The Meaning of a Conservative Majority In Canada, for Quebec

In a picture in Le Devoir, this morning, Stephen Harper had a spare tyre spilling over his beltline, as he smiled awkwardly/arrogantly in his usual stage-managed style. Michael Ignatieff looked resigned and melancholic. Jack Layton looked like he was coming out of the dark from backstage, smiling, moving swiftly on his crutch.
A bunch of us writers, painters, filmmakers and musicians from here in Montreal have been exchanging angry notes amongst ourselves. We should have been rejoicing. Instead we are mighty pissed off with Canada. With the greater Toronto area especially.  That is the main area that Stephen Harper targetted and focussed attention on and they delivered. They delivered like slobberring right wingers, all over themselves and with enormous glee. Like bums in a sugar shack, they huddled, leaked, overflowed and messed up the Canada that most of us were born into or came to live in. Mr Harper even pretended to understand cricket with them during the World Cup and swallowed hard on samosas, dimsums, bakhlavas, piroggis and kebes which he had never had, and they drooled over him. The constituency with the largest Muslim population of Canada voted for the most anti-Muslim government ever in Canada. So much so that even stalwart Liberals like Dryden, Volpe and Kennedy got wiped out.

For now, the issue is really about being radical humanists. That is the distilled truth. About being radical and being humanist. Forget socialism for now. Forget even about using the word capitalism as an evil-ism to score a few points amongst your own private band and confreres in socialist clubs. Most folks do not understand capitalism or socialism (their economic structures, that is, and their relationship to class),except as a word of abuse, on either side. So let's drop those concepts.

 It is all about forthright, no bull-shit ideas about caring for others, sharing this earth. That is what it boils down to. I mean do you want to live in peace and harmony with your fellow citizens and not be run over by  poverty, desperation, destitution, marginalization, every block that you walk on rue Ste Catherine, while glassy-chrome-copper towers rise above you like arrogant totem poles? For that you need a humanist approach. Apparently in greater Toronto they can live with that differential. In Montreal and Quebec they cannot.

 And then you have to ensure that a handful of rogues do not get away with murder, mayhem, media control, non-constitutional shenanigans, secret arms deals, form cartels for worldwide domination of banks, shipping lanes, energy resources and thereby promote a racist hatred towards those who oppose them. For that you HAVE to fight by whatever means necessary. For that you need the radical approach. By the way, I am quite aware that some folks still use the word "radical" in a pejorative sense.  So it comes down to being radical and humanist. That is radical humanism.

 It is all about a caring, healthy society, which not only fights the financial deficit, but also the social deficit. It is about not getting bought over by the constantly erected latest "bogeyman" politics,  of fearing communism, "islamic" terror and other pumped up nightmares that the western world has thrived on and driven it's citizens to swear by. It is about not being gleeful and pedestrian and cheering with bloodlust on the streets of DC and making that into Canadian culture.


 Does Quebec, in Canada, understand it better than others? Not entirely. Quebec has also flip flopped. For example, we voted for the ADQ, the racist underbelly of Quebec nationalism cloaked in the same drunken patriotism that Americans outside the White House engage in, when Ben L's assasination was announced. Quebecers like to listen to straightforward talk from the heart. If you screw up, you admit it. Do not dodge issues. If you are sincere about your beliefs , come across clearly. That is what Jack Layton did on Tout le monde  en parle, on Radio Canada. That is what Rene Levesque did.

So, why did Quebec vote for the NDP? Because, basically Quebecers see the Liberals and the Torys as red neck federalists who have a patronizing attitude towards Quebec. So enough is enough, say Quebecers. The NDP comes out swinging as young and hip, playing post-punk, techno jazz in their rallies, all women bands, whereas Torys and Libs are still playing Na-na-na-na etc etc..Because the Torys and Libs are still in a hockey arena, in Prozac college, if you know what I mean... Because Torys and Libs still wear bow ties and tuxes....Because Torys and Libs still sound like "governing" types and NDPers sound like opposition rabble, like working men and women, sometimes ready to hit the streets.  Torys and Libs are still being driven around in limos. NDPers are down on walking and subwaying. See? So the Torys and Libs are really off the rails in Quebec. But still surviving in Canada.A few of the NDP kids who got elected, were not even in town, did not even participate in debates, did not even know what the NDP was all about six months ago. But they liked the sincerity and the program of the NDP. So they jumped in with a vague social democratic conscience.  Will it work out? Will Quebec really redefine itself, after having dumped ethnic nationalists?

 The NDP is going to HAVE TO give a hard run to Canada's pole sitters, the fence sitters, the centrists and the redefiners of Canada. What Ralph Nader could not do, Jack Layton has done. That is the essential truth. But it is an open battlefield. Yes, the question is, are you with them (U.S) or are you with us (meaning US). I hope the NDP themselves realize that they are on the threshold of a shift in the mindset and not just in their party numbers. Because if the NDP plays games and plays it safe and engages in rump politics and do not stand up for the reasons they have been voted in for, the next logical revolt in Quebec will be for separation, for sure. Because Quebecers do want a different society. A paranoid, but different society. It is not a wonder therefore, that Quebec wants to control immigration into the province. Look what happened, they would say, to the Greater Toronto Area. Post-liberalization, small business mindsets who jumped on the "economic stability" bandwagon of Harper and delivered for him. They were being plain, opportunist bastards. Short-sighted. Not thinking about the country and its prerogatives and independence, but bringing along their tribal affiliations, their local-minded parochialism.  They hooped and hollered while Harper and Jason Kenney plan to shove them all eventually  into a neutered evangelist heaven... And at that point in time, these new Canadians will realize what they voted for.At that point in time, we have to go beyond radicalism and humanism!

Quebecers are duty bound to be left of Church as far as they can go, because they know that there is no going back to the right of the Church. Because the Church was hell...Quebec does not like the Centre. The rest of Canada still bows to the Church and the feudal Queen. Canada did not have its silent revolution, yet. In Quebec, there is no Centre Politics. There is only the Church, which is at the centre. So even in remote areas, where they remember Duplessis, the Socreds, they want a soft social democracy...no church influence. From time to time there are distractions, like some fool insists on wearing the burkha in a bank or in a government office. So that whips Marois and gang into action. It's a nice deflection and folks like ADQ rise and collapse... But in the final analysis, we artists, poets, writers, journalists... we demand freedom...freedom to write, freedom to be respected for writing about ordinary folks and their lives and yes, be paid for that...and make a living out of breaking on the streets, singing, jamming, bombing walls with multicoloured hues and getting paid for bringing life into the souls of people, for making daring documentaries and kick-ass French theatre (sometimess too navel gazing though) and set ourselves aside from plastic and white North America. How come Quebec produces La La La Human Steps, Cirque de Soleil and not Winnipeg, Edmonton, Vancouver or Toronto, which has all the pretensions of being nearly New York? Zippo. Why? Maybe Canada should realize that Quebec is somewhat different, finally, and stiff-handed Harper (he shakes hands with his kids!) should finally give up on Quebec. As much as I love Toronto, more and more, everytime I visit her, there is this uneasiness that is creeping in.

Quebec voted correctly. Canada voted wrong, mostly.