Can Coderre Save Montreal?

For those outside Quebec, you probably don't know that elections were held last Sunday for mayors and town councils across the entire province.
In Montreal, uber-federalist Denis Coderre won the job as mayor, but failed to elect enough councilors to form a majority.
I'm glad the way things worked out, most of those on Coderre's team were retreads from the defunct Union Montreal party that was racked by scandal and corruption.

I don't know Coderre personally but gather from media reports that he is a consummate politician, not too bright, but an expert self-promoter.
I wouldn't worry about his intelligence, in my experience, politicians with high IQ's are no more effective or successful than those on the lower end of the intelligence scale.

Let us remember that Paul Martin was an excellent finance minister who managed to run Canada's budget in the black. But as a Prime Minister, he destroyed the Liberal party by calling the Gomery Commission that looked into the Sponsorship Scandal.
He should have taken advice from Jean Chretien, who while no mental giant was one of Canada's great Prime-Ministers, dukeing it out with the separatists with any means at his disposal.
Chretien's sage advice was to sweep the entire sponsorship scandal under the carpet, even if it made for an awfully big bump. HA!

There were successful American presidents with high IQs, like Bill Clinton and then there were busts like Jimmy Carter, who supposedly has the highest IQ of any president ever!
So don't listen to the pundits snigger over Coderre's supposed lack of intelligence, it is actually inconsequential.
I hope he hires his mayoral rival, Marcel Coté who very definitely is smart, to fill the job as the new Inspector-General, a job that Coderre promised to create in order to get a handle on corruption and over-spending. Coté is a no-nonsense guy who is driven by the numbers. Good leaders need a qualified team to make them look good and I hope Coderre recognizes this.
This afternoon Jacques Duchesneau's name was floated for the job of Inspector-General and when asked if he was interested he immediately said yes.
I laughed at the response, it was to be expected. The Jacques Duchesneau I know has always had an eye on the next job.
Here's what I wrote three years ago about Duchesneau in a blog piece defending him, when his integrity was attacked.

"I knew him from the time he was chief of police of Montreal where I noticed right away that he didn't do much of the  mundane everyday work related to his job, preferring to let highly capable associates carry the ball.
It was his style of management to delegate everything, whilst he looked for a new challenge. Something his employees joked about. Ambition.  " Link

Don't get me wrong, I like and respect Jacques, but truth be told, he never had much Sitzfleisch.

By the way readers, telling some uncomfortable truths about friends, acquaintances or politicians who I generally like, is the most difficult part about blogging out in the open. It'll take some getting used to.
That being said, Duchesneau would also be a great choice for Inspector-General and he'd no doubt get the job done by getting his band back together.

So all I can say is good luck, Coderre will need it. Corruption and waste can't be rooted out overnight, but I do hope we have turned a page and embarked on a process, and believe it or not, I remain cautiously hopeful, because Coderre never deflected or flinched when it came to language or the Charter of Values and he has already gone on record promising that the City of Montreal will launch a legal challenge under his administration.

It will be interesting to see the relationship between the PQ and this staunch federalist, a situation that will likely drive Montreal farther apart from the rest of the province.
I'm crossing my fingers.

Oops... going back to the comments section, I appear to be parroting a comment penned by  'AnecTOTE';

"With Coderre being ushered in as new Mayor for Montreal, an individual not fond of the separatist cause apparently, it will be interesting to see how much head-butting there will be between him and popo...lol

That's OK.
I've told readers all along that I read the comments and form or change opinions as a result! When I borrow directly, I always credit.

Two other stories concerning Sunday's election caught my interest, the first about the new mayor of Laval Marc Demers, a retired detective who has promised a massive cleanup.

Before I tell you that story, I  want to tell about a poll that indicated that 38% of Lavalois would still have voted for Gilles Vaillancourt had he run for mayor. Is that not unbelievable?

