CIVITATENSIS

Though nearly two thirds of voters rejected citoyen Dion’s Green vision cum social engineering project, he launched the most disrespectful interpretation of an electoral vote since Jacques Parizeau’s comments on the heals of the 1995 referendum.

The good Liberals were defeated, Dion said, because the evil Conservatives were awash with money and were able to distort (lie about) his message of deliverance before the impending global environmental collapse. Twice, he mentioned their “money” not ever asking himself (this was clearly not the place to engage in meditations anyway) why the Tories and even the NDP had more money to spend than his party did.

But the crux of disrespect is to the electorate, especially to those that parked their vote elsequere.  Dion’s argument implies that voters have been dupped by a devellish advertising campaigm. He further implies that Canadian voters are too stupid to make up their own mind, too stupid to accept him as a leader and too dumb to make the difference between Grits and Tories on their own. The condescencion toward the voter is a clear indication that Dion has learned nothing. Even the worst defeat in his party’s history has not compelled him to re-examine his messianic complex and his bullheadedness about always being right.

Finally, refusing still to acknowledge that he took the party to his left, his blame on someone else’s money fits well with the New Left sociological view that he learned in France –another source for his messianic complex. Dion implies that the moneyed classes are dirty and the poor (whom he leads) are the pure. The poor (Liberals) are the good guys and the rich (Conservatives and New Democrats) are the bad guys. His messianic complex is once again validated in that formula.  And yet, his conclusion is that the Liberals need money. Citoyen Dion has clearly not understood the nature of party financing under the rules that his former boss bequeathed Paul Martin, the Liberal party and the rest of the country.

It is voters who are the major source of money now, the same people who Dion just finished insulting in his effort to exonerate himself and avoid responsibility for his pigheaded inflexibility.

Dion is not the man that will take the party out of its financial mess. What will Dion do now to retire his personal and the party’s debt in the next seven months that he was not able to do in the last two years? Just like in the money markets, it is also true in politics: winners attract money!

It has been a long time since I have paid attention to much that Jeffrey Simpson writes, but some of his observations regarding the recent federal election results in Quebec deserve some attention. Simpson seems completely unaware that he is now sharing political space once occupied decades ago by the Reform Party and the redneck Westerners he so often mocks.

They [francophones in Quebec] apparently welcome a party that wants no part of governing Canada while continuing to demand more and more from it.

[...]

Since 1993, the largest number of francophone Quebeckers [they call themselves "québécois" but Simpson seems confused about what to call them. Haitians are Quebec francophones, for example, but they are not "québécois."] apparently has wanted no part of federal parties, and therefore of the government or governance of Canada. Canada is no longer a country they wish to participate in governing, but one from which they wish to withdraw cash, like an automated teller machine.

They want to influence decisions in Ottawa without taking any responsibility for those decisions. They want neither to separate from Canada, nor to govern it. They want, through the Bloc Québécois, a variation of an old and enduring ambition: to be part of Canada, but only sort of, and on their terms, which means some sort of associate status, égal à égal, separate but not fully separate, sovereignty but with association, autonomous but still tied, somewhat in but somewhat out, or, in the metaphor of the brilliant Quebec journalist Jean Paré, parishioners in a church called Canada they seldom attend except for important occasions like Christmas, Easter and maybe marriages. They want to take but not to give. And they always prefer leaders, when given a choice, from [francophone?] Quebec.

It is historical fact, reinforced again this week, that [francophone?] Quebeckers have always voted for a party led by a [francophone?] Quebecker when confronted with a choice between such a party and one led by someone from outside the province.

What an epiphany! Preston Manning was saying things of this sort for more than a decade, since the late 1980s. But it was people like Mr. Simpson and his journalist friends in Toronto and Montreal who repeatedly accused Manning of racism and anti-Quebec intolerance just for saying them.

Nice to see that the Glob columnist has come around, even if it only has taken him two decades to see past his own mental block.

Alleluia for Simpson!

What’s next? Will he now join Stockwell Day’s Church, whose beliefs he so vehemently smeared with the same petulant conviction that he once smeared Preston?

I was raking the leafs in the backyard today as my eight-year old boy pranced around in military fatigues, his toy AK-47 in hand (he also has a toy M-16) and also sporting a balaclava. When I suggested that he looked like a terrorist, he shrugged me off.

After he finished helping me pick up some of the debris on the ground, I said: “Thank you, al-Qaeda boy.” “I am not al-Qaeda,” he said. “I’m from Alberta.” Thinking that he didn’t understand the reference, I pointed out that al-Qaeda sympathizers have been known to live in Canada. “I know,” he said, with an annoyed tone. “That’s exactly why I said I’m from Alberta.”

