Another segment with Chris Malciw
Due to a busy life, I haven't had time to blog lately. So I bring you another segment of Kirkland Lake Corner with Chris Malciw.
"This past Monday witnessed another interesting twist in the current Canadian political climate. The Liberal party was re-elected as the government of Quebec. One difference, and to everyones surprise was that the Liberals now form the first minority government in Quebec since 1878. What more is that the Action Demecratique du Quebec, led by a young and vibrant moderate named Mario Dumont have surprisingly formed a large minority, while the Bloc separatist party has sunk to its lowest point since it's conception in 1970.
These results mean a three things. First, people in Quebec appear to be less interested in separatism and more interested in how they can best work at building a strong economy and developing along with both the rest of Canada and the world. Second, it has sparked debate about the current Bloc leader, Andre Boisclair's ability to maintain his posts. This has even raised the possibility of the current Federal Bloc leader, Gilles Duceppe running for provincial leadership of the party. Third, if Boisclair can't do the job, loses his leadership and Duceppe takes over or anyone else will this really change things?
My opinion is it won't. I think Quebecers are finally realizing that without huge transfer payments and being a part of Canada they couldn't survive. Furthermore, just like the Quiet Revolution which took place in the 1960's it appears that one may be starting again. The difference now is the people of Quebec are no longer quietly denouncing the Catholic Church's control over their society but rather their support for a lost cause - ie: separating from the rest of Canada. I think more and more people, from the newer generations are becoming more open to newer ideas and methods of compatibility with the rest of Canada and see very little, if any, benefit of supporting a party who's only policy is separating from the rest of Canada. When push comes to shove it's hard to support something so uncertain.
Sorry for the long ass political comments but I don't now where else to post my random thoughts haha.. Plus some of you seem to like these debates and I always learn other interesting things from some other comments here."
posted by The Vitamin's Blog @ 10:43 p.m.
15 Comments:
It is pleasing to hear that Quebec is becoming more liberated.
There was only a small minority of Western Austalian landowners and industrialists who originally wanted to sucede. The name of the new State within Western Australia was to be called Auralia and it was going to be the goldfield mini-state cutting itself off from the rest of the Colony.
Yes I have been busy at DL latley writing legal policy and doing some other interesting work.
Come on down to Defence Legal we have the best baristas in town,
Downstairs at the Foreign Affairs café with coffee at two dollars a cup they are just walking out the door;
Inquiries which engage six Queens Counsel shooting pistols at random targets and so much more,
With Executives pushing trolleys, Colonels ordering stationary and JIs earning tax free money priceless smiles.
AC/DC in the Library? Bond Rocks
"AC/DC in the Library? Bond Rocks" - suck up! He is still not giving you notes.
BORING. Write about tits and star trek
No tits are boring...especially if you have none.
Drew when in doubt about who to give your exam notes to do what we people from West Wing do with our numbers and have a dummy set which are so good they look like the real thing.
I am never in doubt about who to give notes to. The only issues are which versions to give and if I'm ready for karma to come back and bite me (and if so how hard).
It's all a balance, have I done enough good in the world to balance the evil I'm about to do.
Some would say that if people go into exams without quality vetting the notes they get what they deserve. Unfortunately, I often get what I deserve.
Yes indeed Drew that is the correct answer. Playing politics with exam notes is the sort of thing which could have serious repicautions. I am also guilty of borrowing exam notes however, I usually reciprocate. Also giving other students dodgy exams notes could be deemed as academic misconduct. Just like taking over in a seminar which is worth let say for arguments sake worth 30% of a fellow students mark. This is especially so if you exclaim after the event that you think that your fellow student is “too special”. How can anyone be too special to be treated with respect?
Speaking of calmer to anyone who is ever tempted to behave unprofessionally just remember that what you say in an e-mail can be subpoenaed or caught up in an FOI request.
Misconduct requires proof that the person actually changed the notes and isn't just "taking the piss" on useless blogs to annoy idiots like you who would believe anything.
Rule #1: Don't quote law to lawyers.
Rule #2: If you break Rule #1 make sure you get the law right.
