Monday, November 4, 2019

Separatists Loving Canada's Bill 21 Opposition

If anything cost Justin Trudeau his majority in the last election, it wasn't Conservative leader Andrew Scheer's bumbling and disconnect with the electorate, it was the ROC's loud and vocal opposition to Quebec's Bill 21, the secular bill, which propelled the Bloc Quebecois back into Parliament with renewed numbers, thus robbing Trudeau of another majority government.

Canada's entitled liberal left did not understand, nor fathom that Bill 21 enjoys broad support in Quebec and that attacking the bill would only propel Quebec's fickle fence-sitting voters into choosing to embrace the Bloc for no other reason but to provide a countervailing political force vis-a-vis Bill 21.
Make no mistake, Canada's prodigious liberal left's righteous and indignant opposition to Bill 21 and its attack on the Quebec government and its constituency led to our minority Parliament, for better or worse.

For myself, I cannot say that I'm dissatisfied with the comeuppance of Canada's liberal left over the issue, particularly the politicians and media who led the vociferous opposition to Quebec's Bill 21, all to no avail.
They are destined to fume and fustigate for years to come over Quebec's refusal to knuckle under to their liberal agenda, dumfounded that their demand for the repeal of the hated law falls on deaf ears in Quebec despite using every weapon in the liberal book, including shaming. humiliating, lecturing and uncontrolled hectoring.

Yesterday the city of Toronto added its two cents by piling on in opposition to Bill 21.
In its motion, Toronto council said it is opposed to the law and endorses an initiative proposed by Calgary city council that asks the Canadian Coalition of Municipalities Against Racism and Discrimination “to create a nationwide campaign that highlights the harmful widespread impacts of Bill 21 on social cohesion and inclusion in Canada.”
Toronto also called on the federal government “to unequivocally condemn and challenge Quebec’s Bill 21.” Link
 Ha! Ha!
For Quebec nationalists and separatists in Quebec, Toronto's opposition and blustering is sweet music to their ears.
Quebec is immune to this intimidation for a variety of reasons, but largely because taking orders or advice from the ROC is the last thing it is interested in doing. In fact, piquing the nose of the perceived smug and superior liberal Anglos in the ROC over the issue is the cherry topping the Bill 21 sundae.
As can be clearly seen by the desperate and toothless remedy proposed, there is nothing to be done politically (at least nothing Trudeau would dare) and so the reality is that Toronto's pain is Quebec's gain as the saying goes.
Quebecers are thoroughly enjoying the pain Bill 21 has inflicted on the ROC and the more Canada howls, the more Quebec remains steadfast and resolute.

For Canada's majorly left-leaning politicians and journalists, Quebec's refusal to knuckle under is all the more galling because of the left's prevailing belief that not only is theirs the only truth, but those who share a different opinion are dead-wrong, stupid, out of touch and inconsequential.

You would think that given the overwhelming unanimous rejection of Bill 21 by politicians and journalists in ROC, it would represent a massive rejection of Bill 22 by Canadians.
But alas it is no so.
Despite calling the law evil, racist unconstitutional and every 




Canada's liberal-minded are in the majority in this country, which is to say that they outnumber conservative-minded folks by a margin of about 65% to 35%. This is just a fact.

And so they control the media, the elected governments and the policies that govern Canada and have done so for decades.
This liberal dominance was broken up by the reign of Stephen Harper who's Conservative government was created by the serendipitous split in liberal vote between the Liberals and the NDP..
That being said, Harper did little to promote a real conservative agenda but rather acted to curb the excesses of wanton liberalism.

With the rise of Justin Trudeau, liberalism has run rampant, the hallmark of which is an overwhelming sense of entitlement and righteousness.
This is the part of liberalism that is most distressing, the dogmatic and fanatical belief that liberalism is the only legitimate political agenda.

Those who oppose the liberal agenda on gay and transgender rights, unbridled defecit spending, abortion, affirmative action for women in the workforce and climate activism are portrayed as regressive, deniers and other pejoratives coined by liberals to paint those who oppose their agenda as evil and regressive.

It is this, more than the policies that is so galling.


wrong and inconsequential

A poll commissioned by CBC News earlier this year found 65 per cent of all Canadians said they agreed with the statement "we have gone too far in accommodating every group in society" -- a view held most strongly in Alberta and Quebec. link


Smug and superior

13 comments:

  1. I am kind of happy that Trudeau was denied a majority government and as you say its Quebec and the Bloc that we can thank for that. So its one of those rare instances when I am happy the Bloc did well. Now Trudeau has to work with everyone else to survive and in 2 years or so he will likely get booted out once and for all.