At any rate Marc Demers' legitimacy is being challenged because some say he hasn't been a resident of Laval over the previous 12 months, as required by the election rules.
There is talk of a court challenge or a complaint to the Elections office by the losers.
But imagine the mess if a challenge occurred.
Demers is going to be installed as mayor now and should a challenge occur, it will take months and perhaps years with appeals. But at that future point, Demers would have lived long enough in the city and so kicking him out in favour of a new election seems rather silly.
In this case, the law is an ass. If he didn't qualify, he should have been disqualified before the election.

And finally my favourite election story was the race between Mindy Pollack a Hassidic 25-year old in Outremont and Pierre Lacerte, an anti-Hasid activist.
The large field split the votes, allowing the Hasid bloc vote to propel Ms. Pollack into city council as the first Hasid ever to gain election.

Outremont is home to Montreal's 10,000 strong Hasid community and relations haven't been easy between them and their neighbours. Link
It isn't a case of antisemitism, the Hasids are notorious scofflaws.

Mr. Lacerte runs a blog highlighting what he documents as Hasid abuse. It's a hilarious and comical battle to watch, but only if you live outside of Outremont, I imagine. Read the blog {fr}
Up to now the Hasids have claimed one victory after another, over the hapless Lacerte, who seems to be playing for the Washington Generals and seems to get clobbered by the Hasids, as often as Wile E. Coyote.

Pollack's election victory was not only a bitter pill for Lacerte, but also for Richard Martineau, the secular fundamentalist journalist who writes for Le Journal de Montreal. Martineau savaged Pollack in an article, telling readers that Pollack refuses to shake hands with men and regularly asks her rabbi for advice. THE HORROR! Link{fr}

That being said, I'm no fan of the Hasids, they are an annoying cult that flaunt the rules and act as if they own the place. Representing only about 10% of the Jewish community in Quebec, they are responsible for 99% of the bad press the Jews of Quebec receive.
It isn't about antisemitism ,because even in Israel, Hasids are roundly disliked by the general population.
Read a post I wrote about them: Hasid's Demands for Accommodations Hurt Image of Quebec Jews 

.........
I'd like to thank readers for the many kind messages and emails over the last days. I heard from people all over the world and without yours and their support, I wouldn't continue writing this blog.
While I told you in the past that many people knew who I was, I was surprised by how many readers, even within my family didn't know it was me writing this blog all the time!

I'd like to make an appeal to those who can further this blog along by offering tips or revelations about their experience as an Anglo or Ethnic in Quebec.

If you see something going on in your company, town or in the street that would interest readers, please let me report it.
If you have a good or bad language experience, share it with others through this blog.
I promise to safeguard your anonymity and as they used to say on Dragnet,  I will change the names to protect the innocent!

Meet the Editor.... Philip Berlach

Doing what I do best..talking!

I don't want this post to be a big deal, but it has been a long time in coming.

I told readers long ago that I wasn't a political personality or any name that they would recognize, I have long toiled in the background, both politically and obscurely in the business world, all my life.

And so revealing my identity is a bit anti-climatic.

There are those who oppose my positions who have screamed from the highest rafters of vigile.net that I am somehow illegitimate because my identity remained hidden.
Ask me if I care.

Actually I'm quite surprised, because friends, family and the many readers who I converse with, have known my identity for a long time and I always expected someone to leak, but amazingly, the hundreds of readers, journalists, friends and acquaintances never let on.
I remain truly impressed.

When I started this blog, I was the owner of a franchise chain with stores throughout Quebec. Previously I was co-owner of another retail chain which operated across Eastern Canada and that for over thirty years.
You can understand that for business purposes, I didn't want my blogging to affect others with which I had a business relationship, but having retired last year, the last barrier to declaring myself had passed.

It is a bit strange, because my anonymity allowed me the freedom to talk about people I know personally, friend and foe, with impunity, and that I shall miss.
But one of the drawbacks in remaining anonymous is that the media tends not to take you seriously. I've been offered dozens of interviews on radio and television but have until now demurred.

That will change Monday, when I'll do an interview on CJAD as myself with Barry Morgan at two o'clock.
I wanted readers to know beforehand, otherwise it would have been disloyal.

