Notwithstanding the One Whacko, Quebec’s Collective Intelligence Prevails

Calling a general election during the summer months in order to avoid the anticipated turmoil of a government commission mandated to investigate corruption in the construction industry and dragging out the student strike so to make it a campaign issue didn’t go very well for the former Premier of Quebec, Jean Charest, and his Liberal Party.

In fact, he got spanked.  Twice.  In going down to defeat, his Liberal Party received the lowest percentage of the popular vote ever, and the man from Sherbrooke lost his seat in the National Assembly.

Now that the election is over and Jean has been put out to pasture, we can turn our attention to what is the most pressing political concern: cleaning up government.

We all know that Quebec’s political culture is rife with greed and graft.  Fortunately, we have the Charbonneau commission ready to begin its work in earnest.  The process of the investigation, the report of findings, recommendations to made, and legislation to be adopted will take about two years, more or less the life span of the caretaker PQ minority government.

In the meantime, the PQ will have its hands tied, unable to call a referendum on sovereignty or to adopt any controversial legislation due to its minority status.  In other words, the PQ has been given the task of simply managing the shop until we find out the extent of the problem.

Thereafter, we can then elect a government with the knowledge of how this state of affairs came about and with measures in place so that we don’t repeat the errors of our past.

At the moment, we have lost confidence in the political process and the political parties that would govern us.

For the sake of future generations, we must see the process of political reform to its end and take back the responsibility of governing ourselves.