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Too bad for your bias, then, that anglophones now make up 11% of the Quebec provincial Cabinet:
http://tinyurl.com/4589qb
" ... There were some surprises starting with Kathleen Weil taking on the big justice job despite the fact she is a greenhorn politician. Perfectly bilingual, the MNA for Nôtre-dame-de-Grace has been fastracked into cabinet ...
" ... D’Arcy McGee MNA Lawrence Bergman, dumped from the cabinet last time, makes a return - this time as caucus chairman, a role that allows him to sit at the cabinet table. The only other anglophone in the cabinet remains Yolande James who stays in immigration ..."
Do you doubt that any of these ministers is fluent in French? As for their percentage, if it was to reflect the part played by Quebec anglos in Mr. Charest's reelection, it would be much higher...
How telling that when every progressive in Quebec - plus even the Montreal Gazette! - is taking note of Amir Khadir's election and pointing out the giant step he and Quebec Solidaire represent for Quebec minorities, you, Todd Schneider, are cheering for a right-wing party promising more of the same!
Louisa Blair has written whole books on that topic. Without, it seems, much of a chip on her shoulder.
http://www.ocol-clo.gc.ca/newsletter_cyberbulletin/portrait_e.htm
The decline of Quebec City as a commercial centre (to Montreal's benefit) is certainly one reason. The anglo decline there came well before the 1970s, anyway.
Taking note of what the elected Liberal government of the time is doing is not advertising, it's critiquing.
And doing the same for Quebec solidaire, is the same. I won't be so "progressive" I don't point out some principles I wish to see in practice (such as minority rights and respect), and not just policy.
The recent practice of Liberal-anglo policy is largely tokenism, so why should I cheer for that?
When I say anglophone, of course, I refer to native language, regardless of ability assumed in the dominant one in this province. No unilinguals need apply (something even "progressive" Jacques Parizeau has stated), unless of course they are unilingual francophones out of their socio-political depth:
http://tinyurl.com/3zwl4h
" ... The most important weakness in Charest's inner circle appears to be Nathalie Normandeau, once again named minister of municipal affairs and, mysteriously, vice-premier.
Quebec has many cities but only one metropolis, and Montreal seems to remain a mystery to Normandeau, a unilingual Gaspésienne and former mayor of Maria (pop. 2,433). Her Bill 22 this year, intended to paper over the damage done by the suburban merger-demerger wars, left nobody happy; the wound still festers. Her return to this vital-to-Montreal job is not a good omen ..."
By the way, I wouldn't care to see, not have I ever implied, anglos in the Liberal Cabinet reflecting their level of electoral support. That might be almost as distorted a bias in the other direction as the one assumed by the dominant political class.
We have seen lots of examples of new countries being formed as a result of ethnic nationalism in recent years - Slovakia, all the former parts of the Soviet union etc... and in every single case it did not result in one iota of more progressive government and the poor are every bit as badly as ever. Creating new countries is just a distraction from the cause of social justice. If I want an independent Quebec i can vote PQ and get a referendum some day - why waste my time with Quebec Solidaire?
Let's face it, if Quebec ever became independent - it would almost certainly elect an ADQ style centre-right government and NOTHING will change except for maybe having Maurice Duplessis appear on the money instead of the Queen and few jobs in the highest ranks of the civil service for the Outremont crowd.
I would have a lot more respect for Quebec Solidaire if they would denounce the whole soveerignty movement as a petty bourgeois obsession.
The left is supposed to be about internationalism and people of all races creeds and colours joining arms and fighting together for social justice. Quebec Solidaire should be forming alliances with progressive forces in English Canada and trying to make the world a better place for everyone.
This is why it was such a wonderful thing when the BQ was willing to support the Liberal-NDP coalition. It was a sign that they were finally realizing that ethnic nationalism is a reactionary dead-end and that they should instead form alliance with progressive forces across Canada. What's good for Canada is good for Quebec and vice-versa. THE WORLD IS A CIRCLE!!
Leave this regressive flag waving ethnic nationalism and ethnocentrism to the rightwing parties - it suits them better.
It was Quebecers who voted for fascists like Duplessis and Mario Dumont - so don't call me a bigot for pointing out an inconvenient fact. One of the first things the PQ did when they took power in 1976 was to erect a statue of Duplessis in front of the National Assembly so that Quebec nationalist could worship Le Chef like a deity.
"Actually it is primarily organised labour and other working-class social movements that are overwhelmingly sovereignist."
I pity them for being so hopelessley misguided. If only they knew who their silly obsession with ethnic nationalism and sovereignty has probably set back the cause of social justice in Quebec back by a generation. Imagine if all the energy wasted on Quebec nationalism was all spent instead pushing for anti-poverty initiatives!
"I guess I can call Ontarians fascists because they elected that rightwing piece of shit (but I won't)."
If you won't. I will. Ontarians did show signs of fascism when they elected and re-elected Harris.
Well..... Independence has given better government freer of oppressive foreign rule to Lithania, Latvia, Estonia, Timor-Leste (ended genocide), etc etc. And Slovenia is a hell of a lot better off than they were as part of Yugoslavia.
