Why I’m Voting Green This Election

So I had this plan all week to write a dense, point-by-point argument for voting for the Parti Vert du Quebec. But then I remembered that my ability to write long, intellectually rigourous blog posts began to wane, oh, about four years ago. Did I mention my kid’s fourth birthday in a week?

But, for what it’s worth, I’m voting Green this time. Here’s why:

Have You Noticed How Freakishly Hot It’s Been?

Yeah, we as a species did that. And I don’t believe exploiting shale gas or pulling more oil out of the north is going to help matters. The Parti Vert du Quebec proposes the most serious and ambitious environmental platform of all the parties.

And I’d like to live in a society where our stewardship of the environment takes priority above all else because, well, I’d like to leave a smaller mess for my own child to clean up.

The Liberal Government’s Record

The Quebec Liberal Party is liberal in name only. A liberal party does not throw money at an asbestos mine to export a substance known to cause cancer. A liberal government doesn’t legislate things like Loi 78.

I used to like Jean Charest. Or, rather, I liked the guy who stood before a massive Montreal crowd in October of 1995 and gave a spirited defence of Canada. They used to think he was going to be prime minister of Canada. Whatever happened to that guy?

But the fact is, I’m a centre-left progressive kind of guy and the Liberal Party of Quebec has never really fit that bill.

There is More Than One Federalist Option

Let this be the election where we can forever bury the idea that federalist anglophones vote as a block for the Liberals for lack of any clear alternatives.

I have considered Quebec Solidaire. While Quebec Solidaire may have much in their platform that I like, the fact remains that they’re an explicitly pro-sovereignty party and I’m not pro-sovereignty. It’s not just that I’m a federalist. It’s that I’m Canadian. In Nova Scotia, I feel at home. In Toronto, I feel at home. In British Columbia, I feel at home. In Montreal, while, yes, it’s different, I still feel at home. And all of that is something I want to continue. My conception of my country is that Canada includes Quebec and Quebec includes Canada. Now, I do like Quebec Solidaire’s more inclusive approach to sovereignty than that of the Parti Québecois. But that doesn’t change the fact that they’re sovereignist. I’m not.

The PQ, QS, and ON all see Canada as something they want to opt out of. It doesn’t matter how relevant or possible a sovereignty referendum is in the next four years, I will always vote for the party that wants to stay in Canada. To change that would fundamentally change the way I view my own citizenship.

All that to say: we have choices. And they’re not between order and chaos, as Jean Charest would have us believe. All we have to do is choose to make them.

Some Thoughts on the Quebec Election

It has been an excellent summer for nerds: They made a movie starring The Avengers, Alien got its prequel Prometheus, the Batman trilogy came to a very loud conclusion, and they even managed to make a fourth Spider-Man movie in ten years.

This morning a Wil Wheaton quoting robot landed on Mars.

I'm safely on the surface of Mars. GALE CRATER I AM IN YOU!!! #MSL—
Curiosity Rover (@MarsCuriosity) August 06, 2012

And for political nerds we are going to the polls in my adopted province of Quebec. I love a good election, me. Well, how were we to know that Jean Charest would dissolve the National Assembly in the middle of a construction holiday?

Still, M. Charest wasted no time at all in casting his chief rival, Parti Québecois leader Madame Pauline Marois, as a bit of riff-raff who engages in street politics. To take a woman who sold her palatial home on Ile Bizard for $7 million and redefine her as a heroine of the working classes is a masterstroke in a brilliant chess game that, clearly, only Jean Charest can see.

But today’s Québec is different place from that of our ancestors. Instead of the Liberal/PQ – Federalist/Sovereignist split of yore, we have that plus the welcome addition of the “Possibly-Sovereignist” Coalition Avenir Québec (with their delightfully livid campaign slogan) and “Sovereignist-But-Not-In-That-Way” Québec Solidaire who are so left-wing that they reject the concept of a “party leader” and just go with spokespeople. Also they abuse beavers.

I’m not entirely sure who thought abusing the symbol of Canada in a cute YouTube video was a good idea but there it is.

But I have to say I like the cut of M. Legault’s jib. Not only does every Quebecker get a doctor with a CAQ government, but rumour has it, we all get super-powers.

@EthanCoxMtl "But Legault promised me the ability to shoot lightning from my fingertips! HE PROMISED!" #qc2012—
John Hansen (@jduncanhansen) August 06, 2012

It’s difficult to read the tea leaves to see who shall sit on the Aluminium Throne* in Quebec City. In the old days, the winning party was the one that offered the most drives and bottles of rum to the electorate.

Such dirty tricks would never do in today’s open and transparent government.

