Quebec elects Pauline Marois PQ government

[Newsjock]

Source: CBC News

After battling back from inner party turmoil and record lows in party support, Pauline Marois and the Parti Québécois have claimed victory over the incumbent Liberals and will form the province’s next government, CBC News projects.

A personal victory for Marois, who struggled with support in her own party during in the year before the election, the party will now have to figure out how to move forward with its lengthy platform that focused on sovereignty, identity issues and heightening the province’s language laws.

Marois, 63, will now become the province's first female premier.

The PQ win marks a significant loss for the Liberals, who, after nine years in power, gambled on a summer election a year before the end of their mandate.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/quebecvotes2012/story/2012/09/03/quebec-election-night-results-2012.html

[sharp_stick]

1. That blows beyond belief

I only hope these racist assholes are kept in minority status.

[Posteritatis]

2. It's looking like a minority government, so yeah

That puts a pretty hefty limit on the amount of stupid they can get up to, and even during the campaign were playing it pretty timid with (most of!) their rhetoric.

I do find it interesting that the voting results were almost a three-way tie.

[sharp_stick]

4. Gerrymandering is an art form up there

Even with a three way tie one party usually takes the prize.

[Posteritatis]

5. That's more an artifact of FPTP than gerrymandering

My province had a near three-way tie a few years ago that resulted in a pretty similar setup in the legislature, something like 35/35/30 percentagewise. (It was great; the parties didn't do too much but actually had to shut up and behave.)

I dunno about Quebec specifically, but the ridings don't look too ridiculous at a glance.

[Ken Burch]

26. Are you from Nova Scotia?

That sounds like the result they had a few years back...the PC's and the NDP were tied in the seat count and the result was that the PC's took power in a coalition with the "Liberals".

[Posteritatis]

27. They weren't tied, but it was really close - 23 seats to 20 (and the Liberals' 9)

The popular vote was a within-the-margin-of-error tie for the Liberals and NDP, with the PCs having a few percentage points more.

The results overall from that one were interesting - one of the more patchwork electoral maps I'd seen out of one of our elections in awhile.

A lot of ridings in Nova Scotia tend to be very close. Most elections here there's at least a few that are decided by, say, a hundred votes or less. One of those things that actually kinda gets across that getting out to vote in the first place really counts for something in most districts here, regardless of politics. (Well, unless you're a conservative voter in downtown Halifax.)

[Ken Burch]

28. Thanks for the response. On an entirely different note...

if I were to visit N.S. and wanted to here some real old style fiddling...are there still places on Cape Breton where you can hear it?

[Posteritatis]

29. There's plenty of events centred around that, more often in the summer of course

Most medium-ish towns will have a few at some point. Highland dance and ceilidhs are still a thing in a lot of places, though they're more touristy as of late. At more "I'm going to cower indoors to avoid freezing or getting blown off a cliff" times of year kitchen parties are still a thing.

I'd say about a quarter of the population of the island above the age of thirty or so was born with at least one musical instrument grafted directly onto them and there's a surprising number of people who are basically omniproficient with local instruments; I moved to Halifax as a kid and have been there ever since but that's the main thing I miss about the island. Musical skill is more or less taken for granted there, and most people are one degree of separation off from at least one or two well-known musicians.

So yeah, you can definitely hear that sort of thing, and usually don't have to look too hard during the touristier times of year.

[Ken Burch]

6. The PQ aren't racists.

They have supporters among every ethnic and racial community in Quebec.

It's not racist to defend francophone culture against the anglophone domination.

Don't be careless in the way you use the "r word".

[Posteritatis]

9. "Par l'argent puis des votes ethniques." Sure, no racism in that party... (nt)

[Ken Burch]

12. That was Jacques Parizeau, and he's been out of power for years.

Last edited Tue Sep 4, 2012, 11:53 PM - Edit history (2)

Parizeau's drunken, stupid personal comments after losing the last referendum were him as an individual. A lot of his own party condemned him for that, and he resigned THE NEXT DAY. It was an ignorant remark from a drunken, bitter man, a remark he himself later admitted was wrong...it was not PQ policy, for God's sake.

holding that against the PQ today(and I'd have voted Quebec Solidaire, NOT PQ) is as lame as the Republicans who quote the worst things Robert Byrd said back in the day to bash our party today.

The PQ was the only large party in Quebec standing on a more-or-less progressive platform. Outgoing premier Jean Charest is basically the Mitt Romney of Quebec, and the other somewhat large party, the CAQ, are more or less in Ron Paul territory. There was no way a progressive, anti-racist person could vote for either with a clear conscience.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

13. They aren't racist. They are chauvinists. Huge difference that escapes you.

The phrase you quote is simply a reflection of demographics and the influence of money in politics.

It translates as "By money and then the ethnic vote."

The influence of money in American politics is so massive that in comparison the money in Canadian politics is a pittance. I think it doesn't escape anybody's notice that references in US politics to race and enthnicity go far beyond demographics.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

10. They are not "racist assholes" and nothing like Teabillies.

At most they are chauvinistic about their language and culture.

[sharp_stick]

24. Sure...

they have continually shown complete disregard and contempt for anyone not pure laine and don't even bother to hide it.

You don't have to be a teabilly to be a racist shit and the PQ demonstrates that to a T.

[chollybocker]

3. Crap.

Marois is like the Jan Brewer of the Great White North. Anyone in Qc not french white catholic is complètement fucké.

[Ken Burch]

7. That is utter bullshit.

Marois has immigrant supporters and her legislative caucus includes people of several races.

And she doesn't treat anybody the way Jan Brewer treats Latinos.

She may be anti-anglophone(more anti-anglophone cultural and linguistic dominance really), but she's not a white supremacist.

