ROTFLMAO!!!!

Justin Trudeau's behind in Papineau? How to read this NDP-commissioned poll

Not only is that his own riding, but the CBC bends over backwards to explain it away:

"The margin of error is just over five points, but that is for the entire sample. For the 281 decided voters in the CROP poll, the margin of error increases to plus or minus 5.8 per cent, which is almost enough to erase the gap between Lagacé Dowson and Trudeau.

Calculations related to the margin of error, however, are based on the assumption that the sample is random and represent- ative. And there are reasons to believe that this might not be the case with this poll."

Fascinating

Canadian politics are getting really, really riveting. Look at these articles from the old media:

Trudeau switches targets in bid to cut Mulcair’s momentum in polls

Is Canada's Natural Governing Party down for the count? If Mulcair and the NDP are causing such a stir, what does that say about the Liberals? Will Baby Trudeau survive? (I doubt it.) Will the Liberal Party survive? Maybe. Maybe not.

There's this bit from an avowed Liberal, Warren Kinsella:

Team Trudeau: the news is in…

He laments:

“Liberals falling further behind NDP-Conservative race”
“Former Liberal acclaimed as NDP candidate”
“Trudeau switches targets in bid to cut Mulcair’s momentum”
“Brian Gallant won’t campaign for federal Liberals during election”
“This is still Harper’s election to lose”
“EKOS poll: Tories are up”

And then there's this:

Liberal MP caught on tape voicing concerns that Trudeau’s inner circle has ‘no political sense whatsoever’

My. My.

And this:

Mulcair Is Putting Canada At Risk By Pandering to Separatists

I hate to say this, but perhaps we should cut Angry Tom some slack. After all he was sent to parliament by Quebecers and the NDP's strong showing in La Belle Provence was at the expense of the Bloc, an avowedly separatist party.

We live in interesting times. It seems our Natural Governing Party is in trouble. How ironic that this should be the case when spawn of P.E.T. is the leader of the Liberal Party. That alone speaks volumes. The Liberal Party of Canada seems to be stuck in the past and has just woken up to the fact that said spawn ain't no carbon copy of Trudeau the Elder.

Just How Business Unfriendly Is...

...La Belle Provence:

Why Quebec is closed for business

Quebec's Preoccupation With French Is Limiting Its Startup Scene

Quebec: The most corrupt province

Smokin'

Playing fairy godmother to Quebec not so fun

"Today, let’s have some fun and play fairy godmother to Quebec. Let’s grant the province the wish it articulated in Copenhagen. Wave the magic wand and poof, wish granted. Shut down Alberta’s oilsands, except, since it’s Quebec making the wish, we have to call it tarsands, even though it’s not tar they use to run their Bombardier planes, trains and Skidoos.

Ah, at last! The blight on Canada’s reputation shut down. All those dastardly workers from across Canada living in Fort McMurray, Calgary and Edmonton out of jobs, including those waitresses, truck drivers, nurses, teachers, doctors, pilots, engineers etc. They can all go on employment insurance like Ontario autoworkers and Quebec parts makers!

Today, let’s have some fun and play fairy godmother to Quebec. Let’s grant the province the wish it articulated in Copenhagen. Wave the magic wand and poof, wish granted. Shut down Alberta’s oilsands, except, since it’s Quebec making the wish, we have to call it tarsands, even though it’s not tar they use to run their Bombardier planes, trains and Skidoos.

Ah, at last! The blight on Canada’s reputation shut down. All those dastardly workers from across Canada living in Fort McMurray, Calgary and Edmonton out of jobs, including those waitresses, truck drivers, nurses, teachers, doctors, pilots, engineers etc. They can all go on employment insurance like Ontario autoworkers and Quebec parts makers!"

[---]

"Shutting down the oilsands will reduce Canada’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 38.4 Mt (megatonnes). Hooray! It’s so fun to be a fairy godmother! While that sounds like a lot, Canada only produces two per cent of the world’s man-made GHGs and the oilsands only produce five per cent of Canada’s total emissions or 0.1 per cent of the world’s emissions. By comparison, the U.S. produces 20.2 per cent of the world’s GHG emissions — 27 per cent of which comes from coal-fired electricity.

The 530 sq.-km piece of land currently disturbed by the tarsands (which is smaller than the John F. Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida at 570 sq. km) must be reclaimed by law and will return to Alberta’s 381,000 sq. km of boreal forest, a huge carbon sink. Quebec, of course, has clean hydro power, but more than 13,000 sq. km were drowned for the James Bay hydroelectric project, permanently removing that forest from acting as a carbon sink."