So let me tell you a little about myself since very few loyal readers know me personally.
I was born here in Quebec to immigrant parents and attended English school in the PSBGM, an acronym that only true Anglo Montrealers understand.

As a successful entrepreneur who co-owned and operated a retail chain across Eastern Canada, I was charged with running the 'field' and so I spent 30 years travelling the backwoods of Eastern Canada, each week flying and driving to every major (and minor town) from Toronto to Saint Jean, NB.

During those years, I developed an intimate knowledge of these regions and made many friends, anglophone and francophone and even natives.
I remember having dinner with Jacques Duchesneau and his then new girlfriend who told me she hailed from a tiny town up in the Abitibi, one that she was sure, I never heard of.
I asked her to allow me three guesses and on the second named LaSarre, to her astonishment and everyone at the table. I then described the town as best I could, because honestly there's not much that stands out.

So after a couple of decades visiting these places, I think I've developed a keen understanding of the mentality, the personality and the vibe and rhythm of each community.
I've actually lived two lives, one in English and one in French. After a couple of days in the Saguenay or Abitibi, my brain would switch over to French and yes, even in my nighttime dreams. Upon return to Montreal, the switch occurred again and I once more reverted to my Anglophone roots.

I've been labelled an 'angryphone' by my opponents, but nothing could be farther from the truth.
I choose to stay in Quebec because it has been and remains a wonderful home.
To those who believe I oppose Francophone's right to maintain their language and culture, nothing could be farther from the truth.
But I do disagree with the politics of language and believe militants use it as a wedge issue to drive Quebecers madly towards sovereignty.
Do I care if immigrants are forced into French schools? Not a whit.

But defending the French language shouldn't include persecuting Anglos with ridiculous and vindictive rules over signage.
The idea that the children of an American or British immigrant families must attend French school and that they will somehow adopt French as their culture is deluded fanaticism and fantasy that is disrespectful to the anglo community as well as good sense.
These rules are misguided at best and  vindictive at the worst.
Such is the pettiness and indeed the nastiness, of most language militants.

I can argue with those that demand English descriptors on stores with English words in their name, but cannot countenance those who object to names like Reitmans or Bentley.
It is not I, the dangerous angryphone, but rather these people, who are nothing but linguicists  ( not to be confused with linguists)

We are told over and over again by both Liberal and PQ governments that we are a founding nation and valued citizens, but actions deem us interlopers.

Few francophones understand the daily pounding Ethnics and Anglos suffer in the francophone media.
English and Anglophones are portrayed as an evil threat to the existence of francophones, as well as immigrants and ethnics and let's not even bring up the demonization of Quebec Muslims.

At any rate I've been involved with politics since the ripe young age of ten or twelve when I helped put up signs for the then NDP candidate, Charles Taylor, who was running for the NDP in St. Laurent.

Since then I've grown to become an organizer and fund-raiser  on the federal, provincial and municipal level.
I shall nor divulge who I've worked for other than the federal Conservatives and the provincial Liberals, the others never contracted for that.

Most of whom of I worked for, hired me on a consultation basis and are entitled to confidentiality. Anybody who wishes to announce my implication in their campaign is free to do so, I am unashamed of any of the political work that I did.

Along the way, and for many years, I served as a Consular representative for Liberia in Quebec and an honorary Boy Scout Commissioner.
I am past-president of the St. John Ambulance foundation, charged with raising money and safeguarding the nest egg of that honourable organization.
For a couple of years, I served on a committee supporting the Canadian Armed Forces, that was charged with encouraging employers to treat part-time reservist employees with the utmost respect, giving them time off without penalty, while serving our country.

I've known the richest and most powerful politicians in Canada, as well as the less than reputable.
There was a time where I would and could drive my car onto Parliament Hill and park at the front door.

Those days are gone, just ask Thomas Mulcair who was cited for blowing by a security checkpoint a while back.

 As for my family, I am married to my college sweetheart, this for forty years. We met in the very first year of the existence of Vanier college in Ville St. Laurent,  back in the year God knows when.