That shut me up!

He won’t quit, he said. He is no quitter, he said. He said that Harper is the quitter, but not Stephane. So in light of having led the natural governing party to his worst ever showing, citoyen Dion didn’t quit on election night the way that other quitter that preceded him (wasshisname? Martin!!) did.

Paul Martin was Mr. Dithers, but he was decisive about one thing. He knew when to call it quits. He knew that the knives would be out and that he might either die by a thousand cuts and take the party down with him or end up face down on a curb in the streets of Montreal if he stayed. The choice was crystal for him.

Citoyen Dion is not the most decisive fellow around either. But he knows less than Paul Martin. He doesn’t know that he has to go. Instead of quitting on election night, he took it out on the poor CTV crew standing on the side of the path that he needed to walk among all three supporters present for his concession speech. Instead of quitting, he said that he’d be at the helm of a rump “plus agueri,”  more determined. Lord help the poor Grits. Wasn’t the loss humiliating enough?

Since Dion doesn’t know any better, there will be plenty of folks in the Liberal Party who will call to offer him special advise about what to do. Many will have different reasons, various analyses and scenarios, but they will all offer the same conclusion: Go! Pour l’amour de Dieu, allez vous en.

Citoyen Dion needs to be prudent in taking his time. Joe Morselli may be dead but t he Grits may still have people inMontreal who can look after Mr. Dion in ways that only they can.

The NDP is clearly one of the most, if not the most, anti-American party in Canada. If it were up to them, Canada should move to a different neighborhood and become one of the “stans” so that it could be closer to the Taliban. Dippers are never short of bile against our American neighbors.

But…, when a third rate so-called American movie-maker, who has a record of interfering in Canadian elections, comes to tag along with a campaigning Canadian politician, it is the NDP that welcomes him, incumbent Tony Martin. Michael Moore is hero among idiots, which is why I am surprised that Carolyn Parrish was not escorting him during his latest visit. Moore went on to make a series of insulting and disparaging remarks in public about a candidate opposing Dipper Tony Martin.

Moore, of course, is no idiot. He has made quite an enterprising career out of spinning lies and misinformation that he passes for documentaries. But the number of people who worship him, his courage and his ability to tell the truth, who gladly pay to consumme the garbage he produces is rather large, both in Canada and elsewhere.

Americans, of course, are always welcome in this country. But when foreign people come to interfere with our electoral and political process, regardless of where they are from, they are in violation of Canadian law. Will Elections Canada do anything about it? Not likely.

The French debate is quick coming to an end. Let me share some of my first impressions.

Gilles Duceppe: Hard to distinguish passion and anger in this man. To me, he seems angry most of the time. The nature of his position is that he has to whine because his party is not in any position to get anything done. Nonetheless, he has gone after Harper with some success. I lost count of how many times he said oil companies and Harper in the same sentence. Harper didn’t react much. Duceppe ignored Layton and Dion for the most part. He knows who his opponent is.

Stephane Dion: He looks better than I have seen in years. Measured, articulate, I am going to say even coherent, pressing at the  right points. He had Harper for lunch on the segment on leadership. He’s still professorial and somewhat whimpy, but he will get attention from viewers, especially among those who were expecting less dorsal strenght.

Jack Layton: In English, Layton sounds like a used-car salesman; in French he sounds more like a pimp from a bad porn movie. Jack has not really helped himself with voters in Quebec. He needed to shine more but he didn’t. His peacenik stuff will likely gain him support in Quebec, however.

Elizabeth May: Irrelevant is the first word that comes to mind. Her French is abominable. It’s not that she makes mistakes. Even Dion makes some mistakes (plus mal) but she is painfully incomprehensible a great deal of the time. She is capable of leaving the entire province of Quebec with a headache just trying to figure out what she is saying, let alone what she means.

Stephen Harper: Holding back far too much. His French is competent but he is clearly holding back. I have heard them do better. It’s fine to look prime ministerial, but he lacks animation, which the French language demands. He doesn’t have to get angry; he is the prime minister and needs to be cool and dignified, but he needs to show more life. A little too passive when the Dion and Duceppe came after him. His advisors and handlers need to unleash; give room to his quick mind and his wit.

A winner (in the Quebec context) would have to be Dion tonight insofar as he has clearly gone beyond expectations. He will augment some of his support in Quebec; Dion is followed by Duceppe who held to his regular rhetoric and effective line (that does so well in Quebec). Harper will not win much support, in my view, with this performance. He may not have lost any, but I don’t think it is a positive performance. We’ll see what the polls say.