Let me tell you what I think is happening or what should be happening.
As usual the mainstream press is be led around by the nose, nothing more than an unwitting pawn in the political chess game that is playing out before us.
Let us pretend for a moment that the Editor has been hired as a strategist for the Marois government and let's listen in on the private conversations he has with La Pauline.
EDITOR:
Madame Marois, it's best to proceed to an election as soon as possible, the economy is tanking and the province is bleeding jobs. If we are forced to table a budget with a huge deficit, we are sunk.
We'd have hoped that by this time the Charbonneau Commission would have exposed the Liberal party for the corrupt thieves that they are, but it is just taking too long.
The longer we wait, the worse for us. We're going to have to throw the dice at a certain point and earlier is better than later.
LA PAULINE:
But Editor, we don't seem to have the numbers. The last thing I want to happen is to lose power based on a premature election that I called, like that idiot Charest.
EDITOR:
We're close, the polling numbers indicate a PQ or Liberal minority, so let's see where we can go with this. We just need to boost up popularity a tiny bit, we only need a 2% swing.
My advice is to tell your key ministers to leak to their favourite reporters or journalists, the fact that we are likely going to an election. These not-for-attribution rumours will spread like wildfire, when reporters believe they have an inside track to a story they become as blind as a bat and as motivated as an addict given a free hit of heroin.
In the meantime, under NO circumstances should any Minister suggest in public that an election is in the offing.
UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES!
LA PAULINE:
To What end?
EDITOR:
The journalists are idiots. They will report that an election is in the offing and this will be confirmed by other reporters who have also been so advised via 'reliable sources'.
We just sit back and watch the polling numbers. If our popularity goes up in reaction to the news, we proceed to an election.
If not, nobody here is guilty of anything. We didn't say an election is coming and we can climb down effortlessly, calling the speculation a flight of journalistic fancy.
LA PAULINE:
Are the journalists that dumb?
EDITOR:
Even if the journalists know that they are being played, what can they do. If the journalist doesn't play ball, access will be cut off and a journalist without sources is not a journalist.
LA PAULINE:
What if we don't get the bump we need after the trial balloon?
EDITOR:
Then we go to PLAN B, an election triggered, not by us but by the opposition.
If the polls indicate that the electors don't want an election, then put the election on the backs of the opposition and make it over the Charter of Values, an issue where we can win.
LA PAULINE:
How will that work?
EDITOR:
Table the Charter of Values bill in a form that is so harsh and unacceptable to the opposition that even the CAQ won't accept it without losing all credibility.
Get rid of the Crucifix in the National Assembly as the only compromise and stand tough on everything else, including applying the law to health care workers.
LA PAULINE:
Why the Crucifix?
EDITOR:
This plays to our own voters and will show them that we've compromised when in fact we haven't at all. For our base, it seems like a fair and equitable trade, the Crucifix for the Hijab, or so goes the logic. We satisfy a lot of fence-sitters with this idiotic compromise, but trust me, it'll work.
The CAQ and the Liberals will howl and scream that the law is too harsh, but we can point to the Crucifix that we've given up, a clever distraction that is bound to play to the base. In the meantime, we know the Liberals will vote against the law but when we offer the CAQ nothing, they too, reluctantly will vote against the law, to support it as is, would strip the party of any and all political legitimacy.
If the government falls under these circumstances, the opposition will be blamed and the one and only election issue will be the Charter, something we can actually win on.
Under these circumstances, I'm convinced we can win a majority, or the worst case scenario has us returning to power in a minority government.
LA PAULINE:
But what if the CAQ refuses to bite, they know that they'll be decimated in the next election and maybe they'll just hold their nose and vote with us?
EDITOR:Don't believe our idiot journalists who first told us we were going to have an election and then told us we were not.
An excellent outcome as well, it means that you can rule as if you have a majority. If they are too afraid to lose their jobs, you can safely ignore them because when push comes to shove, they're going to cave.
You can bring back Bill 14 and just about anything else on your political agenda. It all works out, no matter how the chips fall.
LA PAULINE:
Bravo, I like it.... Sounds like a plan! Editor, you are brilliant! (OK, I couldn't resist).
They have been played by the PQ from the beginning, traipsing around the floor like folk dancers obeying the caller's every command.
"No ideas and the ability to express them - that's a journalist" -Karl Kraus.Just because Pauline said she wouldn't call an election, doesn't mean we won't have one.
Know that the PQ is itching for an election based on a Charter of Values debate, so come hell or high water, the Charter, when presented, will be one piece of nasty...wait for it.