    Having said that it does feel like we will see a nasty few years coming up between Quebec and the ROC as it seems the CAQ and Bloc plan is to keep enacting or supporting policies to attack anglophones and minorities, to not work with the ROC on the pipeline and so on. Basically they are hoping they can provoke Canada to challenge them so they can then declare that the only way Quebec can defend its interests is by seperation. So in the the end the CAQ is just taking a more nuanced route to eventually declare that seperation is the only way.

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  2. "Basically they are hoping [the separatists] can provoke Canada to challenge them so they can then declare that the only way Quebec can defend its interests is by separation."

    To that, I say "great!" Legault was originally campaigning on not taking anymore equalization money, so let's see him finally forfeit the money where his mouth is. Maybe the partitionists will rise again and Montreal will finally become a city-state (when pigs could fly). Separate already, and good riddance.

    "...it does feel like we will see a nasty few years coming up between Quebec and the ROC..." The "nasty years" never really went away. Like the oceans of the world, there are ebbs and tides, nothing more, nothing less. We did have an extraordinarily long ebb, but like death and taxes, separatism is a certainty of life.

    Bring it on. Let's see Quebec for once in my lifetime TRY to pull itself up by its own bootstraps. Maybe Jason Kenney WILL succeed by pushing the envelope re Wexit.

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  3. Wexit will never happen..its such a fringe movement..just look at their leader and members. These are the rednecks of the Prairies who are as crazy as the separatists here. However there are a lot more Quebec separatists than western separatists. Westerners in the end are infinitely more patriotic than most Quebecers so this movement will sputter and frankly they will be lucky to elect one MP in the next election. Its all about trying to pressure Ottawa into giving them something but don't even think they will get much in the end from Trudeau.

    How about the latest missive from Legault about only allowing government services in english to "historic anglophones" in Quebec. This is a slippery slope to issuing special cards to identify who a "historic anglo" is. Its really divisive. Its crystal clear that the CAQ is obsessed about dividing Quebec as much as possible and creating as much angst as possible in an effort to provoke the federal government in taking a stand so they can scream like babies that Ottawa is infringing on their rights and the only real solution is separation..here we go again.

    Every time someone declares separation dead it rears its uglh head again. The bottom line is there are still way too many francophones that want it..at least 30 percent which is a lot of people. All you need now is some sign that Ottawa is trampling on Quebecs rights to maybe push that number up to 40 or even 50 percent and then we will be back to "lets hold a referendum|".

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    1. complicated, "Historic Anglophones" are dying off, so what year does an Anglophone have to have been born in Quebec to benefit from services for "Historic Anglophones"? As far as I'm concerned, "Historic Anglophones" lost their "historic" privileges once one ex-premier John James "Goldilocks" Charest became premier. He allowed Quebec Government departments to force Anglophones to listen to entire French messages before being able to request English messages.

      He forced a child who had a Québécois father and American mother from Delaware USA to go to French school, and had to go back to Delaware to do so. Section 81 of the Charter of the French Language is supposed to make allowances for children who have learning disabilities and Section 85 of that same Charter considers humanitarian grounds. No such luck for this child, so if a so-called federalist was as brutal and merciless as JJ "Goldilocks" Charest was, what makes you think a separatist is going to be more benevolent?

      The last time Wexit came into play was when Jr. Trudope's daddy, Pierre was PM. Like father, like son!

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    2. complicated writes:

      "This is a slippery slope to issuing special cards to identify who a 'historic anglo' is."

      Actually, "special cards" have been the reality since Bill 101 was enacted; it's called an eligibility certificate and it actually is about the size of a card.

      See: http://100objects.qahn.org/content/eligibility-certificate-1999

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  4. Complicated: I have to agree, Francois Legault is still a separatist at heart and his ultimate goal is an eventual referendum. The way they are going about it is very shady and dishonest, it almost makes you respect the PQ. They will continue to go out of their way to create conflict with the ROC, while betting on the general stupidity of your average Quebecker, only to then turn around and cry about how we aren't being respected as a "distinct nation".