We've got two children, a daughter who married an Anglo here in Montreal and has just given birth to my third grandchild, James.
My son David, is one of those famous McGill doctor graduates who has fled Quebec (according to the militant narrative), but the truth be told, could not secure a job anywhere in Quebec.

He is safely ensconced in Brooklyn, New York, where his talent is appreciated, and readers he is not the only Quebec doctor forced to flee, he is part of a huge expat community.

He and his lovely wife have two children, our grandchildren, who are growing up away from us here in Montreal, a fate suffered by so many Anglo parents in Quebec, where contact is reduced to family reunions and holidays.

That's it!
I'm not going to dwell on personality and now that you know who I am, I'd like to get back to blogging about what affects us all.
I really want our relationship to remain the same. I hope you'll still refer to me as EDITOR, I've gotten used to the moniker.

And so let's go in....

I'll start with a scoop.
I have it on impeccable authority that Michael Applebaum (the ex-mayor of Montreal) is allegedly dead to rights.
I've been told that he  is going to jail and this from insiders, who are in the know.

Quebec Finance Minister Marceau...Now You See it, Now You Don't...

Abracadabra!

 It's always hilarious to see the various finance ministers put on a brave face and paint some pretty awful budget figures in the most favourable light that they can.

Of particular interest is the latest from Quebec finance minister Nicolas Marceau, whose description of Quebec's current financial situation borders between fantasy and prevarication.

You'll recall that when the Parti Quebecois came to power, they immediately announced that the finances of the province were in much worse condition than anticipated.
This is standard operating procedure for all newly elected governments, who get a free shot at the outgoing party, telling voters that they can't live up to election promises because of the undisclosed financial train wreck that the previous government left behind.

And so, the PQ was able to back off on the promise of abolishing the Liberal party imposed health tax which they campaigned against and also shrugging off the idea of freezing or rolling back tuition in Quebec universities with impunity.
Blame Charest!

All this was to be expected and had the Liberals overturned the PQ they would have done the same thing.
And so Nicolas Marceau told us that it would be impossible to balance the budget in the first year of the PQ mandate, but promised a zero deficit in the second year.

In November last, Mr. Marceau predicted a deficit of $1.5 billion and yesterday confirmed that the deficit would be just about hundred million more than the predicted, at $1.6 billion. He seemed very proud that his prediction was more or less on target!
But was it really?

Mr Marceau claimed that the government had done a masterful job of keeping the increase in budget spending to just 1.2% by controlling expenses. In the last year of the Charest government, the increase was 2.5%

J-de-M..Deficit smaller than Anticipated?...R U kidding me!

But what Marceau failed to mention is that spending was kept artificially low by cutting over $200 million in subventions to Quebec school boards, who then turned around and taxed back the money via school taxes.
A neat accounting trick!
It's a gambit called 'getting a dog off the books' and dishonest companies use the strategy to appear less in debt by creating a subsidiary and downloading it with company losses, losses which while remain the responsibility of the parent company, but which are removed from the parent company's balance sheet.

And let us not forget the $700 million, one-shot payment that Quebec received this year from Ottawa for harmonizing sales tax, which was never put in the calculations because it wasn't a sure thing.

Let us also remember the $1.9 Billion one-time charge that the government is taking in relation to the PQ's decision to close the Gentilly 2 nuclear plant, bringing the real deficit up to about $3.5 billion. Link

And things are going from bad to worse on the revenue front with sales tax and income tax bringing in almost $2 billion less than last year, with no respite in sight.

It isn't any shock that Mr. Marceau and the PQ have abandoned the zero-deficit promise they made during the election campaign, it is an impossibility given the fixed overhead and the catastrophic drop in revenue.

As I told you in the last post, Marceau is keeping his cards close to his vest, refusing to divulge what is really going on, vis-a-vis revenues and next year's budget. He has already announced that the health tax will not be repealed again, but other than talking about controlling expenses and expenditures, he isn't saying much about a balanced budget, because it is an impossibility.
And readers, let me remind you that I told you this was the future many months ago, not because I am prescient, but because I can do sums.

