Duceppe's Duplicity

There he goes again, foraging for imagined support for his dedication to the concept of Quebec as a sovereign nation. Seceding from Confederation. And entitled to take with him everything he deems belongs to Quebec, irrespective of the fact that all these lovely amenities have been dearly paid for by Canadian tax dollars. Choosing to ignore the fact that some citizens of the province consider themselves to be first and foremost citizens of Canada. And that they will choose to secede from Quebec, thus remaining part of Canada.

First, Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe sortied on on a good-will tour of the rest of Canada, to earnestly address power brokers and the political and social elite of provinces outside Quebec, to convince them that Canada would be better off without Quebec and Quebec is entitled to its much-vaunted sovereignty. Ideally, Quebec should be separated from the rest of Canada, and still be entitled to receive 'compensation' for its sacrifice. Continuation of provincially-tax-generated equalization payments would be appreciated.

And now, it's off to Europe. France first on the agenda, to seek out those for whom Charles de Gaulle's message of "Vive du Quebec libre!" still resonates. That is the supportive affirmation Mr. Duceppe seeks. After all, if the Canadian taxpayer has long been complicit in handsomely funding Quebec's secessionist party, granting it opposition status in Parliament, why not have the province's mother-country join the fracas?

Even though Mr. Duceppe finds it unfortunately inconvenient that President Nicolas Sarkozy will have no part of it. "Within the UMP, everybody's not thinking the very same thing, they're not all like Sarkozy on that question", Duceppe said, dismissively. "Non-interference, non-indifference, honestly, is not my thing", confessed President Sarkozy, decently and appropriately unwilling to interfere with the internal machinations of a secessionist movement, inimical to the well-being of another country.

But Mr. Duceppe is delirious over his reception from a former prime minister of France, and he plans to continue his good-will blandishments inviting other interfering French politicians to join him in his salvos across the bows of the Canadian ship of state. There is Scotland to visit, and then, perhaps he will go to Iraq, Iran and Turkey to speak with the Kurds, as well.