    Equalization payments, which M.Sauga mentioned are yet another example. During his campaign, Legault clearly said that Quebec needs to get itself off the equalization teet. "We don't need no stinkin' Canada!" This was applauded by his supporters, who somehow still believe we give more than we get.
    As soon as Kenney started talking about a referendum on equalization, Legault got all defensive and reminded everyone that "equalization is a right!". He claimed that equalization has been in the Canadian constitution since day 1, all while explaining that Alberta still gets more than us because we pay more taxes. All this is incorrect, but that doesn't matter to his supporters.
    Isn't it ironic that a separatist would use Canadian federalism to defend his ideas?

    Mark my words, the equalization discussion will come back, as the western provinces clearly aren't happy with the current deal, and the CAQ will use it as yet another argument to show how Canada doesn't respect Quebec.

    I have an idea, how about we make it so federal representation is based on equalization payments? Receive more money? You get less seats, and less say in how the country is run. A welfare recipient doesn't get to tell others how to do their jobs after all.

    This CAQ government is unfortunately going to set our province back by decades with their forced nationalism and other terrible decisions.

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    1. Who did Le-go think he was fooling with potentially refusing equalization? Certainly CAQ will use Alberta rebelling to show Quebec they are unloved. No equalization hasn't been in the Constitution going back to Day 1. It came about in 1957, 90 years after Canada became a confederation. Unfort it is now embedded into the Constitution no thanks to federal Quebec politicians, but I don't think Alberta will get the 50%/seven provinces formula to work. Quebec has 23% of the population, the Atlantics have another 10% or so, but they make up four more provinces and Manitoba I'm sure won't yield as well, so six provinces with less than 50% of the population will win based on the aforementioned stipulation of seven provinces with 50% of the population having to agree. Believe you me, I don't like it myself, and it's not as if Daddy Trudope, et al (Marc Lalonde, Jean Chrétien and others) didn't know about setting up that formula.

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    2. @anonymous

      "Francois Legault is still a separatist at heart and his ultimate goal is an eventual referendum."

      if he still was a separatist, his ultimate goal would be quebec's political independance, not a referendum. it's an important nuance, do you have what's needed to appreciate it?

      "it almost makes you respect the PQ..."

      You don't respect the pq? why?!?

      "During his campaign, Legault clearly said that Quebec needs to get itself off the equalization teet."

      all this part of your rant is based on a false premise. you misunderstood, mate, even though it wasn't a difficult one. when francois legault says he does't want equalization, what he means is he wants quebec so rich that it will not qualify anymore and become a giver rather than a receiver. he never meant to not take in transfers that belong to quebec. that would be crazy.

      "We don't need no stinkin' Canada!"

      making up quotes is dishonest. why are you dishonest mate? you don't need to be.

      "I have an idea, how about we make it so federal representation is based on equalization payments? Receive more money? You get less seats, and less say in how the country is run."

      so you are against democracy? now that's an original point of view.

      all in all it's a pretty bad comment mate.

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    3. Regarding equalization, Mr. Sauga writes:

      "Unfort it is now embedded into the Constitution no thanks to federal Quebec politicians, but I don't think Alberta will get the 50%/seven provinces formula to work."

      Unfortunate indeed. However, despite its entrenchment as a constitutional provision, its wording is somewhat vague as far as government obligation is concerned. No mention of how much or to what degree it must be meted out. It reads:

      "36(2) Parliament and the government of Canada are committed to the principle of making equalization payments to ensure that provincial governments have sufficient revenues to provide reasonably comparable levels of public services at reasonably comparable levels of taxation."

      Perhaps a recalibration of equalization would pass constitutional muster. In other words, cut it down from whatever billions it gives out every year ($20 billion total?) to about 2 or 3 billion. Use the same formula regarding what each province gets but give out a fraction of the total of what it is currently giving out. Would a lesser amount meet the criteria of the constitutional provision cited above? I don't know.

      Or, alternatively, my preference would be a recalibration of the formula so that if a province violates human rights, they get less of equalization as a penalty. You know, if a province has a Bill 101, for example.

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    4. Actually, Tony, that's sort of what I was getting at, i.e., give Quebec $100 and give the Atlantics and Manitoba their usual share, i.e., a few billion, esp. if there is no exact formula. Works for me.

      Moreover, Quebec shouldn't be getting anywhere near the money they're getting now because they can offer programs that EXCEED what the "have" provinces can do. What other province in Canada can offer $7/day subsidized daycare? I don't know of a single one outside of Quebec!

