Mercifully, this sorry spectacle of a general election in Quebec is over. I can't remember a campaign so empty of any real debate as it came down to a choice between an extremely lame Charter of Values that would have banned the overly overt display of religious affiliation in the public service and the dubious notion that the new government will somehow better THE economy.More importantly, this collective decision was made in the context of a pause in the deliberations of the Charbonneau Commission, which will now turn its focus on how the alleged criminal behaviour surrounding the awarding of public works contracts and the illegal financing of Quebec's two major political parties, the Liberal Party of Quebec and the Parti Quebecois.
Related Posts
Only 18 months ago, the electorate ousted the ruling Liberals, just weeks before the Commission began its work. Last night, the same electorate re-elected the disgraced Liberals to a new four year term.
What's up with that?
At first glance, it may appear that Quebecers have rather short memories, but it goes deeper than that.
Essentially, Quebecers would rather offload the responsibility of running their own affairs to a small group of politicians that they can always get rid of later rather than being engaged in the messy business of democratic self rule.
That's why when Radio Canada declares a Liberal majority government with only 41% of the popular vote that, other than the two deputies from the leftist Quebec Solidaire who unabashedly contested the legitimacy of a majority government elected with less than 50% of the popular vote, everyone else goes along for the ride.
Whew, glad that's over. Now we can get on with the important business of piling up more personal and public debt as we pursue a quality of life that we can no longer afford.
No matter. We'll just pass on the mountain of debt to subsequent generations.
So, deep down Quebecers are not all that different from the rest of the vast majority of Canadians. We'll gladly defer to authority as long as we can periodically change who exercises that authority over us.
Democratic self rule?
Nah, leave that to the Scandinavians. I wonder what is the Swedish word for democracy.
