Another Blow for Open Mindedness Québec

Yesterday I saw a very disturbing (at least to me) news story on one of the French news stations. Louise Harel, a former PQ MP and former leader of the separatist PQ is running for mayor of Montreal and she can’t speak English and doesn’t feel the need to learn.

So yesterday there was a rally organized Mouvement Montréal Français, an organization that is against the use of any other language in this city except French, they even tried to ban English telephone services from any business or government office in the city. The rally was attended by such illustrious guests as Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe and PQ leader Pauline Marois, who both showed their unconditional support of a unilingual mayor of Montreal. Marois even went as far as saying that Québec is not and will not be a bilingual state; it is and will remain a francophone state.

I am so tired of hearing this crap you guys have no idea. I am tired of feeling like an intruder in my own city, my own province. I am tired of my family being made to be traitors to the French language because we speak both English and French at home. I am tired of racism disguised as Nationalist sentiments. I am disgusted that Harel is the clear favorite to win this election. I am tired of this beautiful place being sullied by idiocy and the idiots who promote it. I am sick and tired of things like this being said. I am sick to my stomach whenever I turn on the television and see this kind of crap.

I am French and I have never EVER thought like they do and I know I’m not alone. When I see things like this I put myself in the shoes of someone who has worked their whole lives to immigrate here, to make a life for their children and for themselves. I put myself in their shoes and my anger just boils over. How dare they tell me that I am not welcome and that my culture is not welcome? They promised me that this place was different, that people were free and equal!

In Québec the sad truth is certain political parties and organizations use freedom of speech to promote hatred and remorse. They use the rights and freedoms that so many have died to protect or are imprisoned to obtain to promote intolerance, fear, lies and racism. This has to end.

Muchacho Enfermo

Duceppe vows to bring more turmoil to the country

Gilles Duceppe, leader of the Bloc Québécois and professional idiot, stated a party rally in St-Hyacinthe that "Bloc and Parti Québécois victories brought hope to sovereignists. It's up to us now to translate this hope into action." There's so much I could say about the Bloc and the PQ but I'm pretty sure I've made my opinions clear on these two "mickey mouse" political parties, so we'll just leave it at that.

I'm just glad that Ignatieff never went through with this coalition business... It would have been a catastrophe to have the Bloc try to push their renewed fervor for separatism and its plan to destroy the country.

Duceppe gets cheers and applause at rallies because he speaks with conviction even when he's spouting nonsense such as: "For those who may not have noticed, no matter what party is in power in Ottawa, Liberal or Conservative, no matter who's in charge, the interests of Canada take precedence over the values and interests of Quebec." Does anyone else see hoe moronic that statement actually is? Of course they'll put Canada first, Ottawa is the capital of CANADA. If they started putting Québec first we'd have a huge problem on our hands.

My other beef with this next round of separatist rhetoric is that in this situation of economic downturn, the comments of the PQ and the Bloc could further hurt Québec's economy by scaring away businesses that operate here, simply because of the potential for political instability. The other thing is that this always comes up when the economy is at its lowest, when people are getting desperate, people who are afraid are much easier to manipulate and Duceppe is a professional manipulator.

I sometimes tell myself that I hope that the separatists win. It's too bad that I'd have to move away, maybe it's the motivation I need to buy a nice little house on the beach in PEI. But all that would be a small price to pay to watch the sovereignists crash and burn and struggle to stay alive. When all is said and done and Québec realizes it can't govern itself and steer its economy into the fiscal utopia that the Bloc keeps promising and they come crawling back... I'd hear about it on CBC radio, while sipping an ice cold Moosehead on my porch, watching the sunset on the Atlantic, I'd light a celebratory Cohiba, smile to myself and say: "I told you so".


*source for quotes: Globe and Mail*

Muchacho Enfermo

A plea for unity and common sense

A few days ago I received a email from a man from a 26 year old University of Alberta graduate named Jared Milne. He asked me and a handful of other bloggers if we were interested in putting up a letter he had written to all Canadians up on our blogs.

For various reasons I am not posting it here in its entirety but I have made it available for download at with a link provided below.

the letter/la lettre


In his letter Jared where he calls on all Canadians, politicians and voters to put aside their differences in the face of the global economic crisis and for the sake of national unity. He outlines various reasons why the proposed coalition of the NDP-Liberals-BLOC was formed in the first place. Why certain people were for the coalition and why others opposed it.

But I think most importantly he outlines the ramifications that the actions of all of our politicians is currently having on the entire Canadian population.

Here are a few excerpts:
"Any coalition with a political party whose stated goal is the separation of one of Canada’s provinces will provoke a negative reaction in the rest of the country by itself…and who is to say what demands the Bloc will make in exchange for its support? Don’t forget, too, that Dion claimed during the election he would never form a coalition, and that Layton attacked him for not knowing how to handle the economy."

"Arguably even worse for Canadian unity is the backlash this has already provoked in Western Canada."

More importantly he outlines the need for cooperation from all of our political parties. Stating that the two consecutive minorities are clear mandates for cooperation between parties.

"What the opposition parties should be doing is working with the Conservative government, the way the people wanted them to! Both sides should remember that, in order to avoid the collapse of the Harper government and avoid an election that Canadians absolutely do not want, they must cooperate and compromise, which what they were elected to do in the first place."

"With no party receiving a clear mandate of support from the voters, and with nearly 40% of the population staying home on election day, to me it seems clear what Canadians want, for their politicians to not play partisan games and cooperate with one another in dealing with our economic, environmental, and social issues."

All that to say that I think this young man has hit the nail on the head with his letters and I encourage other who read this post to download the letter or offer the link on their website.

Pour ceux de nous qui préfèrent lire en français la lettre de Jared est complètement bilingue. Chapeau!

For those of you who'd like to read more of this young man's work click here and if you have any comments for Jared I'll make sure to pass them on!

Thanks for reading,

Muchacho Enfermo

Canadian Parliament Suspended, The government's on vacation!

The Governor General of Canada has granted Prime Minister Stephen Harper's request to suspend parliament until January 25th.

Closing down parliament this week will stop a coalition formed by the opposition parties from taking down the Harper government on Monday; a no confidence vote was scheduled for Monday. Harper hopes to be able to present a revamped budget to Canadians on January 27th, one that would also be acceptable to the opposition and allow him to cling to power.

What this all means people is this:
1- The opposition doesn't care about Canada, only their paycheques and they formed a coalition because Harper threatened to cut their funding.
2- Harper is a fool for trying to run a country the way he does and running away from this fight speaks volumes about his integrity.

Again, my two cents!

Muchacho Enfermo