We are less than one week away from the Quebec general election, which is guaranteed to send to Quebec City’s Assembly, yet another Québécois ethnocentric nationalist.
It will either be a repeat of the Parti Québécois’ Bernard Landry, the ethnocentric Québécois nationalist we know so well. Or, it will be Jean Charest, the ethnocentric Québécois Nationalist of whom we know so little.
Here is the rub. Both of these characters couldn’t give a damn about anyone’s opinion, or rights, or visibility, or equal status within an unequal Quebec society who are not part of the French speaking majority.
The Quebec Liberals have long ago abandoned even the pretense of campaigning for the votes of the minority, specifically the English speaking minority. But that has not stopped the “Anglos” from showering them with their votes.
This says far more about how utterly stupid the “Anglo” vote is, than it says about the ethnocentric Quebec Liberals. We all know; not by conjecture, but by actual fact that the Quebec Liberals are just as ethnocentric as are the Parti Québécois.
Once in power, the Bourassa Liberals not only maintained every facet of Quebec’s racist Bill 101 language law, they actually suspended individual rights and freedoms guaranteed to all Canadians under Canada’s Charter of Rights. All of this to enforce a law struck down as unconstitutional by Canada’s Supreme Court.
And that was after promising the English speaking community, that if elected, the Liberal Party of Quebec would indeed change the language laws as they pertained to public signs, and make them equal.
We also know that it was the Quebec Liberals under Bourassa, in 1993, who created a new language law that FORBID any language on signs, but specifically English, from being equal in size or number to the French language.
And for off location signs such as billboards, or signs on moving vehicles, English remained ILLEGAL regardless of the size or number.
But to get to the very crux of ethnocentric Québécois nationalism, you have to go back to Bourassa’s Bill 22, the MOTHER of the Parti Québécois’ Bill 101, which declared that the ONLY official language of Quebec is French.
Bill 22 also set in motion the denial of choice to parents vis a vis the language of education available to their children.
Here we are in April 2003, and nothing much has changed. The Liberal Party under the perfectly bilingual Jean Charest wouldn’t even pay a modicum of respect to the English community by debating in the English language during the “three” leaders’ debate; which by the way excluded the perfectly bilingual leader of the Equality Party, Keith Henderson, representing the only Party that speaks on behalf of the English and minority communities.
Not only that, the Liberal Party of Quebec doesn’t even have bilingual campaign posters, and seems not to be investing very much, if anything at all in English advertising to EARN the votes of the “Anglo” community. THEY’RE ALREADY IN THE BAG!
I don’t live in Quebec any longer. But if I did, I would NEVER vote Liberal. NEVER!
Why would I want to vote for a political Party that treats me and mine with an attitude that borders upon contempt?
In the last Quebec election in which I voted, I asked the Equality Party to run a candidate in the riding where I lived: St Lazare-Hudson. I didn’t want to simply destroy my ballot. I really wanted to be able to vote for someone.
Don Donderi, the founder of SitCan, author and professor at McGill University came forward to throw his hat in the ring, just so people like me would have someone to vote for.
None of us were deluded to believe that Don had a chance in hell of winning anything. All we were certain of, was that with Don’s name on the ballot, I along with anyone else who cared, had someone who we could vote for who stood for my right to be visible and equal.
Don Donderi of the Equality Party made the effort to make my vote mean something. And that is light years from any effort offered by the Liberal Party of Quebec.
I know that many people who will be reading this will say to themselves: yeah, that’s true, but I better vote for the Liberals anyway. And that’s too bad.
And that is also the reason why the “Anglo” community throughout Quebec, and principally within Greater Montreal is taken so much for granted.
I have no vote in this Quebec election. But you do. Don’t waste it on someone who couldn’t give a damn about who you are, and what you want.
Don’t squander your vote on a Party which cares so little for you, that they don’t even “pretend” to make the effort to earn your vote.
MANY OF YOU WILL HAVE A CHOICE. You can choose to vote for antipathy of equality for all people represented by the Quebec Liberal Parety. Or you can vote for your own right to be Equal. It is as simple as that.
When you go into the privacy of the polling booth, read all the names on the ballot. And if you’re lucky enough to see a name that says EQUALITY PARTY, you will be lucky enough to have a choice. You can ask no more than that.
It is entirely unlikely that the Equality Party will win any seats. But it is 100% guaranteed that a vote for EQUALITY, is a vote for your rights to be equal and your rights to mean something.
The Equality Party name on a ballot gives you a choice. What you do with it is entirely up to you.
One Comment
Yes, Howard, GO FOR IT!
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