RTWT

You Go Francois!

François Legault says all mosques should be investigated prior to opening

And if it works there, lets adopt the same across the entire country.

Shame on Me...

...Not.

When I first learned about the rampage in Copenhagen, I immediately thought it must have been Muslims. I wonder why? /sarc

Copenhagen shooting suspect shot dead after attacks on free speech event and synagogue

Denmark sees possible 'Charlie Hebdo' motive behind Copenhagen attacks

Danish PM vows to protect Jews, says Islam not West's enemy

A little too much appeasement/cowardliness in that headline, me thinks. Time to call a spade a spade and put down your political correctness.

And good for those mayors in Quebec:

Muslim school graduation ceremony cancelled over radical speakers

"A graduation ceremony for a private Muslim school was cancelled Saturday due to the radical views of two guest speakers, the mayor said."

[---]

""As soon as we received this information, we felt it was essential to cancel the booking," said Outremont Mayor Marie Cinq-Mars in a statement.

Shahin has garnered headlines for declarations that Muslims need to place priority on sharia law over western law."

[---]

"In a tweet, Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre said that the decision to cancel the event was reached due to a report on Alsawy and Shahin on QMI's sister TV station LCN."

No word yet from Barack Obama, that I'm aware of, in any case. Other world leaders have spoken out including: "British Prime Minister David Cameron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper", and, of course, Netanyahu.

Good Grief!!!

Get a life, you people:

Court asked to banish prayer, Christian symbols from council meetings

"The Supreme Court of Canada is being asked to banish public prayer and Christian religious symbols from municipal council meetings in a case that prompted one judge to ask whether the notion of “live and let live” has a place in modern Canada.

Alain Simoneau and the Quebec Secular Movement on Tuesday challenged Saguenay city council’s right to say a short, non-sectarian prayer at the beginning of its meetings that includes the word “God,” and to display Christian symbols such as a crucifix or statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus."

If that's the worst thing you have to complain about, count your blessings.

"No" It Is

Scotland rejects independence with decisive 55% ‘No’ vote

I wouldn't call 55% all that decisive. There were four districts in which the "Yes" side won. I'd say we have another Quebec situation. Gimmie. Gimmie. Gimmie. Gimmie, or we'll keep doing this until we get what we want. However, the Quebec separatists who went over to Scotland as observers must be very disappointed.

It's Going Viral

Scottish separatism fuels movements in Spain and Italy

"From Spain’s Basque Country to Veneto in north-eastern Italy, independence-minded European regions are licking their lips at the prospect that Scotland will vote to secede from the UK in its September 18 referendum...."

I'm wondering if a "yes" vote will cause a tidal wave that makes its way up the St. Lawrence all the way to Quebec City.

Scotland

At the moment I have a young English immigrant in my house doing something or other to my boiler, which conked out a few days ago. We chatted for a bit about how my ancestors came from England, and of course, of Scotland's bid for independence. I likened it to Quebec. I gather, from our conversation, there is no love lost for Scotland in jolly old England, at least not in his Cockney heart.

Separatism Goes Viral

There are separatist movements in Quebec, Scotland, and now, Catalonia.

Au Revoir, Bloc?

Bloc has 2 members left as another MP quits

"The foundering Bloc Quebecois is down to just two MPs after 10-year veteran Andre Bellevance said Monday that he's quitting to sit as an independent."

Bloc Quebecois loses another MP as Andre Bellavance quits party

"Veteran Bloc Quebecois MP Andre Bellavance announced Monday that he too is quitting the embattled sovereigntist party because he can’t work with its new leader.

Bellavance said he will serve the rest of his mandate as an Independent and won’t seek re-election in 2015."

Bloc MP Andre Bellavance, former leadership candidate, quits party

"Bellavance said his decision to leave the party came after a recent meeting with Bloc Leader Mario Beaulieu, the man who beat Bellavance for the party leadership in June.

The Bloc has been in complete disarray since Beaulieu’s arrival over his approach to running the party. Beaulieu has pushed sovereignty as the main electoral theme even as polls suggest the appetite for it is waning."

André Bellavance quits the Bloc to sit as an Independent

"He blamed Beaulieu for not being able to quell the crisis brewing inside the party and a "witch-hunt" that has seen "pro-Bellavance" supporters harassed online for not being sovereigntist enough.

