2003

Adieu, Stéphane, I'll miss our debates


Friday, December 19, 2003 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cher Stéphane, I thought I'd write you an open letter on the event of your ousting from Paul Martin's cabinet. I know you used to write quite a few of your own to Lucien Bouchard. So I'm sure you'll forgive me for doing the same. There must have been an amazing alignment of the planets in January 19...

No carte blanche

The Liberals were elected with a mandate for change, but don't have right to undermine Quebecers' working conditions

Friday, December 12, 2003 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yesterday's national day of disruption was the strongest warning so far to Jean Charest. The message from unions, day cares and community groups was clear: You were elected on a mandate for change, but that doesn't give you carte blanche to undermine the working conditions of Quebecers. Of all the bills...

Landry puts chill on season of ideas


Friday, December 05, 2003 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- While unions are taking on the Charest government, Parti Québécois leader Bernard Landry is holding what he calls the "season of ideas." That's where party members are asked to debate the program, including first and foremost sovereignty. To do this, Landry has created committees left and right, the PQ'...

Charest needs the new, gentler Pierre Paradis


Friday, November 28, 2003 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This week, Jean Charest got his Christmas gift early. After he tried so hard to sideline Pierre Paradis by leaving him out of his cabinet, the veteran Liberal made a surprise return to the National Assembly. The premier now gets to find out if his boomerang MNA plans to be naughty or nice. Chances are h...

Bertrand returns to sovereignist fold

After his detour in Canada, Bertrand says he is coming back home with a new vision.

Friday, November 14, 2003 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On Tuesday, Bernard Landry had a Remembrance Day he won't soon forget. Former Parti Québécois minister Paul Bégin wrote a scathing letter in La Presse denouncing his continued inaction on sovereignty. Ironically, on the same night, the Bloc Québécois held a $200-a- plate fundraising dinner in Quebec Cit...

Megahospitals could lead to mega mess


Friday, November 07, 2003 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- All this talk about megacities and megahospitals is starting to feel like a mega mess. To address the mess that's been piling up on the hospital front, Jean Charest did what every premier does to play for time: he formed a special committee. To hand in a final report in four months from now, he chose tw...

Merger supporters need their own Trent


Friday, October 31, 2003 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The games people play. And in politics, the list of games can be endless. One of the most worrisome these days is the merger-demerger Vaudeville act currently being played in Montreal. According to Premier Jean Charest, this is the price so that citizens can "adhere" to the municipal mergers imposed by t...

No way PM would have sent army


Would Jean Chrétien have sent the army into Quebec in the event of a close Yes victory in the 1995 referendum? Author Lawrence Martin suggests as much in Iron Man, his latest book on the prime minister's politics. The more interesting question is not whether he intended to - only Chrétien knows for sure - but whether or not he could have done it even if he had wanted to. The answer to that question is crucial t...

Charest's letter begins battle of wills


Friday, October 17, 2003 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This week, Premier Jean Charest marked the first six months of his Liberal government by gracing the pages of newspapers with an open letter to Quebecers. As far as anniversaries go, a nice card and some flowers would have done just fine. But a letter it was. In it, the premier ditches his "re-engineerin...

Welcome to PQ's season of ideas


Friday, October 10, 2003 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yesterday, Parti Québécois leader Bernard Landry stated again that for now, he's convinced that he is "the best person to lead this party, eventually to lead a government and to bring Quebec to sovereignty." And PQ members had better make sure they repeat that line until they actually believe it. As they...

Rad-Can showing its federalist bias


Friday, October 03, 2003 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It's ironic that throughout September, just as Radio-Canada's radio and TV shows were obsessing over Jean-Claude Labrecque's film on Bernard Landry and his attacks on the media, the network's own flagship newscasts were sinking faster than the Empress of Ireland. So much so that Claude Saint-Laurent, Rad...

A wake-up call on palliative care


Friday, September 19, 2003 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What is striking about Quebec society is how ill-prepared we are for the huge social and demographic challenges that lie ahead. One such challenge is how to provide equitable palliative care to a rapidly aging population in an era of dwindling family-based support systems. According to a report released...

Parizeau's determination set him apart


Friday, September 12, 2003 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The opening shot of journalist Francine Pelletier's documentary Monsieur encapsulates the perception many have of Jacques Parizeau. As he stands at the foot of a huge windmill, you can't help but feel the ghost of Don Quixote hovering about. But what follows is a portrait that is a lot closer to reality...

It's time for the PQ to rethink the need for referendums

A group of young PQ and Bloc members is pushing the idea of a 'referendum election.'

Friday, August 29, 2003 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jacques Parizeau is the Tina Turner of Quebec politics. No one has had more comebacks than he has. Four months after he was sidelined during the election campaign, the former premier has risen from the dead yet again. And what an incorrigible show stealer. Parizeau spoke at the Bloc Québécois caucus meetin...

Big Brother Coderre wants to watch

This type of surveillance has the real potential of violating privacy rights, and restricting freedom of expression and thought.

"No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!" So went one of Monty Python's funniest sketches. But there is one potential, much more modern type of inquisition looming on the horizon. And it's no laughing matter. It is the possible creation by the federal government of a mandatory national identification card that would include biometric features such as fingerprints or eyescans. According to Citizenship and Immig...

Chips off the old Bloc


Friday, August 08, 2003 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It's summer or something like it, but there seems to be no shortage of backroom intrigue in the wonderful world of politics. Rumour has it that even the nearly invisible Bloc Québécois has entered the maelstrom of a possible leadership putsch. One crucial reason for the putsch talk is the mounting anger wi...

