PQ attacking Couillard for Saudi connection

The PQ really is off their nut on this one.

They are really good at sowing fear and loathing. They wrote the book on fearing Anglos and anything different to Quebec Values, whatever they might be. But this one takes them to new levels in their Charter obsession.

They claim that Premier Philippe Couillard is not taking all this renewed Charter fervour seriously, because he was impregnated with Saudi Arabian values when he worked there as a neurosurgeon.

Really how crazy is that? Sheik Couillard supporting values such as treating women as third class citizens, of living in a closed society where free speech will get you flogged in public, where gays face the death penalty…not the Philippe CouilIard I know and not the one Quebecers handed the keys to on April 7th.

The Pequistes are so desperate for an issue to make themselves relevant again. They still have not learned anything from their historic defeat last April. They have not learned that playing dirty politics is risky business indeed.

Snow clearing mess

For those of you old enough to remember, back in the day when Jean Drapeau ruled the roost, Montreal used to be really good at clearing snow and making sure our sidewalks and streets were safe after winter storms.

Everything was centralized and the right hand knew exactly what the left hand was doing. Nowadays, it’s a bloody free-for-all with 19 fiefdoms all controlling their own snow clearing. That’s nuts. A checkerboard city.

A new report this week has 16 recommendations after the ice storm fiasco. It found that most of the boroughs during the ice storm in their wisdom decided to clear the snow before putting down the abrasives and salt.

Not only that, in some boroughs blue collar workers didn’t want to come in to work, and there was broken equipment in others.

And the big problem is that they don’t play together. They don’t share. They don’t share equipment or personnel.

And I really wonder how often they look at the weather forecasts. It once again highlights the fact that we have too many boroughs and too many vested interests.

It’s just another example of a toxic leftover from the forced mergers that most of us wanted nothing to do with.

Anglo rights

There was an important call this week and the Quebec government should listen up.

Graham Fraser is Canada’s Commissioner of Official Languages and he says English-speaking Quebecers need some help. They need an advocate. He is so right.

He wants the Quebec government to create an office of Anglophone affairs to better serve our community.

Face it, often our concerns are ignored. We don’t seem to matter once elections are over and outside of tax return season.

We are dramatically underrepresented in every level of government. We are often treated like the weird cousin that nobody really likes to talk to.

Our institutions are being chipped away at through one so called reform or another, especially in health care.

The government should seize the opportunity to once and for all say, “Hey, you do matter.”

But in this province when any gain for Anglos is too often perceived as a loss for the majority, I’m not holding my breath.