In All Gracious Modesty

"I hope it will be an opportunity for us all to find our pride again as a people."  Pauline Marois, leader of the Parti Quebecois, Premier-in-waiting

 The rest of Canada is resigned to having Quebec play out its little charades again under a minority Parti Quebecois government.  For that matter, since only 32% of francophones voted for that same government to have another go at sovereignty, that would assume that 68% of the Quebec electorate may be similarly resigned to a few more years of social and political turmoil.

Are they, however, prepared for a business downturn, yet another exodus of Quebecers leaving the province, viewing it once again as a sinking ship?  After all, Quebec once had a much brighter future, as a place where investments were safe, and Montreal was the capital city of finance and industry, a distinction that Toronto is grateful to have capitalized on, bearing the torch for the rest of Canada.

Quebec may now anticipate the fruits of the Parti Quebecois electoral promises to bloom - and as they do, the opportunities, civil, social and political, will wither.  Heftily increasing the taxes among those earning in excess of $140,000 to $250,000 annually will certainly shrivel the attraction of living and working in La Belle Province.  An increased levy through capital gains tax will be yet another incentive to relocate.

The re-locating of manufacturing plants in a more business-congenial environment in neighbouring Ontario will never have looked so inviting, and the towns and cities of Ontario that would salaam before such welcome moves are many indeed.  The heavy-handed re-interpretations of Bill 101 in small businesses, making the province effectively unilingual French represents yet another disincentive to remain.

Surely it must be in defiance of the Constitution to insist that Quebec is entirely within the law and its right to declare itself a unilingual nation with French alone recognized as its official language, impacting as a result on the presence of those civil servants who toil for the federal government?  Limiting opportunities to English-language proficiency for students from primary, elementary and secondary on to CEGEPs yet another intrusion into the Charter and human rights.

Effecting a new layer of citizenship, so that those who qualify - mostly pure laine - will proudly show off yet another identification card in their wallets, inaccessible to second-class Quebec residents; yet another blow to the Constitution and the primary rights of Quebecers whose origin is not French-Canadian.  Want to hold public office, then, forget it unless you invest in language, the official Quebec one, that is.

Violation of the Constitution Act which claims, under Section 133 that both French and English are the acknowledged languages of the courts and legislature...?  Anomalous, but then who hasn't heard of asymmetrical federalism.  The Parti Quebecois simply insists that their rights and the obligations of the federal government to accede to them, are simply a little more asymmetrical in view of Quebec exceptionalism.