The opposition smells a rat and have been demanding the financial information for over a month, met by stoic silence and stonewalling by the minister.
They were so furious at being ignored that they sent a bailiff to Marceau's office and served him a subpoena to appear before a Parliamentary finance committee, where he will be forced to cough up the numbers!

With resource projects collapsing, Hydro revenue receding, consumer spending on the decline and the unemployment rate on the rise, it doesn't auger well for the financially strapped province.
The only private investments Quebec seems able to muster are those attached to large government subsidies and in reality they are in the grand scheme, but a pittance.

Without massive tax increases, the financial ship of state cannot be righted, because the shortfall in revenue is just too great and the growth of current economic activity has not kept pace with increasing government expenditures.
Until the government cuts back its expensive entitlement programs or increases revenue, deficits will pile up.
But increasing taxes isn't the panacea one would expect, because the amounts raised, are offset by decreases in consumer spending and decreased economic activity.
We are finally seeing the effects of hitting the "T" point on the Laffer curve. Explanation
As the government increases taxes, revenues actually decrease!

I am anxious to see if Marceau will reinstate the decrease in the exemption for capital gains income, (which he cancelled after the investment community rose in protest)  the effect which will have Quebecers taxed at a substantially higher rate for investment income than other Canadians.
Retirees (like myself) who live on their investments will just pack up and move, rather than see the taxes owing on investment income rise by up to 50%, only in Quebec.
Again, such a move will never raise the taxes contemplated. We are fast approaching a revenue wall, not because Quebecers don't have the ability to pay more and accept a reduced lifestyle, but rather because enough can just pick and leave. Companies, as well.

Alternate to increasing revenues through higher taxes, the government could try to improve the investment outlook for resource based companies, instead of threatening them with higher taxes and royalties.
Resources are the one area that Quebec badly under-exploits.
Until the PQ understands that they can't tax their way into solvency, we are bound for a Greek tragedy.

If you really want to understand the investment climate in Quebec, read this;

Investors ‘more comfortable’ putting money into gas projects in Iraq than Quebec: banker

And so the PQ has two choices, either cut expenses drastically or make Quebec more hospitable to resource development.

Which will it be?

I going with door Number #3....none of the above.

If you fundamentally don't understand or accept what the problem is, you can't really come up with a fix.

But wait a second...we actually are in a FIX, but not the good kind!

Charter of Values...The Day After

Every time I think that the province can't get any stupider and more self-destructive, I am surprised that a new level of dysfunction can be attained.
I thought the Pastagate affair plumbed the depths of lunacy and reached into as yet uncharted territory of insanity, a level one would think, hard to beat... and then came the Charter of Values, which makes Pastagate look like a trifle.

The attendant sound and fury attached to the current debate has me scratching my head, after all what does someone in Quebec City or Hérouxville have to get so excited about?
What is it about the hijab that has the entire province in atwitter?

The economic problems at hand seem to matter naught, while thousands of stories over the Charter continue to flood the newspapers and airwaves Ad nauseam.
This for months and months.
Yesterday  our illustrious Minister of Natural Resources, Martine Ouellet was forced to drop her mining reform bill, because the resource companies are cancelling Quebec projects like flies in anticipation of increased costs and a hostile business environment.

In the meantime our Premier, La Pauline is desperately announcing job creation projects, this week a meagre 90 jobs at Pratt and Whitney, which still cost Quebec a subsidy of $17 million.
Is that not pitiful?
Companies are mindful of the government's desperation and are jumping to get in on the subsidy gravy train, as underlined by ALCOA, which threatened to take its 3,300 well-paying aluminum jobs elsewhere unless the government maintained its bargain basement price for electricity which was scheduled to rise from 3¢ to 4.4¢  an increase that would cost the company about 100 million dollars. LINK
 La Pauline took less than 24 hours to cave and assured everyone that ALCOA is not going anywhere.