In reality, I think Charest should have resigned sometime during the lest mandate as I just don’t see the Liberals forming the next government. But who knows, maybe they have some internal polling that we just don’t see. Or they’re counting on both a low voter turnout and a split vote among the other options to win. I may stick my vote with the Greens this time but I’m not sure. I wish there was a provincial NDP to vote for but obviously that’s not going to happen in this election.

My gut feeling is that we’re in for some kind of minority government but then, last year I didn’t think Stephen Harper would get a majority with an NDP-led Official Opposition so my gut is never really to be trusted.

*Shoehorned Game of Thrones reference

On The End of Jean Charest

It’s hard to believe in this era, after more than one hundred days of protests, that Quebec premier Jean Charest was once a serious contender for prime minister of Canada.

He came to national attention in the 1980′s as youthful cabinet minister in Brian Mulroney’s Progressive Conservative government. He survived the shellacking that party received in the 1993 federal election that brought Jean Chrétien to power. He was returned to Parliament as one half of a two person PC caucus that included Elsie Wayne who was an odious little homophobe and my Member of Parliament while I was in Saint John. You’d think being chained to her for four years would earn him enough karma points for a lifetime.

When the 1995 referendum came along, he became the strongest voice of federalism in Quebec and a serious contender to replace Jean Chrétien. It wasn’t to be, of course. Charest would be the second last leader of the Progressive Conservative Party before it would eventually merge with the Conservative Party of Canada. Charest then jumped the provincial Quebec Liberals where he would soon become premier. At that point, it was evident that he was mainly about power.

I mention all this because I don’t believe Charest is going to survive this which is odd given the national profile he used to hold. It also reinforces my long held belief that the worst job in Canadian politics is Premier of Quebec (second worst is leader of the Parti Québecois). Should Pauline Marois become premier, she’ll have my deepest sympathies, if nothing else. But I don’t believe she will. However dissatisfied people may be with Charest, that has not translated into support for the PQ.

I think the PLQ still has an excellent shot at making government in the next election but Charest’s time as its leader may be at an end. It’s his own doing, of course. He handled the tuition increase plan so badly and Bill 78 is such a draconian, overreaching response to the protests that even many of those who were in favour of the hikes have turned against the government.

So nobody’s particularly happy about the guy and I’ve always felt there’s a natural lifespan for political leaders of about ten years. Charest’s pretty close to that. On OpenFile, Kate McDonnell correctly asks “Down with Charest, Up with Who?”. Let’s say Charest manages to win a fourth mandate, either in a majority or a minority. Either way, I think he may find himself losing support of his caucus. So who would replace him? Finance Minister Raymond Bachand? Justice Minister Jean-Marc Fournier? Immigration Minister Yolande James? Or perhaps someone form outside the government.

But no election has been called and we’re only watching the pre-election ads now. The latest, showcasing Pauline Marois awkwardly marching in a casseroles demostration is probably an improvement over the deceased spirit of Jean Charest addressing us from Heaven. Clearly, the creativity will only increase once the writ is dropped.

On the As Yet Unlaunched Liberal Leadership Race That Nobody is Talking About

It’s funny how quickly these things happen. The federal Liberal Party, which was for decades was the default choice of Canadians to form government, finds itself in third place behind the ruling Conservatives and the NDP. It seems sudden but perhaps we can trace this back to when Paul Martin was briefly prime minister. They never did recover from the sponsorship scandal and nobody who has been chosen to replace Paul Martin has been able to muster anything near the support they once had.

The thing that bothers me about the Liberal Party is their insistence that a high-born son (and certainly never a daughter) of a establishment family will be the one to take them out of the wilderness. Pierre Trudeau was born into a rich family. Paul Martin is the son of Paul Martin, the owner of Canada Steamship Lines. Bob Rae and Michael Ignatieff were sons of privilege who attended Upper Canada College. And now, two of the rumoured candidates for Liberal leader, Justin Trudeau and Dominic Leblanc, are, respectively, the sons of a prime minister and a governor-general. Missing from the equation is Jean Chrétien who led the party to three consecutive majorities. But, like Brian Mulroney before him, he was born to working class parents in a small Quebec town. And yet for a while he maintained a level of popularity across Canada.

But the Liberals often seem to fall back on this idea that, as long as you have roots in what Peter C. Newman called The Canadian Establishment, you’re their man. And they wonder why they can’t shake this idea that they’re elitist.

I have no real opinion of who would best lead the Liberals or even if they’ll ever return to their national prominence. Right now, the fight is really between the NDP and the Conservatives. I have no beef with Justin Trudeau, except when he asks himself questions in the third person and then answers them. He’s a little grandiose for my liking but, still, kudos to him for winning his seat in a riding that nobody expected him to win. Marc Garneau is interesting as a potential leader as well because, you know, astronaut.

