemployment and Welfare  Minister of Labour, Employment and Social solidarity. 
Madame Maltais reminds me of one of those stereotypical characters in the movies of old, a stern matron, running an orphanage with an iron fist.... grim, bossy, regimented and eternally angry.

She ran into a monster problem right off the bat as the Conservative government imposed changes to the Employment Insurance program designed to penalize frequent benefits claimants, a large proportion found in Quebec's boonies.
Her position in demanding Ottawa reconsider the program and the disastrous consequences (Quebec would be liable for welfare payments wherein claimants lost their Employment benefits) and her tantrum in the press where she demanded that Ottawa undertake economic impact studies before proceeding, fell on deaf ears. Diane Findlay, the conservative minister in charge of the program in Ottawa, gave Maltais a ten-minute meeting before politely showing her the door.
Maltais was also forced to drop the election promise made by the PQ whereby the province would seek repatriation of the Employment Insurance program to provincial jurisdiction.
It seems that Madame Maltais and the PQ failed to do their own economic impact study, because as it turns out, such a move would cost Quebec over $700 million, the difference between what Quebecers contribute and take out of the EI program.

Then Madame Maltais announced cuts to welfare payments to some claimants in order to encourage them to get back into the workforce.
There's nothing like taking the food out of the mouths of welfare bums to start an uproar. Those affected by the new measure showed a surprising level of industry in organizing a spirited defense of their entitlement, marching and occupying the constituency offices of many members of the PQ.

"...Labour Minister Agnès Maltais, is being bombarded with criticism for her decision to cut $20 million from the welfare budget.
"I think it's double-talk," said Françoise David, Québec Solidaire MNA for Gouin.
"On one hand you pretend to give support to vulnerable people and on the other hand, you allow cuts that affect those who are the poorest in our society..." 

...Maltais surreptitiously cut funds this week to welfare recipients between the ages of 55 and 58 and those living with pre-school children. She also made budget cuts to a program that helps recovering addicts. Link

Opposition parties then dug up a video of Maltais arguing against exactly such a move, when she was in opposition and after an unfortunate answer in the National Assembly, she was accused in Le Devoir of making convoluted statements (alambiquée) while another commentator on the story used the word 'charabia' (gibberish) to describe her response. Video plus story {fr}
It's never good when the press and the public start to mock you.

Now the welfare cutbacks actually made sense, but when the welfare lobby rose in righteous indignation and started demonstrating across the province against the cutbacks, Maltais did an about face and reversed her decision, reflecting the PQ's lack of confidence and its propensity for improvisation.

Maka Kotto- F

Minister of Culture
An unsuccessful actor/idiot who only made it to the cabinet because of his minority status.
You'd think that in his capacity of Minister of Culture, he wouldn't be able to cause much damage, flitting from award ceremony to theater openings adding a little 'colour' to the mix. But alas the stumblebum, proved everyone wrong in his first weeks on the job, calling the cultural attachés serving around the world back to Quebec on an expensive mission, just to tell them that their budgets would be cut.

"Minister Maka Kotto was called to order by the Deputy Prime Minister, François Gendron, Wednesday. Dean of the National Assembly, Mr. Gendron reminded his colleague, Minister of Culture the importance  for the members of the cabinet, while managing public funds.
This public snub occurred in the aftermath of the broadcast of a dispatch of the Canadian press indicating Mr. Kotto had convened in Montreal  22 Québec foreign delegates in times of budget cuts and against the advice of its staff members who felt it an  unnecessary expense." Link

Daniel Breton- F
Minister of Nothing anymore

The rookie minister never had a chance and was dumped from the cabinet after revelations about his deadbeat past came out.

"According to newspaper reports Breton has a string of criminal convictions dating to 1988 for defrauding the unemployment insurance system, and as recently as 2007 was fined $400 by Revenue Quebec. La Presse also reported that Breton was convicted in 1997 for driving without a license.
Meanwhile TVA reported that Breton was evicted from his apartments in 2005 and 2009 for non-payment of rent. Photographs from his landlord show hundreds of empty bottles of wine left in the apartment Breton was forced to leave." Link

But before he left the radical environmentalist raised the ire of opposition parties when it was revealed that he exceeded his authority;

 "In Quebec City, a special committee is hearing from commissioners who claim to have been bullied by former Environment Minister Daniel Breton. The commissioners work at the BAPE, Quebec's independent environmental review board.

Pierre Fortin testified Breton paid commissioners a highly unusual visit last October, during which he asked for their cell phone numbers and threatened he would be watching their decisions. Fortin says the visit left him feeling very uncomfortable.

"He said if he was unhappy with the BAPE's work, he would let us know about it," explains Fortin. "It made everyone feel nervous and uncomfortable." "Link

Nicole Léger- D
Minister of Family

A staunch defender of the public daycare system she cut millions from the private network while telling the operators that they should be happy because it could have been much worse.
After a demonstration in Quebec to protest the cuts the minister invited the leaders to a meeting where she promised that she would listen to their grievances even if she wasn't going to change her mind.

The Minister had previously told reporters that daycares would henceforth be subject to language requirements of Bill 101, then recanted after a firestorm of protest..

She's another big fat bust....er sorry!

Jean-François Lisée- B

Minister of lots of things but most importantly Anglophone relations
Of the entire Marois cabinet, there are only two ministers whom I give a passing grade and Jean-François Lisée rates the highest.
Mr Lisée presents in the finest tradition of Quebec sovereigntists and PQ ministers who genuinely have affection and respect for the English community.

In a cabinet rife with rabid anglophobes, Lisée is perhaps the one moderating influence and is in fact the only one who has reached out to the community with a level of honest respect.

Mr. Lisée is actually a better politician than journalist or educator, his wacky ideas about the economy and francophone/anglophone relations, a witch's brew of cherry-picked facts and illogical conclusions, non sequiturs that convince only the committed.

But as a minister, he is a credit to the position.  He has a confident smile and a respectful tone, a quick wit and a positive attitude, something sorely lacking in Pauline's grim coterie of dismal hacks.
He is the one and the very few who actually carries himself in a ministerial manner.


Readers may not like his separatist politics, but when rating an opponent, one cannot take away points for success.  One of the very few in the Marois cabinet who is as they say in French 'parlable,' the PQ cabinet would be well served to take his example.
That being said, manners and polish aside, what has he really accomplished?


Next week I'll review other members of the cabinet and take a shot a Pauline Marois herself...

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 Just in passing.....
To Toronto Maple Leaf fans, I can only say how badly I feel over the worst playoff collapse I have ever seen in my lifetime.

At least you'll have something to tell your grandchildren.
Like those of us old enough to remember the assassination of John Kennedy or the news of the destruction of the Challenger space shuttle, you'll always remember where and under what circumstances you witnessed the infamous Toronto Maple Fail.

At any rate, I've put up a Senators logo and as the last Canadian team left standing, let's all wish them good luck!