Quebec's Sovereintist Course
"Today, I make the choice to serve Quebecers, and to devote myself to the economic prosperity of Quebec.... Today, we have all the tools to take control of our own destiny."
"I wish to contribute to leaving them [his three children] a country for which they will be proud. Clearly, I am a sovereigntist."
Pierre Karl Peladeau, Quebecor magnate
An immensely wealthy Quebec corporate baron. A man known for his union-busting techniques and tactics making common cause with a separatist leftist party which Quebec unions are known to support. How will they fit into the same bed? A separatist movement that was once monopolized by the workers, the leftist intellectuals of Quebec, political agitators, now joined by the financial, social elite of the province?
Stranger bedfellows, but on the other hand the current premier of the province is a social elite, well provisioned for, living in a mansion, belying the party support base of the entrenched pure laine, separatist, but with a political penchant to align herself with their aspirations. Mr. Peladeau's business credentials and the haute circles in which he moves might dictate he would find comfort in a conservative party, but no.
From the union backrooms to the corporate boardrooms. Isn't that amazing? Might Mr. Peladeau with his billions consider using them to bail out his sovereign province when it no longer receives transfer payments from the rest of Canada to enable the province its social-welfare lifestyle? This is no foam-mouthed fringe candidate, it is a silver-spooned elitist candidate to lead Quebec out of Canada.
How that will play on Quebecor's media agencies outside the province will be something to watch as they, ensconced in other provinces, agitate for confederation, and he, though having stepped down from the Quebecor helm, strenuously advocates for secession. He is 'inspired', he claims, by the future he envisions for his three children. Sad commentary that is, from someone whom Canada has done very well by.
"It's just a blockbuster announcement. For him actually to come out and to declare that he wants to see Quebec become an independent country is just big, big news", clamoured Robert Young, professor of political science at Western University. "You'd want to keep him as quiet as possible, period. He is a union busting guy. That is not going to play well. This is a business guy. Anybody like that has a big capacity to put his foot in it. That could be really damaging for the PQ, and Mme. Marois may well regret the day he signed on."
Well, that certainly places the situation in a hopeful-for-the-future perspective. "Quebec elections are fought on both economic and identity issues, always have been. Hence the necessity of having a strong economic message, and messenger", explained Antonia Maioni, professor of political science at McGill University.
"Many Quebecers are sovereignists but that doesn't mean they wear a tattoo to that effect. PKP has never said he was or wasn't until lately. As a businessman, he was not a vocal partisan. But that doesn't mean he didn't have political views, nor does it mean other business leaders don't either", she elaborated.
So, then, have they all become unhinged from reality? Convinced that their business acumen is all the province requires to bring them to economic prosperity?
Why hasn't it worked in the past? Why has it been necessary for the rest to Canada to carry the financial load for Quebec? Why is Quebec currently in such poor economic shape, with the burdensome debt and deficit it has acquired and accumulated other than poor management and not enough GDP advancing them into the black?
The boardroom now riding to the rescue of Quebec constrained in nationhood within Confederation?
Good luck and bye-bye, Pierre, Pauline and all the Pierrette and Pauls, if that's really, truly what you envision for yourselves.
Labels: Canada, Crisis Politics, Economy, Quebec, Secession
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