Quebec is bleeding jobs while employment figures in the ROC are rising.  The budget shortfall is getting so scary that the finance minister Nicolas Marceau,  ordered his department to stop supplying the auditor-general with financial data, lest the truth be known. He told employees that they can now provide information on methodology only, but not substance, which can only mean that we are headed for catastrophe and the PQ is sweeping the mess under the rug until the last possible moment.
You'd think Quebecers would be concerned, or concerned enough to push the Charter debate off the front page, but alas such is not the case.

In all of this, I wonder what supporters of the Charter of Values actually think they will accomplish, should the law be passed.
Will Quebec be more French, secular, equal, fair and will  there be a higher level of social peace and harmony due to the Charter?  Ya think?

This is the fantasy that is the Charter, the idea that in one fell swoop it will eliminate devoted Muslims, Jews and Sikhs from continuing to be pious and observant.

Let us pretend that the law is enacted and peek into the future.
And so those in the public service, schools and hospitals will be told to remove their head coverings and no doubt many will comply.
It won't change who they are and what they are, it will just hide the fact.
How is that an advantage?
The hijab, kippah and turban will quickly become the forbidden fruit and that usually means that more people will want to embrace them as a symbol of resistance. That is human nature.

But what about those that outright refuse and while they will be in a minority, each story of confrontation and resistance will splash across the media at home and reverberate around the world.
What school or day care or seniors home administrator will tell a someone to go home and leave their charges devoid of supervision.
Worse, what manner of hospital administrator will tell a doctor to leave the ER or a nurse to abandon her post or an orderly to stop cleaning the floor because of a religious symbol?

And so it will be up to the public and those who enjoy playing the bad cop, to enter into dangerous confrontations with the refusniks and while incidents are somewhat rare up to now, after the law is passed, we can expect a dangerous escalation of incidents, again all to be reported world-wide.

And what about boycotts?
Could the province stand the repercussion of a Jewish boycott in retaliation to the kippah ban?
Quebec will be in for some nasty push back from the ever-powerful Jewish lobby and a boycott by the sports and entertainment industry as well as the investment community.
What will happen when the NHL lets it be known that Quebec will never get a franchise or that Jewish artists and more importantly Jewish managers and agents will boycott the  Montreal Jazz or Comedy festival. What if the Jewish investment community decides to give Quebec a pass.

While defenders will pooh-pooh the idea of Quebec suffering a boycott in retaliation, let me remind them what happened with the turban in soccer.

While the supporters of the Charter, the PQ government included, encouraged the Quebec Soccer Federation to stand firm on the turban ban on the soccer pitch, the world had another idea and the Canadian Soccer federation quickly suspended Quebec over the issue.
All of a sudden the FSQ reversed itself on the issue, understanding that when push comes to shove,  you can't fight city hall!

So not only are international boycotts in relation to the Charter a possibility, they are a certainty.
To believe otherwise is to whistle past the graveyard.
Won't happen? Can't happen? It already has!

If you think I'm being an alarmist, think again.
When Jewish, Sikh and Muslim doctors, nurses, health professionals and teachers hold press conferences to resign en masse, it will rock Quebec from top to bottom and make waves across the world.
And what will be the effect of employees claiming harassment, or intimidation and who seek benefits because of burnout or stress related illness. Such are the rules that allow it.

And what about the thousands of lawsuits to be launched by employees deprived of work. There is a committee of lawyers, already forming, tasked to launch challenges against the law and take up the cause.
Should the law fail the test of constitutionality years down the road, the province could be open to billions in damages and back pay.  

And finally, what on Earth will happen if real Muslim extremists take exception and decide that action must be taken in order to stop the proliferation of such legislation in other jurisdictions?
I shudder to think.

Alarmist...I don't think so, but to Charter Supporters,  all I can say.......Are you willing to roll the dice?

As Dirty Harry said in the movies...."Go ahead... Make my day!"

No Election? Don't be so sure...

Watching the political theatre that surrounded the possible election this fall, I cannot help but have my political organizing skills, long dormant, kick back in.

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: 
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).

Don't believe our idiot journalists who first told us we were going to have an election and then told us we were not.
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.