Canada General Discussion

[MaxQue]

Various news outlets are reporting than the mayor of Montreal will resign at 7PM, tonight.

http://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/regional/montreal/201211/05/01-4590621-le-maire-tremblay-quittera-la-mairie.php

[RogueBeaver]

The end of an era, but as soon as he took that leave and nominated an acting mayor the outcome was predictable. So will Coderre create a new party or pick up what's left of the UM banner?

[RogueBeaver]

Marois/Marceau will bring down their first budget 2 weeks from tomorrow.

http://www.ledevoir.com/politique/quebec/363212/le-gouvernement-marois-deposera-son-budget-le-20-novembre

[DC Al Fine]

Marois/Marceau will bring down their first budget 2 weeks from tomorrow.

http://www.ledevoir.com/politique/quebec/363212/le-gouvernement-marois-deposera-son-budget-le-20-novembre

Odds of a winter election?

[RogueBeaver]

None. After the opposition's stupid fauxmanship on the Premier's Address (i.e. Throne Speech) they won't want to trigger an election barely 2 months after the change in government. Plus the Liberals are leaderless and up to their necks in Charbonneau sleaze. If Marois called their bluff, IMO she'd either get a majority or very close to it.

[Holmes]

Yes, consecutive elections are very unpopular, and the Opposition's supporters probably wouldn't reward them for forcing another one so soon.

[RogueBeaver]

Penashue still under fire. Does this end with Xmas recess?

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/canada/penashue-under-fire-on-two-fronts-illegal-campaign-financing-not-doing-his-job-177751711.html

[RogueBeaver]

Double boom: Vaillancourt resigns.

http://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/regional/201211/08/01-4591756-gilles-vaillancourt-demissionnerait-demain.php?

Pupatello: Legislature's not coming back till I do.

http://toronto.ctvnews.ca/former-minister-sandra-pupatello-launches-liberal-leadership-bid-1.1029628

[RogueBeaver]

Good riddance. Wildrose is where most Alberta Tories align anyways.

http://www.calgaryherald.com/opinion/columnists/Braid%2BWildrose%2Bdalliance%2Bexclude%2Bfederal%2BTories%2Bfrom/7528239/story.html

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/all-is-not-well-in-the-state-of-alison-redford/article5165619/?cmpid=rss1&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

[RogueBeaver]

Whateva.

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Provincial+party+draws+line+with+federal+Conservatives/7530818/story.html

Someone will blink, perhaps the leaderless Grits.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/canada/quebec-premier-pauline-marois-launches-appeal-to-opposition-over-upcoming-budget-178430701.html

[RogueBeaver]

Marois will be introducing the new Loi 101 before Xmas break. The opposition parties are nominally opposed but I think they'll strike a deal if pushed hard enough. Legault was a language mega-hawk until he left the PQ and Couillard has already signalled that he wants the PLQ to start competing with the PQ on ID/language.

http://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/quebec-canada/politique-quebecoise/201211/10/01-4592453-depot-imminent-dune-nouvelle-loi-101.php

[DC Al Fine]

Marois will be introducing the new Loi 101 before Xmas break. The opposition parties are nominally opposed but I think they'll strike a deal if pushed hard enough. Legault was a language mega-hawk until he left the PQ and Couillard has already signalled that he wants the PLQ to start competing with the PQ on ID/language.

http://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/quebec-canada/politique-quebecoise/201211/10/01-4592453-depot-imminent-dune-nouvelle-loi-101.php

So where do the Anglos go if the Liberals are just as bad as the PQ?

[RogueBeaver]

They're stuck with them. Even the very anti-Peq ones. Personally I don't think the PLQ can remotely compete in a bidding war on language/ID issues but Couillard wants to try. Like the original one, it'll be an omnibus containing both commercial and educational provisions. CEGEP-101 will probably be a major component.

[DC Al Fine]

One has to wonder what the Liberals are thinking by trying to go toe to toe with the PQ on language. There is no way they are going to win the votes of hardcore French nationalists. This will alienate their best supporters and risk another Equality Part. showing up.

[Mikhail Faustin]

i tink the liberals are a dume party tat is full of stupid n-r coon socialists & i would vote for christian hertigy or the nazi party n some hardcore conservatives

[DC Al Fine]

i tink the liberals are a dume party tat is full of stupid n-r coon socialists & i would vote for christian hertigy or the nazi party n some hardcore conservatives

CHP wouldn't have you.

[MaxQue]

One has to wonder what the Liberals are thinking by trying to go toe to toe with the PQ on language. There is no way they are going to win the votes of hardcore French nationalists. This will alienate their best supporters and risk another Equality Part. showing up.

Equality Party was a disaster which only marginalized Anglos. It looked to the average French voters than the Anglos were unable to accept than they were a minority and weren't ruling Québec as before the 60's. I'm quite sure than a rerun wouldn't work.

Liberals are making a wonderful work of making Anglos voting for them by scaring them with the risk of independantists having the most seats in Assembly if they don't vote Liberal.

[DC Al Fine]

One has to wonder what the Liberals are thinking by trying to go toe to toe with the PQ on language. There is no way they are going to win the votes of hardcore French nationalists. This will alienate their best supporters and risk another Equality Part. showing up.

Equality Party was a disaster which only marginalized Anglos. It looked to the average French voters than the Anglos were unable to accept than they were a minority and weren't ruling Québec as before the 60's. I'm quite sure than a rerun wouldn't work.

Liberals are making a wonderful work of making Anglos voting for them by scaring them with the risk of independantists having the most seats in Assembly if they don't vote Liberal.

I think an Equality Party would be useful to Anglos insofar as it reminds the Liberals that they can't win power without the Anglos. Not that it should stay around longer than 1-2 elections.

