What's Going on in Quebec?

Lots of analysis is going on in the media these days as to what's wrong with the Parti Quebecois and more generally with the separatist movement in Quebec.

My view?

Well it seems to me the problem with the separatist political movement in Quebec isn't that it's separatist, but that it's Marxist.

In other words, both the PQ and the Bloc Quebecois are pushing a tired, left-wing agenda that's falling out of touch with the realities of the modern world.

The Quebecois are ready to move on.

For another analysis on what the Quebec election results mean politically, check out this excellent column by Beryl Wajsman.

I met Beryl on a recent trip to Montreal and have had appeared on his radio show -- The Last Angry Man -- and I can tell you he is a savvy political thinker as well as a fascinating conversationalist.

On the Quebec election he writes:

"Dumont talked about the hopes of working people, the elderly and young families trying to make ends meet on constricting incomes and trying to make their dreams realities despite restrictive rule. The irony was not lost on the dozen or so reporters I was with. The 'left-wing' Boisclair played the exclusionary ethnic card of his cultural “uberclass”. The supposedly 'right-wing' Dumont championed the interests of an economic underclass. Dumont raised hopes he dare not betray."

Bad Liberal Spin

Liberal leader Stephane Dion needs a new spin doctor.

I say that because the Liberal Party spin on the Quebec election is really lame.

Essentially, Dion is denouncing the "intrusion" of Prime Minister Stephen Harper into the campaign, saying the way he linked additional limitations on federal spending powers to the results of the election was "blackmail."

This intervention, says Dion, tightened the race and distanced the Liberal Party from majority support.

Is anybody really going to buy this nonsense?

Seems to me, the majority of Canadians are pretty happy with an election result which relegates the separatists to third place.

And if Harper's "intrusion" helped to bring this about, so much the better.

Perhaps all this is incomprehensible to Dion and the Liberals who seem to think everyone is rooting for Liberal majorities.

The Cost of Victory

A week before the Quebec election, Prime Minister Stephen Harper poured $3 billion into La Belle Province.

The PM says he did this to end the "fiscal imbalance" but many believe the real goal was to help Jean Charest's Liberals defeat the nasty separatists.

And if that was his goal, it worked --- the $3 billion ensured Charest won 48 seats, which works out to about $63 million per seat.

Good thing, Harper wasn't aiming for a Liberal majority -- that might have bankrupted the country.

Oh and please note, all you folks who think the Green movement is about to reshape our political culture.

The Quebec Green Party won a paltry four percent of the popular vote and no seats, in one of the most pro-environment province's in the country.

Watch for their federal cousins to suffer the same fate in the next national election.

Update:

I modified this posting into a Letter to the Editor, which is published in today's National Post.