Yesterday, the outgoing Premier of Quebec, Pauline Marios, requested that the provincial legislature be dissolved, thereby sending Quebecers to the urns for a general election on April 7.Hey wait a minute. Didn't the Quebec legislature unanimously adopt a law that would have general elections held on fixed dates every four years? It sure did. So, what's up with having a general election only 18 months after the last one?
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Was the government defeated on a non-confidence bill, like the budget?
No, but Marois claims that the opposition, which actually has the majority of seats and represents the majority of votes, is repeatedly blocking her legislative agenda. Isn't that the role of her majesty's opposition? Regardless, she decided to sidestep the law and use her royal prerogative derived from the British parliamentary system to dissolve the legislature.
Somewhat ironic for someone who wants to cut the ties with the monarchy don't you think?
Forget the symbolic gesture of placing limits on her own personal power as the Premier. Statutory law is for the common folk. Constitutional power is where it's at despite the fact that Quebec has never signed the 1982 Constitutional Accord.
In the words of Shakespeare, "the Lady doth protest too much methinks."
So what could possibly motivate the premier to ignore the law that her government adopted?
A false majority you say. Doesn't get anymore British than that.
Looking at the latest polls that were released today, despite the fact that the PQ and Liberals have, within the margin of error, the same level of support of the popular vote, (37% v. 35%) it appears that the PQ could form a majority government (50% plus one of the seats in the legislature) because of the distorting effect of the tried and true first-past-the-post voting system still in place in the UK and the English settler states (Canada, the USA, and Australia). More importantly, the PQ has more than a twenty point lead in the all important Francophone vote in the 80 electoral districts in which Francophones comprise more than 90% of the electorate.
Talk about gerrymandering along ethnic and linguistic lines.
Democracy . . . Shamrocracy, this is pure power politics at its finest, a game best played by idiots.
In using the word "idiot", I am not saying that Madame Marois is lacking intelligence. She's not. I am using the word in its ancient Greek origin, which refers to a person disinterested in participating in democracy.
And she is not alone. Both the Liberals and the PQ have refused to make any qualitative changes to Quebec's outdated political system that is a vestige of the British Empire. They both prefer to maintain an institutional arrangement that limits real political power to the supporters of either party at the expense of the population at large, the demos.
I would also throw in the Quebec media that go along for the ride during the campaign and cover this and every other election as if there was nothing seriously amiss.
I guess it makes for good entertainment for the idiots that have to pick up the bill for this pathetic charade.
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