[RogueBeaver]

Speaking as a Quebec Anglo, no. Just no.


In other news... ugh, just ugh. I don't like the current system but the law's the law.

http://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/quebec-canada/politique-canadienne/201211/13/01-4593372-penashue-surpris-et-decu-des-allegations-de-financement-illegal.php

More ugh.

http://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/quebec-canada/politique-canadienne/201211/13/01-4593341-lequilibre-budgetaire-encore-reporte-dun-an.php

The opposition parties won't get much, if any, of this stuff.

http://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/quebec-canada/politique-canadienne/201211/13/01-4593341-lequilibre-budgetaire-encore-reporte-dun-an.php

[DC Al Fine]

Speaking as a Quebec Anglo, no. Just no.

Rogue Beaver, I was a twinkle in my dad's eye when the Equality party won seats. What is so bad about them?

[Linus Van Pelt]

You must be logged in to read this quote.

The thing is that this is mostly directed at non-Anglos hoping to educate their children in English, i.e. some (esp. middle-class federalist) Francophones + certain immigrant groups. What "applying Bill 101" to a level of education means is that you must have yourself been educated in English to send your children to the English system. The Anglophones won't like it, but they're not affected enough to spark some revolt.

The exception to this is getting rid of the language-of-work exemption for businesses with under 50 employees, but I assume they're not actually going to make some little store owner in Aylmer speak French to his staff of three. That's the sort of thing they say they're "considering" every so often to assuage the nutters.

(also, for those more fluent in French, what is "l'obligation d'utiliser un générique en français avec un nom de commerce anglais"? The only sense I can make of this is that it's about things like saying "un mouchoir" instead of "un kleenex", but surely they're not going to write that into the law?)

[RogueBeaver]

You nailed it. That's the real goal of both that and CEGEP-101. Personally I like the idea of cross-pollination and in retrospect would've liked to have been in the French private system myself. Know people who did and loved it. Certainly my meh-at-best written French would be better.


As for Equality Party...

It was a one-term wonder which fell apart within about 2 years and didn't accomplish anything other than postelex headlines about Liberals losing 4 safe seats for a single term, in an election where they won nearly 3/4 of the seats in the AssNat. Bourassa spoke softer but kept his new sign law (Loi 178), nothing changed.

The PLQ tribal loyalty among Anglos is extremely visceral and IMO, irrational. (One of the reasons I didn't vote in September) I know because I see it in my own folks, who are of the '76 generation. I've lost count of the times I've argued over the past few years that Peqs don't have horns and that Marois is doing this because she has her own base problems- and she signaled 5 years ago that the PQ will never get outflanked on ID again. Well before their internal problems last year. To be extremely blunt, the PLQ cares about nothing except winning- that's why Charest made Romney look like a man of pure principle-and there's nothing but electoral harm for them in going against the will of 80% of the electorate for 10-15% who will vote for them no matter what. When you're winning 20-something of 80% of the population, then you have a big problem. Couillard is a very smart man and knows this. He's not aiming for the purists, he's aiming for the moderate nationalists who are swing voters. The PLQ tells Anglos to jump and their only response is "how high?" Even in 1976 serious people like Bronfman were pleading for a corruptocrat vote because "Ev0l Peqs." While I often disagree with CSD on provincial politics he has a point when he says certain PLQers and Anglos don't realize how awful that sounds- and should sound- outside the bubble.

[MaxQue]

(also, for those more fluent in French, what is "l'obligation d'utiliser un générique en français avec un nom de commerce anglais"? The only sense I can make of this is that it's about things like saying "un mouchoir" instead of "un kleenex", but surely they're not going to write that into the law?)

No, it's not that. Its the stores which must have a French name. The government already requires it, but some businesses aren't willing to follow, saying they interpret the law another way. It's on the way to the courts.

To solve that, PQ wants to clearly write it in the law. For example, Starbucks Coffee is called Café Starbucks and Staples is called Bureau en Gros, Giant Tiger is called Tigre Géant.

Other businesses must add a generical French name to their name (magasin, électronique, etc.). Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Costco, Gap, Old Navy and Guess are suing.

[You kip if you want to...]

(also, for those more fluent in French, what is "l'obligation d'utiliser un générique en français avec un nom de commerce anglais"? The only sense I can make of this is that it's about things like saying "un mouchoir" instead of "un kleenex", but surely they're not going to write that into the law?)

No, it's not that. Its the stores which must have a French name. The government already requires it, but some businesses aren't willing to follow, saying they interpret the law another way. It's on the way to the courts.

To solve that, PQ wants to clearly write it in the law. For example, Starbucks Coffee is called Café Starbucks and Staples is called Bureau en Gros, Giant Tiger is called Tigre Géant.

Other businesses must add a generical French name to their name (magasin, électronique, etc.). Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Costco, Gap, Old Navy and Guess are suing.

Oh, Quebec.

[Linus Van Pelt]

(also, for those more fluent in French, what is "l'obligation d'utiliser un générique en français avec un nom de commerce anglais"? The only sense I can make of this is that it's about things like saying "un mouchoir" instead of "un kleenex", but surely they're not going to write that into the law?)

No, it's not that. Its the stores which must have a French name. The government already requires it, but some businesses aren't willing to follow, saying they interpret the law another way. It's on the way to the courts.

To solve that, PQ wants to clearly write it in the law. For example, Starbucks Coffee is called Café Starbucks and Staples is called Bureau en Gros, Giant Tiger is called Tigre Géant.

Other businesses must add a generical French name to their name (magasin, électronique, etc.). Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Costco, Gap, Old Navy and Guess are suing.

I see, thanks.