retiredprof.com
  • Home
  • Videos

Quebec Election 2018 ( Oct.1) and echoes of 1944.

10/2/2018

0 Comments

 
     The voter have spoken, especially those in the Regions, and the Coalition Avenir Quebec, has won an overwhelming victory.( 73/125 seats) and their leader Francois Legault will be the provinces 43rd premier. 
     Philippe Couillard and his Liberals have gone down to defeat ( 32 seats ) after almost 14 years ( except for  a few months of PQ's Marois) and for the first time in almost 50 years, a party other than the Liberals or Parti Quebecois will be in power.. 
     The PQ has suffered its worst defeat since 1970, winning only 9 seats, with its leader JF Lisee, himself going down to defeat, ( like Marois in 2014) and resigning ( like Marois in 2014).
     Quebec Solidaire has won 10 seats, a break through ( plus 7), winning seats outside of Montreal...Quebec City, Sherbrooke etc.
     The polls were again wrong as they predicted a close race and a minority government, but the CAQ won about 37% of the votes ( the polls had shown them around 31%).
     The PQ vote collapsed and that helped the CAQ and the QS as nationalists went to the CAQ and socialists went to QS. 
     The PQ will lose its official party status in the National Assembly and with that goes financial support. It runs the risk of oblivion, unless some energetic and articulate leader emerges and defines clearly what it stands for ( Lisee was all over the place, desperately trying to please everyone, changing the party platform as the days go by and even to personal and elitist  attacks on Manon Masse, the QS outstanding face.
     The CAQ appealed to nativism...raising fears of Quebec losing its language, ite culture and its values, thus its identity in the face of  the threats from immigrants, refugees, Muslims, " les autres". He campaigned against increased immigration ( the Liberals were concerned with labor shortage due to the growing economy, the low birth rate, the aging population and the need for workers, skilled and unskilled to fill the need). Legault was adamant that Quebec should take in 10,000 less ( from 50,000 to 40,000); that those who came in would have to pass a French proficiency test in 3 years or be deported ( they are protected against this by Sec.6 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms). He also wanted to limit the wearing of hijabs in the workplace and most importantly protect " Quebec Values".
     His appeal was to the Quebec of the past, with its core religious values; its homogeneity; its language insulated and its identity secured. This was an appeal to nostalgia, to the pre-60s Quebec of family farms, Catholicism, to populism and against the foreign hordes and the frightening new world that is at the gates.
     It is reminiscent of the 1944 election, when Maurice Duplessis and his Union National used lies and fears to defeat the Liberal government of Adelard Godbout. Godbout had won the election in 1939 with his support of Canada's entry in WW11 and had governed very competently, introducing many progressive reforms, like giving women the right to vote (1940), founded Hydro Quebec, free education up to grade 7 and a labor code allowing workers to form unions. Duplessis and his wealthy supporters and the Catholic church were adamantly opposed to these " progressive" changes and went on a campaign of fears, lies and against Quebec's support for the war ( PM McKenzie King's "Conscription, If Necessary"). Duplessis falsely accused Godbout of wanting to bring 100,000 Jewish refugees into Quebec, got support from Lionel Groulx and the Catholic church and money poured from wealthy businessmen fearing the workers and their unions. It worked and the Liberals were defeated. 
     La Grande Noiceur of Roncarelli, Jehovah Witness, Padlock law, communist witch hunt, anti-labor, pro business, anti immigrant became the order of the day until the Supreme Court struck the laws and he died and in 1960 the Liberals under Jean Lesage and his message of Maitre des Chez Nous won and ushered in the Quiet Revolution, which would lead Quebec out of the corrupt, priest-ridden agricultural society of large families and illiteracy to a Quebec with public schools, a new emerging middle class unafraid of technology or business innovation.
     Now we are back to fears about identity, language, culture, Quebec values  and the need to be protected from Muslims, Immigration, refugees, and the encroaching world of internet, i phones,  social media/platforms. Thus language tests, deportations, Quebec values and no hijab in the work place.  
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    Follow me on Twitter

    ​
    Picture
    fig 2-b My Father and Mother to whom I owe everything

    "Ecce Homo"  ("Behold the Man"), Antonio Ciseri's depiction of Pontius Pilate presenting a scourged Jesus to the people of Jerusalem.

    fig 1-b


    figure 1-a

    F. Goya
    Two men fighting with clubs
    circa 1819-1823

    The Black Paintings Period


    (Fig 2a) The Death of Innocents


    Author

     Ishwar R. Prashad recently retired from over 47 years of teaching.

    He taught Political Science variously at Dawson College, Loyola College, Algoma University College, Sir George Williams University, Concordia University and Vanier College.

    Previously, he taught for nine years in Port Mourant, Guyana.


    He became Principal of Corentyne Comprehensive High School at the tender age of 21. During this time he turned down Scholarship offers to study overseas in England and the U.S.S.R.

    He chose Canada and after graduating from Sir George Williams with a B.A Honours with Distinction, he accepted a Fellowship to complete his graduate work at McMaster University. He completed his first two degrees-Bachelors and Masters- in three years.  

    His last position was as Co-Ordinator of Political Science and Economics at Vanier College and Adjunct Professor of Political Science at Concordia University.

    He is married to the former Juliet Ramcharan (Library Supervisor, McGill University) and together they have three children – Indra R. Prashad, P.Eng. ,McGill (Presently Manager, Ontario Safe Water Drinking Agency), Ishwar R. Prashad Jr., B.A ,McGill (Presently, President, Kismit Gear Inc.) and Rabindra Y. Prashad, (Presently, Artist and Chef).They are the proud Grandparents of eight grandchildren-Miranda, Kamal, Ayesha, Élan, Anĵa , Étienne, Chloé, and Jasmine.

     

     

     





     



    Archives

    July 2020
    May 2020
    October 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010
    December 2009
    November 2009
    October 2009
    September 2009
    August 2009
    July 2009
    June 2009
    May 2009
    April 2009
    March 2009
    February 2009
    January 2009
    December 2008
    November 2008
    October 2008
    September 2008
    August 2008
    July 2008
    June 2008
    November 1999

    Categories

    All
    A
    Estryed Infrastructure
    F
    Hai
    Ic
    I Will Srike With
    Jr
    O
    Q
    T

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.