A GOOD NIGHT....
So Mario Dumont's ADQ took nearly as many seats in the Quebec election as Jean Charest. Now while Mr. Charest remains premier there is a real opportunity for the ADQ to start shifting quebec into the 21st century. Let's hope the next election is theirs!
Cheers,
P
So Mario Dumont's ADQ took nearly as many seats in the Quebec election as Jean Charest. Now while Mr. Charest remains premier there is a real opportunity for the ADQ to start shifting quebec into the 21st century. Let's hope the next election is theirs!
Cheers,
P
posted by Patrick at
6:54 AM
2 Comments:
With all due respect Pat, I have to disagree with you. Despite some of their positive attributes, I simply cannot ignore or forgive two important facts about the ADQ:
1) their leader (Mario Dumont) is a separatist in waiting (not recovery); and 2) the ADQ is a closet-club of bigots and social regressives.
Dumont campaigned for Quebec separation in the early '90s along side Bouchard and Parizeau, trying to convince, manoeuvre and manipulate Quebecers to vote for separation from Canada. Conveniently, Dumont changed his position on separation when the referendum in '95 didn't go his way, or that of the PQ and BQ. Dumont disguises this loss on the "sovereignty question" as a grand experiment in democracy. Dumont says he won't pursue separation because it was voted down by Quebecers (51% anyway), and because "the people" have no desire to revisit it anytime soon.
This suggests to me that Dumont is populist and two-faced at best; conniving and deceitful at worst.
I'm sorry, but I cannot trust the ADQ, nor hope it gets elected, when their leader was pushing to destroy Canada as we know it just over 10 years ago. You can't simply change your mind on something as significant as separation based on where the winds of public opinion and political convenience are blowing.
I don’t trust Dumont one bit, because now instead of "separation", he has been advocating for Quebec to be an "autonomous state". Although legally two different things, it smacks Quebec sovereignty in the face of Canada. Once a separatist always a separatist. Dumont is one in waiting, not recovery.
Second, many of the senior members of the ADQ have made repeated and vocal discriminatory statements that are nothing short of racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic. If that wasn't bad enough, the party and its leader have done little to boot these people out, let alone discipline them. Gilles Gagnon, the ADQ candidate for Abitibi-East, is just one of these people, who recently accused Jewish people for waging war for money and using homophobic slurs on the PQ candidate in his riding. Sure, Dumont condemned these remarks and distanced himself from Gagnon (out of convenience, as any party leader/politician would do), but did he replace Gagnon with another candidate or in some way discipline him? No. Dumont lost his chance to take a stand on bigotry and purge his party of it, because the PQ candidate ended up defeating Gagnon anyway. Incidentally, Gagnon also lost in the federal election when running for the Conservatives.
For these and other reasons, I hope the ADQ does not win next time.
By
Anonymous, at 8:03 AM
While its true that many ADQ canadidates have said regrettable things, it bears noting that Dumont fired them immediately even though it meant securing new candidates during an election campaign.
What I like about them is that unlike the liberals and the PQ its not the same old song we've seen since Duplessis. The ADQ platform wants to bring quebec into the 21st century, increasing student fees (which is needed to cover basic costs of education. Although costs are the lowest in the country this means that there is not enough money being pumped into education infrastructure).
The ADQ wants to introduce teh ability to pay for some medical services which in my mind is long overdue across the country provided the public health system continues to be funded by everyone.
Things like this. They are challenging the old norms which have got our country to where it is now. A sad sad place that I see crumbling more and more every day.
I'm willing to let the ADQ try to modernize the province. If it works it could, once again, prove a model for the country.
They may fail and be a disaster but at this point I and I think many Quebecers just want something new, and a change from the tired old status quoe of liberal/PQ or Federally, liberal/conservative/ndp.
Cheers,
P
By
Patrick, at 6:31 AM
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