Québec Politics...

[c9]

Paul wells says it best...

So today André Boisclair broke a month's silence on his "youthful" cocaine use (he used to enjoy the odd snort back when Lucien Bouchard was premier of Quebec) because he needed to rebut jokes that governor-general Michaëlle Jean made about him at the Press Gallery Dinner two weeks ago! ("Mr. Boisclair always follows the party line...")

Note to Parti Québécois: Pleeeeeeeeeeease vote for André Boisclair for leader.

Comments

[skeezix1000.livejournal.com]

I disagree. I actually do think he's recycling old nationalist rants.

You're right, Boisclair is not a "I was insulted at Eaton's" type of independentiste, and he didn't join the PQ because he had a bad train ride out west in the 1960s. So he's abandoned some of the baggage.

But when his name started appearing in the media as a potential leadership candidate, I went and read his blog b/c I was interested in the whole gay/Harvard/about to move to Toronto thing. But his blog was full of the same old tired rhetoric, and I haven't heard anything different from him since. Most of it could have been copied from a PQ election pamphlet from 1973.

Sovereignty for sovereignty's sake. Vague illusions to how sovereignty will give Quebec the tools to help the environment, improve social justice, etc. but no explanations of how this would be accomplished. Sovereignty will solve all our problems, blah blah blah. Let's not think too hard about the Quebec Model because we might have to acknowledge parts of it might need fixing or updating. Same old, same old.

So, no diatribes about language or anglophones, but everything else is the same. He's sexier and younger than Landry or Parizeau, but that's about it.

I have nothing but respect for Quebec nationalism, but I'd love to hear something new or different from a sovereignist for once. The knee-jerk reaction to the so-called Bouchard manifesto was just depressing.

Ironically, I have the same criticisms of most Canadian nationalists too.

I hope none of this makes me sound as some free market conservative, because I'm not. And you'll have to take it all with a grain of salt, given I'm an anglo in Toronto who doesn't follow the issues as closely as you do. :)