Quebec continues to save Canada from a permanent Conservative majority, time and time again. Even the ADQ failed in almsot every outing. The BQ is the most effective progressive force in parliament. There's no question that Quebec is the most progressive part of Canada. Certainly no evidence that Quebec would elect an ADQ-style government, since the ADQ was just destroyed.
The sovereigntist movement is far from "ethnic nationalist" -- it's more multi (or if you insist, inter) cultural than most Canada-wide parties (including the NDP). I think the whole "our nationalism is civic, their nationalism is ethnic" is the typical excuse used by majorities to screw over minorities for ages. Maybe that's why people like Ignatieff cling to "ethnic nationalism bad, civic nationalism good" BS.
"The BQ is the most effective progressive force in parliament."
You mean like when they voted for two Tory budgets supported extending the war in Afghanistan and also voted down an attempt to increase tghe federal minimum wage???
And, let's not forget that it was singularly thanks to Quebec that the Tories got their majority in 1988 and shoved free trade down our throats.
" The sovereigntist movement is far from "ethnic nationalist" -- it's more multi (or if you insist, inter) cultural than most Canada-wide parties (including the NDP)."
I guess that explains why about 99% of non-francophones reject the BQ, the PQ and vote NO in any referendum on Quebec independence.
Fortunately, right now support for PQ-style ethnic nationalism is at an all time low - and the vast majority of Quebecers see it as a waste of time.
Yes, I think the BQ has been far more effective in holding back Harper than the NDP or the Liberal gang. And come on, "thanks to Quebec" that Mulroney got a majority? Alberta gets a pass now? BC does? Saskatchewan does? The many people who backed Mulroney in Ontario do? An entire province is tarred forever in your eyes by the votes of less than half of its people in a screwed-up FPTP system? Meanwhile, Ontario gets a pass for Mike Harris?
"Ethnic nationalism" is at a low because what the PQ practices is no longer ethnic nationalism, it's as civic as Canadian nationalism, which is hardly as pure as the driven snow. Honestly dude, it's posts like yours that make me want to support the efforts by some in Quebec to get out of Canada. If that attitude sums up Canadian nationalism (or should I say Ontario nationalism?), better off outside Canada.
The ADQ was the official opposition in the previous provincial election leading to a minority government. That is the kind of failure the Ontario New Democratic Party dreams of at night. And the federal NDP has not the record of "support the bourgeois parties' minority government now, campaign on your platform later" of the Bloc Quebecois. The NDP has almost always tried to make Parliament and the country) work to the best of their ability.
Meanwhile, the PQ worries about how few francophones are left on the island of Montreal. Not French-speakers, since their numbers continue to rise. It's just that the wrong types are speaking French.
And the Quebec labour movement supplied some of the anglophobic militants, too, including referendum hijackers. Who suppressed whom in the decades well after Duplessis?
Dumont never got a majority, but Duplessis got five of them. The church didn't control the motors of the voting "machines" in a secure, secret ballot system.
"And come on, "thanks to Quebec" that Mulroney got a majority? Alberta gets a pass now? BC does? Saskatchewan does? The many people who backed Mulroney in Ontario do? An entire province is tarred forever in your eyes by the votes of less than half of its people in a screwed-up FPTP system?"
YOu might want to check your electoral history before you post totally false stuff like this. FYI: in the 1988 election, the Tories suffered massive losses in every province EXCEPT Quebec and Alberta. In BC the NDP elected 19 NDPers that year, 1 Liberal and 12 Tories. Saskatchewan was a bloodbath for the Tories that year as the NDP won 10 seats compared to just 4 Tories. Ontario was a split but the NDP and Liberals combined had more seats than the Tories. While it is true that Alberta elected Tories in all but one seat - that only added up to 25 Tories that year. In comparison, Quebecers were so wildly enthusiastic about free trade with the US and with the whole neo-con economic agenda that the Tories swept 62 out of 75 seats in Quebec and won over 50% of the vote. ALL the Quebec elites thought that totla intergration with the US would be the best thing since sliced bread. Even Parizeau who was then leader of the PQ hailed free trade as a great thing because it would help WEAKEN Canada - and let's face it a lot of PQ leaders have had a lifelong love affair with all things American (remember Lucien Bouchard and his unilingually anglophone wife from California who sent his kids to an all English private school).
I have yet to hear anyone explain how it is that if Quebec is sooo "progressive" they went ahead and sentenced Canada to being economically intergated with the US and all the consequences that brings with it...anbd let's not forget the great fondness that Quebecers seem to have for two-tiered health care and making people pay out of their own pockets to see doctors. In the rest of Canada this is seen as a "third rail" of politics, but in Quebec people seem to thinki it woulod be just great to destroy the public health care system by allowing two-tiered health care.
Remember it was that quack Dr. Camille Laurin who used to muse about how he went into politics to administer "psychoanalysis" on the Quebecois people who suffered from a collective oedipal complex vis a vis the English that could only be cured through vote YES in a referendum on independence.
I wonder if Freud was rolling in his grave over that.