      Somebody I know well worked at a social institution that offered $10/day daycare. One of the children in the daycare had a lazy-assed mother who was on welfare, i.e., sending her kid off to daycare so she could lay around all day watching TV, smoking, and eating bonbons. Terrific...subsidized daycare for lazy welfare bums who can whisk their kids out of their hair. Shouldn't it be for working parents?

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  5. "Francois Legault is still a separatist at heart and his ultimate goal is an eventual referendum."

    if he still was a separatist, his ultimate goal would be quebec's political independance, not a referendum. it's an important nuance, do you have what's needed to appreciate it?

    I have no idea what your point is here student. If Legault wants a referendum then obviously he wants independence..thats just one of many steps necessary to get to independence. The first step is what he is doing now..create division and anger between Quebec and the ROC..thats the fuel needed to grow the movement towards independence which of course at some point requires a referendum.

    "it almost makes you respect the PQ..."

    You don't respect the pq? why?!?

    Maybe because the PQ is a racist and xenophobic party which also loves creating division and hate between les Quebecois and everyone else. Its pretty clear that hard core separatists want to invoke the sense that the rest of Canada does not respect them. So its always the same game..try to provoke Canada into responding so they can stomp their feet and cry about Canada interfering. Last time I checked Quebec was still in a country called Canada and yet more and more Quebec acts as if it is its own country. The new game appears to be "lets just act like we are a country" since we cant win a referendum allowing us to actually become a country.

    "During his campaign, Legault clearly said that Quebec needs to get itself off the equalization teet."

    all this part of your rant is based on a false premise. you misunderstood, mate, even though it wasn't a difficult one. when francois legault says he does't want equalization, what he means is he wants quebec so rich that it will not qualify anymore and become a giver rather than a receiver. he never meant to not take in transfers that belong to quebec. that would be crazy.

    I agree with you there student. But I believe that its high time the whole equalization program be changed to make it a lot fairer..as its essentially a way for Quebec and the Atlantic provinces plus Manitoba to extract money from the rest of the country to pay for their poor management.

    "We don't need no stinkin' Canada!"

    making up quotes is dishonest. why are you dishonest mate? you don't need to be.

    No comment.

    "I have an idea, how about we make it so federal representation is based on equalization payments? Receive more money? You get less seats, and less say in how the country is run."

    so you are against democracy? now that's an original point of view.

    Well for starters student why dont we change our silly "first past the post" system which is frankly quite undemocratic as all votes are not equal. Some votes count much more than others. For instance the bloc quebecois should really have no more than 23 seats based on their percentage of the vote yet they have 32. The Greens, NDP and PPC all should have many more seats. How about in provincial elections where the Montreal vote is grossly underrepresented wheras rural backwaters like Iles de la Madeleine are grossly over represented.


    all in all it's a pretty bad comment mate.

    all in all you have your usual pointless comments mate..you are like all good separatists trying to stir up animosity all the time.

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    1. Sadly, complicated, you fell into student's trap. I confess I fell into it as well for a time, but now I let him rave on quietly. Don't even read his comments. He (or she) is trolling. Total gibberish.

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  6. For years, I have written on this blog that the 30-35% support for sovereignty consistently registered in Quebec public opinion polls over the years since the last referendum was incredibly high, considering that it's been during a relatively peaceful state of Canada-Quebec constitutional warring. I have always held that it would only take a perceived humiliation to boost those numbers up to 1995 "within the skin of our teeth" numbers in which the "Yes" side in a referendum could prevail. Doesn't take much, I always said.

    Well, the ROC reaction to Bill 21 and how it got the backs of Quebec Nationalists up is a perfect example of this and how it boosted enough support to both rob the Liberals of a majority in Ottawa and revived the separatist Bloc.

    From the late '80s to the '95 referendum it was the failure of Meech Lake. To a lesser but nevertheless significant degree it was the 15 second clip of anglos in Brockville stomping on a Quebec flag, a clip shown countless times on French language TV in Quebec.

    This should be a warning to those in the media who continually proclaim separatism dead the day after those public opinion polls are released showing support for independence in the mid-30% range. That, as I've always maintained, is incredibly high...and in this federal election cycle we've now seen how the ROC's reaction to Bill 21 can move Quebecers to vote the sovereignist line.

    Doesn't take much, does it?

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