Politics: Quebec: Demagogue separatist and opportunist NDP leaders answered by precise Prime Minister

.
Always doctrinaire, the separatist federal leader of the Bloc Quebecois, Gilles Duceppe went on the defensive against Canada's mild-mannered Prime Minister, Stephen Harper. Duceppe proved himself not just stuck in his own dogma, but unable to acknowledge other interpretations of what it means to be a Quebecker a/o un/e Québecois/e (they are not always the same thing for everyone in Quebec). That there's a certain racism translated as best it can into a language-prioritism in the system of ideas (ideology) pushed by many branches of Quebec separatism is well known. Now, Duceppe has unmasked himself, giving every appearance of being one of those with a racist subtext when they speak of la nation québecoise. That phrasing in French is being hijacked as an interpretationless deliverance from On H+, but Duceppe is no Moses, nor pur laineniste of the separatist Holy Grail. The phrase is interpretable, and Quebeckers / Québecois do it all the time.

That's where the hapless Jack Layton of the New Democrats who showed up for the big Montreal splash on Saint John the Baptist Day / now National Holiday in Quebec, showed up foaming self-r+teousness to exclude Harper from saying anything about portents of the symbolism being abused by separatism, when the press demanded of Harper that he too get in on the current media discourse around the issue.

Harper did not thro gas on the Quebeckers' own fire of contestation among themselves about the meanings of these celebrations. And, despite all the political rip-offs by the likes of Duceppe (who is quite enitled to be a separatist and espouse an extreme form of its ideologies in Quebec) and of Layton (who's an interloper whose party has never won a seat in the province, on any level of parliamentation). But it was Layton who tried to get himself noticed with a pompous pile of platitudes, all aimed at Harper (who after all is Prime Minister of Canada also in Quebec). Layton inisted that Harper had no r+t to articulate the views of many Québecois about the interpretation of la nation québecoise in a non language-particularist conception, non anti-immigrant conception, and non bloodline conception.

The concept itself (from "native," "natal," natus) is a bloodline concept that does not refer to all the bloodlines in a given country, but refers instead to the singular nation being promoted and proclaimed as the core of society, the nation thorobred. In Quebec, the perhaps largest bloodline keeps falling short of translating itself into into the outr+t commander of political majority; many within this largest of Quebec bloodlines don't go for the idea at all; and the allies whom the bloodlinist compromisers try to recruit are restive under the bloodlineal hegemony.

As a matter of fact, this dubious word misuse, tho it has often been euphemized, also often gives way to a hostility toward those who don't promote the sacred bloodline and don't want to isolate other bloodlines, nor force them to speak the predominant language of the sacred bloodline (traditionally a secondary identifier of the sacred bloodline as such) - language as seeming substitute for a politics of bloodline especially for those Quebec communitie's that have no francophone heritage, but also if they are immigrants who want their children to learn English as their first school-language - perhaps for economic reasons, ensuring their kids will be able to function in the world marketplace when they become job-seekers.

The sacred bloodline interestingly enuff does not include all the France-born immigrants to Quebec who often enjoy being citizens first of the Queen's Dominion (I know a few), second of Her Majesty's province of Quebec (I am no monarchist myself; and, tho I respect greatly Canada's Queen, I do not swear allegiance to Her and Her line forever).

Indeed, historically, anyone who immigrated to Quebec after the Conquest and sawt citizenship did so knowlingly to become a subject of Her Majesty (sometimes His M). So, all this subtextual bloodline hoax being freighted into the phrase la nation québecoise by some separatists, is really an attempt to use the mothertongue itself as an ideology to limit the freedom of "les membres de la nation quebecoise" to think otherwise regarding their membership in a natus or tribe. And nations don't have citizens; they have members, they have ancestors, and descendants, and family-trees; they are of another order than that of citizen. The shifting of meanings of words about "nation" does a disservice both to the Canadian/Quebeckian native peoples who have never been members of la nation quebecoise, nor does the shifting help those who have a strong bloodline-historical identity in the Jewish bloodline, nor does it do justice to the many other ethnicities, bloodlines, tribes, clans, and non nation québecois peoples of Québec.

That the French language should be blostered by the provincial govt of Canada's la belle is not here in question.

Nor was it questioned by Harper as Alexander Panetta of Canadian Press reports the matter,"Harper rips separatists: Fete nationale isn't theirs, he tells Quebec federalists," Toronto Sun (Jun25,2k6).

ST-JOSEPH-DE-BEAUCE, Que. -- Prime Minister Stephen Harper is challenging Quebec separatists' right to claim the province's "national holiday" as their own political event.

The subtle jab came at the end of a visit to Quebec where a prime minister best known for lambasting Liberals showed himself perfectly willing to spar with sovereigntists too.

"This Fete nationale was being celebrated long before the Quiet Revolution (in the 1960s) -- and even before Confederation," he told a rural crowd yesterday. "This St-Jean day reminds us all of the riches and greatness of the Quebec and francophone Canadian experience."

Harper eschewed the much larger -- and more staunchly nationalist -- ceremonies in Montreal and Quebec [city] in favour of a rural festival in the province's Beauce region.

URBAN THRONGS

Instead of wading through urban throngs of thousands of flag-waving, slogan-chanting revellers, Harper chatted up locals among the rolling hills of Quebec's federalist heartland.

On Friday, the rookie prime minister irked Quebec nationalists by refusing to share their common consensus that Quebecers form a nation.

Every political party in the province agrees Quebec should share that distinction, like Canada's First Nations and French-speaking Acadians [in the province of New Brunswick - they are much more a nation, a tribe than are the main bloodline group in Québec which is hybrided with all sorts other ethnic stocks - P]. But Harper said sovereigntists raised the issue only because they were afraid to discuss their own cause.

Harper's visit made it clear he's shifting his sights to take on new opponents now that his Tories have their sights on a bigger prize -- the 50 Bloc Quebecois seats in the province.

The rural area Harper visited yesterday is considered a crucial battleground for the Tories in their effort to win a majority government.

They need 30 more seats to do it and will probably need a strong showing in Quebec to achieve that.

I give credit to the mild-mannered Prime Minister who is a real friend of Canada's Québec but no patsy for the extremists like Duceppe and hangers-on like Layton.

- Politicarp

Further Resources

Jean Charest says Québec a nation, but compatible with being Canadian
CBC on Harper marking Quebec provincial holiday