Identity Politics

"Our identity in Quebec is strong. I detest this government that is in the habit of painting us as threatened people, weak people."
"This political party [Parti Quebecois] continues to present Quebecers as weak, besieged, threatened people. When it's not the federal government, it's the other provinces. When it's not the federal government or the other provinces, it is foreigners who come to live here. And when it's not the foreigners living here, it is us, Quebecers who don't think like them. I'm fed up with that, and it's going to end with this election."
Quebec Liberal leader Philippe Coullard

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz    Quebec Liberal leader Philippe Couillard cheers during his campaign launch in Quebec City on Wednesday.

Now, that would be just dandy ... ending all that garbage with the results of the upcoming election, the writ dropped today for April 7. Until then there will be 33 days of campaigning, electioneering, appealing to the basest instincts of people, dividing Quebecers in their alliances and allegiances. And, while Quebec Premier Pauline Marois is gambling on the polls that tell her she's within striking distance of a majority government, thanks to manipulating voters to think 'equality' when they should be thinking 'economy', she's on the way to ending the election with a PQ win.

"Since Quebec does not collectively generate enough wealth, the province must go into debt to meet all its collective needs, and has been doing so to an increasing extent since the early 2000s. Quebec, with a worrisome economic performance, is thus living beyond its means", said Robert Gagne of Montreal's HEC business school, in a recent report on the economy. The province receives $16-billion more from the rest of the country through transfer payments than it sends back in return through federal taxation.

Or, as reported by the Montreal Economic Institute: "Total [Quebec] debt, including all public sector obligations like those of universities, hospitals and municipalities, stands at more than $261-billion -- and jumps by $23-million per day." Staggering to contemplate; a formula for financial ruin. But let's not discuss it. Gross economic mismanagement is an inconvenient topic during an election campaign.

Quebec governments have imposed unnecessary English language usage with Quebec-based companies wasting millions complying with French-language labelling. The government, each one succeeding the other, has failed in its obligations to renew critical civil infrastructure, the ingrained corruption in the construction industry has cost the tax base dearly, and maintenance of existing infrastructure has been utterly lacking; bridges, highways, overpasses, buildings are falling apart and creating dangerous situations.

Revelations from the Charbonneau commission (the Commission of Inquiry on the Awarding and Management of Public Contracts in the Construction Industry) has made it quite clear the level of corruption by public officials, bureaucrats, unions, construction companies has increased costs in all the spheres of government construction and maintenance. The PQ government was voted back into office as a slap at the previous Liberal government whose efforts to undertake reforms were just too languidly slapdash. Blowback from unions and industry didn't help.

And what did the Parti Quebecois focus on with bulldog tenacity? Firming up the already intolerable language laws, forcing English further into the oblivion of nonexistence for Anglophones and Francophones alike. And focusing on Quebec's unique exceptionalism as a secular society for which equality is the unquestioned faith. And the need to inform religious, ethnic and language minorities that they are in the province on tolerance, and must be on their best behaviour.

Ryan Remiorz / The Canadian Press    Quebec Premier Pauline Marois arrives at the Lt. Governor's office in Quebec City on Wednesday March 5, 2014. Marois has confirmed that Quebecers will go the polls in a general election next month

And there is Premier Marois, dissolving the legislature on the premise that there is no better time than now, while the PQ is enjoying unprecedented popularity. "Never in the history of Quebec, have more people been working", she exults. "We have taken back control of expenses and have restored order in large projects", she assures. A Leger Marketing poll of January found 57% of people whose mother tongue is French are favourable or very favourable to the PQ's Charter of Secularism. Strike while the iron is hot!

For those whose mother tongue is not French, the favourable or very favourable rating is 16%, and 72% are somewhat or very unfavourable. In Montreal live 80% of Anglophones and 88% of the province's Allophones. Splitting the people of Quebec between rural and urban opinions. The rural regions is where the PQ mines their rich vein of support. Give them a majority and Pauline Marois promises the Charter will become law. And so will yet another third round of separatism brought to life like the Phoenix, courtesy of the PQ.

"Unfortunately, the Liberals and the CAQ have a single goal: to block the government. My government tabled a responsible budget, but the opposition parties had decided to oppose it even before reading the budget". As for the Charter it "finally gives us the means to have our common values respected, like the equality of men and women, like the religious neutrality of the state". The ban among public servants of people wearing a turban, a kippah or a headscarf had an identifiable purpose; for the most part it was aimed at Islamism.

Well, then, forget about nitpicking and flailing about uselessly. Target female genital butchery, honour killings, and forced marriages, along with familial violence linked to upholding cultural concepts of  'honour'. This is where civil authority and the laws they promulgate should come in, not dealing with petty symbols, dividing people. If the reason to adopt a charter is to ensure gender equality, do it with teeth that demonstrate values and justice, which everyone but the truly backward can and will support.