OPINION

I wonder if the fox has been let loose in the henhouse.

Is Pauline Marois secretly chuckling over her choice of Jean-Francois Lisee as minister responsible for everything Anglo in Quebec?

Lisee speaks flawless English. He says he is an Anglophile. He thinks us Anglos would have a swell old time in an independent Quebec.

You’ve heard it all before, historic minority and we belong here and so on.

Lisee admits to being such an Anglo friend that he admires Churchill and he reads John Le Carre and Margaret Atwood.

I’m sure he has English muffins for breakfast.

Now Lisee has been pretty much front and centre of the politics of division and identity that we saw in the recent campaign, so that doesn’t bode well on the trust issue.

If the starting point is reduced access to English Cegeps and enforcement of Bill 101 for small business and schoolyard fights with Ottawa then Jean-Francois -- we have a problem.

It’s not like we are ready to sit around a campfire with the Pequistes and sing Kumbaya and plan our future country.

We already have one.

That’s what they don’t get. We will never be convinced that leaving Canada will be a good idea.

We will always believe that Canada is more than the sum of its parts, that it is more than a country.

It’s an idea and a despite everything a damn good one.

The seduction won’t work.

What will make us happy is a commitment to moving away from hardline language laws, and a recognition that our education system needs help, that our health care institutions are important. That our culture needs support.

That English-speaking Quebecers are not the enemy.

Est- que ce on peut commencer avec ca?

 

Students claim victory

The students are claiming victory, but I am not sure they really won much.

Yes. The new Parti Quebecois government has moved to cancel the tuition increases faster than a heat-seeking missile.

Although more than two thirds of Quebecers voted against the PQ it is going ahead with what is perhaps the most left-wing agenda in years.

The message here is that the rule of the street and anarchy can work.

But the question now is who is going to pay.

There is no magic wand. There is only one taxpayer. If students think they can find the money in university waste and bureaucracy they are sadly mistaken

The vast majority of university spending goes toward teaching and support staff.

In the competitive world of academia, our universities are in real danger becoming substandard.

The further in debt we go, the more the students of today will have to pay tomorrow.

So I’m not sure there are winners. But surely we are all losers.

 

USA: no plans to invade

Here is the best news of the week

We did get confirmation from the U.S. State department that the United States has no plans to invade Canada.

Yep, in response to a reporter’s question, albeit tongue-in-cheek, a U.S. government official says nothing is on the books.

Although an invasion might fit in nicely with all the money the Tories are spending on the commemoration of the War of 1812 and the British victory.

I just don’t think a two out of three would be such a great idea.