"Beaulieu calls himself a unifier, but for me, that is not the case," Bellavance said."

MP André Bellavance leaves Bloc Québécois: Will spend the rest of his term as an independent

"The spectacular departure of Richmond-Arthabaska MP André Bellavance from the Bloc Québécois Monday means a party already reduced to a rump in the last election is even weaker, its future more in doubt then ever."

Bloc Quebecois loses another MP: Andre Bellavance quits party; won’t run in 2015

"Bellavance has represented Richmond-Arthabaska since 2004 but the 10-year veteran said that he no longer felt at home in the sovereigntist party under Beaulieu.

He said he simply could not work with Beaulieu going forward.

“I no longer felt comfortable with this team,” Bellavance said. “I don’t feel that we are going in the right direction.”

Bellavance also denounced a “purity test for independence” that has taken place within the party to determine members’ commitment to sovereignty, saying that it had made him feel like an outsider.

“It made me feel like an impostor and an intruder within the Bloc,” Bellavance said.

He noted an “unhealthy atmosphere” within the party and described two very different political outfits: the Bloc Quebecois that existed “before June 14″ and the one “after June 14″ with Beaulieu at the helm."

This is angry Tom's fault.

Hip-Hip Hooray!!

Why are the French so obsessed with our Royal Family?

Except in Quebec, of course.

"If you head over to France for your summer holidays, you'd be forgiven for assuming they care not one jot for royals - particularly those from British shores. But for a people which rabbits on about republicanism as if they invented the thing, the French are obsessed with royalty - and, most notably, ours."

[---]

"Magazines like Gala and Paris Match burst forth with pretty much weekly bulletins on not only William and Kate, but also Harry and Cressida - and, unless I'm much mistaken, the 20-year-old go-go dancer who is said to have replaced Cressida. The Queen is revered sufficiently to suggest that, were she to emulate her predecessor Edward III and claim the throne of France, there'd be a decent vote in favour."

[---]

"You may, therefore, imagine the effervescence gripping the nation right now as HMQ arrives for her fifth state visit to France, to tie in with the 70th-anniversary of D-Day. There have naturally been problems. Traffic anarchy generated by the royal visit to the Arc-de-Triomphe and tomb of the Unknown Soldier on Thursday afternoon was bound to annoy many Parisians. (Others retorted by telling them to belt up: if you live in Paris, get used to it.)"

[---]

"Far more important has been the "psychodrama of the hats". On discovering that the roof of the presidential Citroën DS5 was unlikely to be high enough to accommodate both the Queen and her hat, alarmed French protocol chaps sought an alternative. Dismissing the suggestion of a people carrier ("For the Queen??"), they bagged a Renault VelSatis which, though not very good at motoring, will allow the Queen to sit up straight, be-hatted. It will also be an interesting change from the new Diamond Jubilee state coach she used to get to the opening of Parliament - underlining many of the essential differences between a monarchy and a republic."

[---]

"...when the Queen joins 19 other heads of state in Normandy - and back in Paris on Saturday, when she visits the Flower Market on the Ile-de-la-Cité. Henceforth, the market will be known as Le Marché Aux Fleurs Reine Elizabeth II;"

[---]

"The welcome extended to the Queen isn't simply that accorded to a celebrity, though certain French commentators claim there's little difference. Nor is the interest only ironic, as smarter folk like to pretend. Whatever these people say, it's obvious that the Queen, especially, has real status in France. Of course, she has entertainment value but she's also an embodiment of so many of the things which the French admire in the British - the spirit of "fair-play" (for which there's no French word), restraint, elegance and resolution under stress and a frankly outrageous taste in headgear."

[---]

"...somehow, her very presence and bearing suggests that Britain is a country worthy of respect. Certainly - listen up, British republicans - she generates a warmth and fascination within France which is experienced by no other nation. It goes without saying that the British also exasperate the French, as vice versa. But it's the exasperation of close-ish relatives. As the Queen herself has said in the past, we may drive on different sides of the road, but we're going in the same direction.

Vitally, this time, the Queen is a living link with the past being commemorated. France's current ambassador to the UK, Bernard Emié, put it best: "With Queen Elizabeth II, we meet our own history, but also our liberty. For it's to her people, to her father George VI, to the man who became her prime-minister, Winston Churchill that we owe the welcome extended to General de Gaulle and the Free French in London - and then, with the Allies, the liberation of France."

Same goes for the Yanks.

It's Not Navel-Gazing, Sweetie

Navel-gazing days are over, Justin Trudeau says

"There’s been just too much navel-gazing.

