Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Sunday, January 22, 2012

The first separatist Prime Minister of Canada?

Years ago I facetiously wrote that Gilles Duceppe should extend his Bloc Quebecois Party to include the separatist forces of the other Provinces. Each one has many reasons to secede from the federation. Then if he won a national election he would become the first Separatist Prime Minister of Canada.

But did he listen? You try to help a guy….

Now it seems that the NDP wants to do just that. Their Sherbrooke declaration makes them our first national separatist party.

They have declared that if they are the government of Canada they will not use the clarity act (a valid law of the land) to insure that a referendum on a trick question, such as the last two run by the Parti Quebecois, can’t be used as an excuse for unilateral secession. They also promise to respect the idea that fifty per cent plus one vote is enough to take Quebec out of Canada. And they will extend Bill 101 to include federal workers in Quebec so that Canadian citizens here cannot use both of Canada’s official language when dealing with the government of Canada.

Have all the good vibes spread by smiling Jack suddenly disappeared? And has the ugly truth of how the NDP swept Quebec been revealed?

But since they are enthusiastically choosing this direction, let’s get back to my first point. Each Province has its own reasons to dislike Ottawa. We are a very regional country. So the NDP should become aware of its new role. It is not only Quebec that has a separatist fringe to which they can pander. With three national parties you only need support in the thirty per cent range to govern. If they can unite all the negative energy in this country they might have a shot at being the first separatist party to gain power in Ottawa.

I don’t think they can do it any other way. The die is cast. Their new role has been defined in this declaration. If they allow Quebec such an advantage to separate they have to extend the policy to all the other Provinces. If they try to say that it only applies to Quebec they will lose the rest of the country. Then they will merely be a new Bloc Quebecois which calls itself The NDP.

Alberta would love to be free of all the petro-phobes in the East. British Columbia has been in its own world for decades, much more concerned with China than Ottawa. Saskatchewan is an up-and-comer and could partner with Manitoba. Ontario could certainly go it alone, or become a 51st State which is what they all seem to want. The Atlantic Provinces would form their own federation centered in Halifax. And the north will be absorbed into the Arctic Council.

This is Thomas Mulcair’s ace-in-the-hole. And he is the perfect leader to bring about the devolution of Canada. He is a duplicitous guy who can lead a duplicitous party. In the US a prospective leader just has to speak French to be branded as duplicitous, Mulcair takes it way further – he has French citizenship.

It looks like this is the destiny of the NDP. In the next election their slogan could be “Divide and Conquer!”

Original Article
Source: west island gazette 
Author: Rick Blue 

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