As far possible other contenders, there is one MP named Ted Hsu from Kingston who has a Ph.D. in physics, worked in the banking industry, was a stay at home dad, is into alternative energy, and uses WordPress for his blog. Maybe the Liberals could go outside their usual bubble for their new leader. While I’m on record as a (literally) card-carrying member of the NDP, I think Canada do worse than to have a Prime Minister who knows science, finance, sustainable development, child care, and good blogging platforms.

In Which My Political Career Is Discussed

For most of my life, my relationship with politics has been as an observer. It wasn’t really until high school that I started paying attention to it and that was thanks to my best friend, an ardent Canadian nationalist obsessed with current events. The day after the 1987 New Brunswick provincial election, in which Frank McKenna led his Liberal Party to a 58 seat sweep of the legislature, he met me in the school’s hallway and asked if I had watched the election returns on CBC last night.

Not wanting to let him down, I said I had and then nodded cheerfully in agreement as he recounted the excited coverage of what was, in fact, an historic accomplishment. One which I hadn’t seen because I was probably watching Moonlighting (which, according to Wikipedia, was on TV that night). But it was my friend who showed me how interesting Canadian politics can be and as a result, he was something of a good influence on me.

After that, I got better at paying attention to politics. A friend at university sent me to a Liberal rally in 1993 where Liberal leader Jean Chrétien reacted to a negative ad put out by the PCs (his reaction is about 30 seconds into the video). 1993 was also the first year I could vote federally. Because of this II was brought into a panel discussion of young, first time voters on the local CBC morning show. On the show, I took my then incumbent MP to task for failing to show up at one of the debates and eventually admitted that I would be voting NDP. For a guy who, at the time, was trying break into radio broadcasting, declaring my party allegiance on the public airwaves probably wasn’t the best career move. As you may have noticed, I don’t currently work in broadcasting.

I spent the 90’s political aware in as much as I went first to the politics section of the newspaper but never spent much time in party politics. Once while freelancing for a local alternative weekly, I attended a talk given by Stockwell Day who was running for the leadership of what was called at the time the Canadian Alliance. At the time, I thought he was a bit of an intellectual lightweight and didn’t think his social conservatism would play well in Atlantic Canada, which tends to go for the more measured Robert Stanfield style of conservative politics.

In 2002, I joined the NDP long enough to vote for Jack Layton as I was tired of seeing the party come in with its usual 30 or 40 seats and thought Layton would be the guy to change that. In the long run, it turned out to be correct but it took ten years and Layton would not live to lead the Official Opposition.

After he died, I decided to join the party. While I don’t agree with every one of their policies, overall, they’re the best fit for me politically. I harbour no illusions about party politics and the realities of governing. Should the NDP ever form government, its most ardent supporters will need to realize that compromises will need to be made if they wish to continue governing. The key part of it is that I would be more comfortable with an NDP compromise than a Liberal one. My initial goal is to work with the local riding association to get an NDP MP elected in my riding in the next election.

So I emailed them and asked if I could volunteer. Their representative emailed back and mentioned the leadership debate that was held last night at Concordia. I asked if there was anything they needed me to do but they never got back to me. I’m not really sure what happened there. They maybe just had the people they needed. If you follow my Twitter feed, it’s evident that I ended up going to Concordia to watch the thing myself.

I don’t think anyone would ever accuse the NDP leadership candidates of not being on the same page. It was the most cordial debate I’d ever witnessed. There was some disagreement between the candidates from rural Canada, Niki Ashton and Nathan Cullen, and those candidates from urban Canada: Peggy Nash, Brian Topp. The other front runner, Thomas Mulcair, was not in attendance due to a previous commitment.

But overall, it seems that the race is not about defining the party ideologically. That’s already done. It’s about selling that to enough Canadians to form a government and that involves finding the right person to make that pitch. I think that person will most likely end up being Brian Topp and I may well vote for him as leader. He satisfies a lot of qualities required for a national leader: fluently bilingual, from Quebec, lives in Toronto, but worked with NDP governments in Saskatchewan.

I was impressed with the youngest candidate: Niki Ashton. I’ve read a few condescending remarks concerning her age but I think people underestimate her at their peril. While, clearly, she’s not going to be leader, I can see her doing big things in the party further down the road.

Also, Ashton has the best campaign poster by a mile. I just can’t see Nathan Cullen pulling off that sleeveless black dress look.

So there it is. I went and joined a party. I even bought an NDP coffee mug so, clearly, this is serious.