That’s how Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau explains the party’s drop in support in the past 10 years or so."

[---]

"The Liberals have only eight of the 75 seats in Quebec and Trudeau acknowledged they have bridges to rebuild in the province. “Not only will Quebecers be present in my government, they will be lsitened (sic) to.

“It won’t just be a prime minister from Quebec, but there will be ministers from Quebec in strong positions.”"

I think it's the Liberals obsession with appeasing Quebec, for one thing. I see that hasn't changed. Secondly, it's all the good things they gave us, like the Human Wrongs Commissions and a drastically underfunded armed forces, and false heroes like Lester Pearson and his peacekeeping forces and other farces, such as making you the leader, in effect trying to establish a dynasty and bring back the glory days that never were.

More:

Liberal culture has changed

"He says that attitude illustrates why the party has gone from 172 seats in 2000 to its current 35-member caucus.

He told reporters he believes he has changed that culture since becoming leader in April 2013.

The party has only eight of the 75 seats in Quebec and Trudeau acknowledged the Liberals have bridges to rebuild in the province."

See what I mean?

""Not only will Quebecers be present in my government, they will be listened to.

"It won't just be a prime minister from Quebec but there will be ministers from Quebec in strong positions."

See what I mean?

Justin Trudeau says Liberal culture has changed

Sure. We believe you.

The pandering continues.

Yay Canada!!!

Most of us, anyway:

Canada’s oil-rich provinces not only best in nation for economic performance, they are best in world: Conference Board

Good to see the Newfies among them.

"Canada scores highly on economic growth and employment growth, although “poor grades on labour productivity as well as inward and outward foreign direct investment raise concerns about long-term prosperity,” the report cautions."

[---]

"Ontario, Prince Edward Island and British Columbia score B grades, putting them alongside Switzerland, Germany and the United Kingdom. Manitoba and Quebec were given C grades."

Hmmmm. I wonder way Manitoba and Quebec scored so low? /sarc

"The Conference Board report predicts Alberta and Saskatchewan will continue to “dominate” its economic performance report card in the coming years, continuing to “record lower unemployment rates than the rest of Canada and stronger growth than the peer countries as the eurozone continues its long and painful recovery.”"

Yay, Saskatchewwan!

Damn!!

UPDATE:

Final count:

Liberal 70
Parti Quebecois 30
Coalition Avenir Quebec 22
Quebec Solidaire 3

Now comes the time when talking heads analyze this to death. Biggest question seems to be whether this signals the end of the separatist agenda and the Parti Quebecois. Jury's still out. Second biggest question is: What will the Liberals do?  Clean themselves up? Turn themselves around? Third: Is there a new younger demographic in Quebec that are sick and tired of the old sovereigntist agenda?
========ORIGINAL POST STARTS HERE========
I was hoping they would pee. Instead they just got off the pot, sure to return, I suspect.

Anyway, I'm packing it in. Standing at the moment:

Liberal 71
Parti Quebecois 37
Coalition Avenir Quebec 17
Quebec Solidaire 2

Poor Francois..

..He just can't get a break.

And Pauline thinks she has it bad.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Environmental issues largely ignored in election campaign In La Belle Provence, that is.

More.

"In the weeks after the Parti Québecois took power, it made several decisions that had environmental groups cheering.

Three former environmental activists were appointed as provincial ministers, the government shut down the Gentilly-2 nuclear power plant, extended a moratorium on shale-gas operations, cancelled a loan to the province’s last asbestos mine, and put uranium development on hold until environmental assessments could be done.

Fast forward 18 months, and the picture is very different.

Just before the election campaign began, four of the environmental groups that are members of a government climate-change committee said the government hadn’t been acting quickly enough on climate change and the only plan the province has for tackling the issue was adopted by the previous Liberal government — parts of which have yet to be enacted."

Two Kinds Of Big Fish

One in Mexico:

Mexico's top drug baron Joaquin 'Shorty' Guzman arrested

One in Canada:


Refusing to testify could leave Marois in contempt: Liberals and CAQ

Question For Pauline

Quebec, Bombardier founding family announce $1-billion cement project in Gaspe

GASPE, Que. - Bombardier's founding family is tapping into public funds by partnering with the Quebec government and two provincial agencies to invest more than $1 billion in a new cement plant in the Gaspe region aimed at increasing exports to the U.S. market.(Emphasis mine)

Gee, Pauline, I wonder what language your American customers will want to be served in?