And she won because the supposedly "Liberal" government she campaigned against is a bunch of upper-class austerity freaks. There was no good reason for any progressive person to vote to re-elect that government.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

11. Utter nonsense. Ken Burch states it well. nt.

[Ken Burch]

17. Some pictures of THIS year's candidates for the "racist" PQ

rachid bandou...originally from Algeria



Maka Kotto



Neko Lekongo



Gabriel Arbeito Munayco



Djemila Benhabib.

Yeah...that PQ is racist, alright. Yeah...sure...definitely...

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

18. Sooooo posting pictures of different looking folks within it means they aren't a party of bigots?

Um, okay....







????

[Ken Burch]

19. The number of PQ candidates of color(most of whom were elected)is a much larger percentage

or their total candidates than are the handful of GOP tokens you posted.

The PQ also elected the first indigenous Quebec MNA a few years ago, and at least one MNA of Haitian origin. A racist party doesn't give LARGE numbers of nominations in winnable ridings to candidates of color.

The "Liberals" in Quebec are sharply to the right of the PQ on all issues, and always will be. Thus it can't be progressive or anti-racist to back the PLQ.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

21. I know bigots when I see them

The fact that many Marois supporters mockingly refer to her opponent as "John" instead of "Jean" reeks of same "Barack Hussein Obama" type bullshit the GOP engages in.

[chollybocker]

20. Oh stop it, both of you.

You're partisans, you hate to admit it, and I touched a nerve. Now back to your apoligist bubble, both of you.

[Ken Burch]

23. You didn't touch a nerve, you spread a discredited smear.

The only bigoted thing ever associated with the PQ was Parizeau's comment about "the ethnics and the money". That was just HIM...nobody else in that party was to blame for it.

It's not anti-racist to support the MORE conservative party, and that's what you did in wanting the so-called "Liberals" to get re-elected. The Quebec Liberals don't give a damn about people of color and they never did.

Finally, I'm NOT a partisan...I'd have voted Quebec Solidaire, not PQ. I just don't like letting lies go unchallenged.

[Ken Burch]

8. The best news of the night is that a new party, the left-wing Quebec Solidaire

won 2 seats(doubling its strength from the previous National Assembly)and may have the balance of power. If they do, they'll be able to get the PQ to actually carry out the social justice-workers' rights agenda it used to back in the early Rene Levesque era(before Levesque surrendered to the austerity fetishists in the Financial-Industrial-Complex).

The defeat of the disgusting "Liberal&quot actually conservative)government of Jean Charest was also a huge victory for the Quebec student movement in its fight against the unjust and reactionary tuition increases the Charest government imposed on the students attending Quebec colleges and universities).

[Joe Shlabotnik]

15. I see some positives in this too.

- Charest was a corrupt Liberal-in-name-only, lifelong federal Conservative. Good riddance!
- I think the separation issue is pretty much dead, and is only used (by both sides) as political fear mongering now. Quebec's economy is dependent on Canada. And on their own, their culture would be devoured unless they turned into a North Korea type of fortress.
- The NDP plans on running a full slate of candidates in the next election, so left leaning federalists have an alternative with the support of a national party.
- I agree that this is a victory for the students.

[David__77]

22. I would have voted for that party.

I think that PQ is marginally better than the Liberals, but as you pointed out, not as good as they once were - far from it.

The best republican (small "r&quot instincts in Canada come from Quebec. I fear that without Quebec, Canada would become a much more reactionary state.

[KatyaR]

14. WOW.

It took how many years? I never thought I'd see the day.

[Kber]

16. Wow!

I mean -really, wow.

kber.

[Tx4obama]

25. Bump. n/t

[Monk06]

30. I Quebec doesn't get over it's obsession with language and Quebec culture, whatever that is, they're

going end up talking to themselves with no economic base to speak of.

[Ken Burch]

31. Posts like that won't help them get over it.

And here's the thing...Quebec is a francophone province(let's face it, for all practical purposes a francophone nation)surrounded by a sea of anglophone arrogance on three sides(English Canada to the east and west, the U.S. to the south). The anglophones on those three sides have never really accepted that a non-anglophone culture has the right to exist in their midst(the U.S. is bad about that with other languages...half of the reason Puerto Rico isn't a state yet is that right-wing U.S. politicians can't tolerate the idea of any state where English isn't the main or sole language-and, let's face it, does anybody here think people in the Southwest would give a damn about "illegals" if California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas shared a border with England?)

If the ROC(the "Rest of Canada", as some refer to it)were to just say to Quebec "ok, you're francophone, you have your own distinct culture, and we won't ever try to do anything to dilute that or change it, and you have every right to be angry because of all the hateful shite we pulled towards you in the old day", the dynamic would be a lot different.

But that won't happen anytime soon, in part because Stephen Harper, the current Canadian prime minister, is trying to personally build support back up for the Bloc Quebecois party at the next election, through a policy of endlessly goading Quebec and belittling its cultural and linguistic concerns. Harper is doing this because:

A) like most right-wing English Canadian politicians, Harper doesn't really want to see Canada survive(he'd really, deep down inside, rather see it absorbed into a North American right-wing federation..."Greater Tejanostan", in effect)

B) The Bloc, if it were to revive, would take votes almost entirely from the federal New Democratic Party(NDP)the social-democratic official opposition, which currently holds the vast majority of Quebec seats in the Canadian House of Commons.

[Monk06]

32. I agree with almost everything you say and I consider Quebec a culture and even a sovereignty

and I have told several Quebecers that.

But here's the thing. They are trying to pass a law that immigrants to Quebec must speak French to the exclusion of English thus putting new immigrants at a disadvantage if they want to move elsewhere in Canada. It's not so much that the Quebecois are nationalists or separatists. It's that they are isolationists and you can't succeed in the world by cutting yourself off from it.