Summer blockbuster offers gifts of hope and freedom


Friday, July 25, 2003 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In this era of growing cynicism, La Grande séduction (Seducing Doctor Lewis) is a veritable gift. This gem of a movie is a ravishingly witty, deliciously funny ode to all the men and women who struggle to keep their dignity afloat in this modern world. The story is simple enough and rings true at a time when...

Landry lacks the heart to push for sovereignty


Friday, July 18, 2003 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When the National Assembly reconvened on Wednesday to adopt the government's spending estimates, the whole process ended with a whimper, not a bang. Instead of going for the Liberal government's jugular by detailing with precision the unending list of promised budget cuts and possible ensuing social conseque...

Charest's Gamble

Even if Quebec takes its place at the table of confederation, its role and influence will continue to diminish over the years

Friday, July 11, 2003 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The premiers are meeting in Charlottetown to find ways to revamp federalism without opening the constitutional Pandora's Box. Sounding a lot like the Reform Party's first slogan, "The West Wants In," Jean Charest and his provincial counterparts are calling for more of a say in the way the federal system function...

Out of place

Hard-line sovereignists were upset Lucien Bouchard was given a prominent spot at Pierre Bourgault's funeral

There's no pleasant way of saying this, but something that happened at the funeral of Pierre Bourgault was profoundly disturbing. For those who shared Bourgault's convictions, the presence of former premier Lucien Bouchard was very upsetting. It was even more so to see Bouchard sitting at the front of Notre Dame basilica, right behind Premier Jean Charest and Parti Québécois leader Bernard Landry. Many who atte...

Sacred cows are out

Jean Charest's address reflects his neoconservative views, not the Lesage vision that sparked the Quiet Revolution

Friday, June 06, 2003 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When the new Liberal government opened its first question period yesterday, Premier Jean Charest drew a line in the sand. Looking Bernard Landry, leader of the opposition, straight in the eye, he said: "Quebecers wanted change. They will get change." And he means business. Figuring he can afford to spend po...

À hauteur d'homme

The ugly side of Landry

Most Quebecers were not aware our former premier was given to profanity, rudeness and desk-pounding tantrums

Friday, September 5, 2003 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This week, the talk of the French-language media has been about À hauteur d'homme, a documentary by Jean-Claude Labrecque on Bernard Landry's last 100 days as premier. It shows a Landry most Quebecers have never seen. And many might not like what they discover. It shows the profound contempt Landry has t...

Quebec's future sacrificed on the altar of zero deficits


Friday, May 02, 2003 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This week, the sainted zero-deficit finally came out of the closet for what it is: a myth. You might even call it a religion. Faith matters, not reality. The alleged ''hole'' or ''impasse'' former auditor-general Guy Breton found in the last Parti Québécois budget, whatever its actual size, was part of the pric...

Money and the federalist vote


Friday, April 18, 2003 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On Monday night, it was no coincidence when a victorious Jean Charest invited former premier Daniel Johnson to join him on stage. It had something to do with the weight Johnson has been pulling in Charest's transition committee. But it was also a symbol of the vision they share regarding federalism and Quebec...

Let's hope for a few surprises election night


Saved by a war that has siphoned away most of our attention, Bernard Landry, Jean Charest and Mario Dumont escaped the kind of scrutiny they would have faced otherwise. If it hadn't been for the leaders' debate and the so-called Parizeau affair, last weekend's snowfall would have been the major story of the election campaign. In fact, ambiguity became the trademark of this campaign. If re-elected, Landry refused to...

PQ members put party in a trap


Friday, June 20, 2003 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Be careful what you wish for, they say; you just might get it. At their last national council meeting, Parti Québécois members got just that. They got what they voted for and trapped themselves in the worst possible scenario: no party convention before 2005 and no leadership race in the foreseeable future. ...

Le confort et l'indifférence, prise deux


lundi 2 juin 2003 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Libre opinion: À la une du Devoir du 26 mai, l'auteur et professeur de littérature Jean Larose braque ses projecteurs sur Les Invasions barbares. Au-delà de l'unanime critique qui porte ce film aux nues, d'ici jusqu'à Cannes, il souligne la nonchalance avec laquelle le cinéaste Denys Arcand y aborde la mor...

Charest feels weird in nationalist mode

His priority is to keep Quebec in Canada by making the fewest constitutional waves possible. That's why the folks in Ottawa sent him here in 1998.

Friday, May 23, 2003 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Plus ça change, plus c'est pareil. Try as he may to throw around cute little soundbites such as "I chose Quebec" or "J'ai le Québec dans les tripes," Jean Charest looks as uncomfortable with Quebec nationalism as Jacques Parizeau would singing O Canada. Hence the premier's no-show at Monday's celebrations o...

Movie says much about Quebec today


Friday, May 16, 2003 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Mission accomplished." That's how Prime Minister Jean Chrétien summarized his lifelong battle against sovereignists at a $500-a-plate Liberal fundraising dinner in Montreal this week. And it looks like he's right. At least for this moment in history. Galvanized by the election victory of Jean Charest, Chr...

If Legault is a hard-liner, I'm a federalist

"Legault is trying to woo the more hard-working, hard-line PQ faction."

Friday, May 09, 2003 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This week, François Legault went through a stunning metamorphosis. Posing as the ultimate hard-line sovereignist, he published his manifesto as a leadership contender for the Parti Québécois calling for an "effective" left-wing agenda and for straight independence with no partnership or confederal union. How ca...

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