BQ

Friday, March 1, 2013

Friday, March 1, 2013By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday, March 1, 2013

House calls being made as part of EI audit

Opposition leader Tom Mulcair has been working tirelessly for nearly a year to position his New Democrats as the government in waiting, and himself as a future prime minister. Thursday both those objectives grew measurably more difficult to achieve.

With the defection of Quebec NDP MP Claude Patry to the moribund but apparently still kicking. With the defection of Quebec NDP MP Claude Patry to the moribund but apparently still kicking Bloc Quebecois, it now becomes clear that Mulcair is fighting on three fronts to hold the historic gains made by his party in the 2011 election. Never mind building on those gains: Mulcair will be putting out this fire for the foreseeable future, focusing on the preservation of his Quebec beachhead. Even that is no longer a foregone conclusion. There’s Justin Trudeau to consider.

The truly aggravating thing for Mulcair here must be the realization that he brought this on himself with his ill-considered bid to “improve on” the federal Clarity Act in January. That was a battle of choice, not necessity. He could have left well enough alone. Now the damage is done, and its ripple effects are spreading.

Consider how humbly it began, with Bill C-457, initiated by Bloc MP Andre Bellavance. Had that passed – it was never more than a goad, on account of the Bloc holding, at that time, four seats – it would have repealed the law that sets the terms for separation. Among other measures, the Clarity Act states Canada cannot entertain such negotiations absent a clear majority, voting on a clear question.  (Source: National Post)

May 4, 2011

Your vile editorial cartoon, characterizing Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe as a rat and as vermin, serves to illustrate exactly why there is a thriving separatist movement in Quebec.

Who can blame them?

P. Spoelstra, Ancaster

* * * * *

Your editorial cartoon, showing Jack Layton strangling and caging Gilles Duceppe, was distasteful and irresponsible.

I am an Anglo-Ontarian and do not support the Bloc. But it is a Canadian value to respect a leader who served his people and his cause with integrity. We should also not forget that the Bloc in the last governments supported the interests of all Canadians to protect social programs, civil rights, and peace.

Editorial cartoons are a place for clever mocking of the powerful. This cartoon, and a string of others during the campaign, celebrated power at the expense of the weak or the vanquished. Editorial cartooning is about more than mean-spirited pictures and piling on.

G. Van Harten, Burlington

* * * * *

I am a young, educated, voting adult who is rather insulted by the claims these cartoons make that the new MPs are somehow worse for our government because they are younger.

I am also surprised The Spectator would attempt to make light of the situation by trying to stereotype these accomplished, newly elected MPs as uneducated unprofessional idiots, with no broad interests (in either food or sports), who are incapable of communicating in a formal and professional manner. The young adults of Canada are perfectly able to communicate properly, have much broader food tastes than “chicken strips and chocolate milk” and have no need for a “joint committee on half-pipe.” Obviously all voters (not just young Canadians) elected these new MPs because they felt the older, more experienced MPs were not doing the job right. The Spectator should have more respect for this new generation, or at least wait until several of them have done something worth mocking.

J. Harrison, Hamilton

May 4, 2011

Your vile editorial cartoon, characterizing Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe as a rat and as vermin, serves to illustrate exactly why there is a thriving separatist movement in Quebec.

Who can blame them?

P. Spoelstra, Ancaster

* * * * *
Your editorial cartoon, showing Jack Layton strangling and caging Gilles Duceppe, was distasteful and irresponsible.

I am an Anglo-Ontarian and do not support the Bloc. But it is a Canadian value to respect a leader who served his people and his cause with integrity. We should also not forget that the Bloc in the last governments supported the interests of all Canadians to protect social programs, civil rights, and peace.

Editorial cartoons are a place for clever mocking of the powerful. This cartoon, and a string of others during the campaign, celebrated power at the expense of the weak or the vanquished. Editorial cartooning is about more than mean-spirited pictures and piling on.

G. Van Harten, Burlington

* * * * *

I am a young, educated, voting adult who is rather insulted by the claims these cartoons make that the new MPs are somehow worse for our government because they are younger.

I am also surprised The Spectator would attempt to make light of the situation by trying to stereotype these accomplished, newly elected MPs as uneducated unprofessional idiots, with no broad interests (in either food or sports), who are incapable of communicating in a formal and professional manner. The young adults of Canada are perfectly able to communicate properly, have much broader food tastes than “chicken strips and chocolate milk” and have no need for a “joint committee on half-pipe.” Obviously all voters (not just young Canadians) elected these new MPs because they felt the older, more experienced MPs were not doing the job right. The Spectator should have more respect for this new generation, or at least wait until several of them have done something worth mocking.

J. Harrison, Hamilton

November 27, 2006

It always happens… I take off for a few days and a huge story drops begging for mass punditry and editorial cartoons. Just as I’m starting a long Thanksgiving weekend with my wife’s family in the U.S. I hear the news that Stephen Harper drops a proposal before Parliament which would recognize Quebec as a nation within Canada. Then, the radio reception fades and I don’t hear about the story until I’m on my way back home 5 days later. (The U.S. media took no notice of this Quebec as a nation news from what I heard).

So as Canada pondered its future in what I thought would become a new constitutional crisis I decided to shut out all access to the goings-on via the Internet and concentrate on personal issues: drinking beer, eating turkey, shopping for xmas gifts for the kids, dining out with my wife, attending a bowling birthday party for my 10 year old niece, going to see Borat with my brother inlaw, and capping everything off with more brown pops before heading home.

Much to my surprise was the speed in which things would be decided. All day today the motion has been debated, and despite a few exciting bits such as the resignation of a conservative cabinet minister, the proposal is to be voted on tonight, and it’s expected to be supported by all parties, including the Liberals, and including the Bloc Quebecois. Getting those two to agree on something so divisive as the old “distinct society” issue is monumental. Pierre Trudeau ought to be rolling in his grave as the Toronto Star’s Patrick Corrigan illustrated.

I guess this all came about after Gilles Duceppe put the motion before the house that declared “Quebec a nation” without the additional “within a united Canada” which was added by the Conservatives in their own motion. Am I right? If so, then that answered my question as to why this all of a sudden came about. Dolts calling into radio talk shows gave me the wrong impression Harper just pulled this one out of his a$$. (Actually, Harper’s put a lot of thought into Canadian federalism than a lot of people know.) In fact, this recent ‘Quebec as a Nation’ thing was started by the Bloc Quebecois. The Bloc’s motion was probably inspired by Michael Ignatieff’s “Quebec is a nation” comments last month, designed to play a bit of cheap politics just on the eve of the Liberal’s leadership vote.

If tonight’s vote does in fact end this brief discussion on Canadian unity then I think Harper may have pulled off a brilliant political maneuvre as a simple response to the proposals raised by the Bloc Quebecois and Michael Ignatieff. I really don’t think anyone has an appetite to debate a largely symbolic recognition of status proposal, not now anyway.

* * * Update, Nov. 29 * * *

A little late but at least I drew something reflecting the Quebec is a nation thing:

Now I’m just wondering what’s going to happen the next time I take a couple of days off.