Chris,
I agree with your thoughts about what seems to be a rejection of the soverigntist cause in Quebec, but I think that the cultural cause still exists and that the ADQ have been able to take advantage of that. I'd point to the way that the "scarf scandal" seemed to play in the ADQ's favour, and how the sentiment behind it seems to echo the old idea of cultural nationalism in quebec which if practiced elsewhere in Canada might be considered racist.
long rambling comment over. cheers.
The dodgy notes were just a suggestion and I don't mean anything buy it. It is just a case of may the student beware and I am trying to point out to some studentsthat if they spent as much time writing their own notes instead of trying to procure them they could do brilliantly.
The second example of misconduct ie disrupting another student deliberatley in a seminar when he is in the middle of giving a presentation is an example of misconduct. Especially if you admit sometime afterwards to another student that you did it as you felt this guy was "too special". Well excuse me"I think the lady did protest too much about being treated badly by others".
I agree that while some inroads seem to have been made in Quebec that in other countries this type of nationalist philosophy would be deemed as racist. Once upon in Australia there was a politican called Pauline Hanson whose policies were based on nationalism and rascism. In fact some of here ideas were even stolen from the Labor Party manifesto of 1910. My point is that almost 10% of the population supported her either directly or indirectly through preferencing and the strongest support for her was in rural Western Australia and Queensland.
Here if you are anywhere from South of Tweed Heads you are referred to as being from down south (pronounced downn souuth),while if you are from the East Coast you from over east (pronounced oer eeast).
Earlier I referred to Western Australia by way of comparison as they are extremley State proud. However, at least they contribute to the booming economy even if we do have a skill shortage and are forced to engage foriegn workers for relativley un-skilled jobs giving them appalling wages and conditions for working in our mines.
Take a look at this Platform from the National Front which is a political party in France it says it all:
Political platform
The Front National posts a comprehensive political platform on its website. Amongst other things it argues for:
A return to more "traditional" values: to include making access to abortion more difficult or illegal; giving an income to women who do not go out to work; promoting certain local traditional culture.
Greater independence from the European Union and other international organizations.
The establishment of tariffs or other protectionist measures against cheap imports.
Reinstatement of the death penalty.
The party opposes immigration, particularly Muslim immigration from North Africa, West Africa and the Middle East. In a standardized pamphlet delivered to all French electors in the 1995 presidential election, Jean-Marie Le Pen proposed the "sending back" of "three million non-Europeans" out of France, by "humane and dignified means". [7]
In the campaign for the 2002 French presidential election, the stress was more on issues of law and order. Recurrent National Front themes include tougher law enforcement, higher sentences for all crimes and the reinstatement of the death penalty.
The Front National regularly campaigns against the "establishment", which encompasses the other political parties and most journalists. Le Pen lumped all major parties (French Communist Party (PCF), French Socialist Party (PS), Union for French Democracy (UDF), Rally for the Republic (RPR)) into the "Gang of Four" (an allusion to China's "Cultural Revolution"). According to the Front National, the French right-wing parties are not true right-wing parties, and are almost indistinguishable from the "Socialo-Communist" left.
[edit] The Nature of this platform
Political scientist Pierre-André Taguieff described the FN as "national-populism" as soon as 1984. In 1988, René Rémond took the same epithet and spoke of a "resurgence of populism" (Notre siècle, 1988). René Rémond considers the FN as the main representative of the far-right family in France. However, Rémond believes that the FN has accepted the inheritance of the 1789 Revolution and is "included in the frame of representative democracy", which is disputed by Michel Winock and Pascal Perrineau (Histoire de l'extrême droite en France) who cites Le Pen's statements against the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen as clear signs of opposition to the French Revolution. Winock also defines the FN as the conjunction of all far-right French traditions: the counter-revolutionaries, the pétainistes (collaborationists under Vichy France), fascists and members of the OAS terrorist group.
Elsewhere Pierre Milza and Guy Antonetti refuse to class the FN as a fascist party, while Michel Dobry, profesor at the Sorbonne university (Paris-I), defines it as a party with fascist tendencies. Robert Paxton suggests that fascist ideology may come back under the guises of the FN.
The (generally Left) organizations who work to reduce the influence of the Front national came in the nineties to consider it as a clearly facsist organization, or at least built around a fascist core.
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