Temper temper.
PKP is getting cranky these days.
Obviously he still thinks he is a CEO and not the leader of the opposition.
So when asked about the turmoil in his office, reporters were told it was none of their business. Sorry, but it is our business.
It appears that working for the leader of the Parti Quebecor is not particularly easy, but what's really got PKP’s knickers in a knot is the audacity of the Liberals and the CAQ to question his plans for a sovereignty think tank.
Now Mr. Peladeau wants his institute--and I use that word cautiously--to be a charity with tax-free status.
In other words, it would be subsidized by the taxpayers through tax credits.
He says he will use part of his considerable fortune to get it off the ground, and is doing so begs questions about big money in the political process.
Now the CAQ and the Liberals say that would be illegal because it would contravene Quebec's political financing laws, so PKP is threatening legal action.
Now politics is not like business. You can’t just send lawyer’s letters because you don't like what your opponents are saying.
But the Liberals are right.
This so-called think tank would just be a branch plant of the PQ, using data to meet political ends.
The fix would be in. You always get the answer you want by the question you ask.
This all smacks of Alice in Wonderland.
We have endured years of studies on this nonstarter.
The verdict is in.
Instead of taking aim at the government--which is the job of the opposition--the PQ is beginning 2016 with its guns pointed squarely as its own feet.
Canada not shining on international stage
Canada took its lumps this week on the world stage.
We were not invited to a key defence meeting on fighting ISIS.
The snub was intentional and was because of Canada's decision to withdraw from the fight against the Islamists in Northern Iraq.
After the Paris attacks Canada could have taken the high road and recommitted to the alliance against terror instead of making some vague promises of training.
There are many things this new government is doing right but in this file it’s a mess.
You can’t let others fight the fight. Just ask Camille Cartier whose daughter was killed by jihadists in Burkina Faso.
She is ashamed of Canada’s decision to pull its CF-18s, and she is not the only one.
Canada is hip
Finally, on a more positive note, that arbiter of most things of note The New York Times this week declared Canada to be hip.
Canada, the land of hyper-politeness and constant apology, is suddenly hip.
The thing is, we've been hip a very long time.
In our modest nature, we just don't broadcast it to the world.
The Times says Canada is an expanse once stereotyped as the home to square-jawed Mounties and beer-swilling hosers.
Well, we never really were all that. But I guess now the secret is out.
If the Times says it, it must be so.
