Wow! Didn’t see this one coming. Prime Minster Stephen Harper passes a motion to have Quebec declared a nation within Canada. Get this! All parties agree. Huh!? More info here.
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November 24th, 2006 at 16:30 PM
We’re going to be the United Nations of Canada! Huzzah!
This was the lamest headline news i ever read. Does anyone know what the hell it really means? What is the actual policy? I suspect there isn’t any. Sling the slogans now, deflect questions later. I hope the french break into drunken riot. I’ll hop across the riviere to the Nation of Quebec and help.
I don’t blame the Harper govt for coming up with the terminology, i just hate the idea that a certain strategy of words is being hailed as a solution to this problem.
November 25th, 2006 at 12:17 PM
I’m not so sure if it’s a solution as much as temporary appeasement. Details are scarce (and I’ve looked everywhere ) but to quote Harper
“Que cette chambre reconnaisse que les Quebecoisses et les quebecois forment une nation au sein d’un Canada uni.”
Then again, Scotland calls itself a nation as well so who knows what this really means.
November 25th, 2006 at 12:52 PM
I was too lazy to read Hansard but I found this on the Globe and Mail website
“The leader of the Bloc and his separatist friends are not concerned with defining who Quebeckers are but rather what they want them to become, a separate country. Our position is clear. Do the Qu?©b?©cois form a nation within Canada? The answer is yes. Do the Qu?©b?©cois form an independent nation? The answer is no … And the answer will always be no because Quebeckers of all political persuasions, from Cartier and Laurier to Mulroney and Trudeau, have led this country, and millions like them of all political persuasions have helped to build it.”
November 25th, 2006 at 17:54 PM
i’m sure Harper’s ideas are well intentioned, but he can’t actually stop Quebec from holding another referendum, so this ‘the answer is no and will always be no (to Quebec forming an independant nation)’ stuff is a bit ultra vires of the pm, don’t you think?
November 25th, 2006 at 18:38 PM
I suspect that details are scarce because they don’t yet exist. this motion is symbolic rather than substative. i’ll give you 5 dollars (or take a dare of your chosing) if Harper’s able to draft actual policy that is as universally appealing as the new title.
Don’t forget - we’re dealing with the french here. they’ve been in a bad mood since the Battle of the Plains of Abraham.