Gimbol's diatribe and screed

How to get rid of the Bloc.

I'd be interested to know how far this idea would go.

Here's the plan:

1. Get enough people in riding's outside of Quebec to form a Bloc riding association. The executive of the party will no doubt balk at the attempt and hopefully even deny the application. If/when that happens the HRC could be used to do some good work for a change and a charge should be brought against the Bloc for their refusal to allow admittance based on ethnicity. That's the first strike.
2. The groups that are now denied access, still organize to run under an independent banner. It doesn't matter what, just as long as its clear that the idea is let the Bloc know its under threat of a takeover from the ROC. That's the second strike.
3. If (and this is the tricky part) enough support can be generated to get enough ROC to generate enough members, let the Quebec membership know in no uncertain terms that when the next convention comes up the majority will be delegates from outside of Quebec and they will be making sure the party is unelectable inside of Quebec by voting to get Quebec's signature on the constitution. That's the big if, but it would certainly help push them off the national stage.

Part of the scenario that may help it along is the first stage. The HRC hasn't really been much use of late and mostly I believe its the principle of idle hands do the devils work. Give them something useful to do and they will forget about editorial writers and magazine publishers. This would be real meat that any civil rights activist would give their hind teeth to get at. Imagine the optics, here's a political party that wants to destroy the country by electing members for federal representation....all on the premise of freedom from supposed tyranny of Ottawa, and they turn around and deny the right of Canadians to freely belong to their party. That's not democratic now is it, heck that could even be construed as racist. Now suppose the Bloc doesn't want the media attention and relents at that point to allow riding associations to form outside of Quebec? Oh the mischief that could be played, nominating candidates that not only advocate for Quebec to separate, but also blurting out how it would be okay for the rest of Canada to take what is rightfully theirs. You can guess how well that would go over in Quebec when the leader has to explain to those soft nationalists how they shouldn't take it serious, not what was meant, etc. you get the picture. But it would also put the leader in a spot trying to say one thing to calm the fair weather federalists while at the same time not looking less of a separatist to the hardcore party base in the bloc than that wonky candidate over in Ontario. The strategy is however based on the premise that no separatist can by law deny entry to their party under the laws of this country, and they need to be put on a crash course with the courts.

The second point is an interesting strategy, in that baring the outcome of the first, the ROC should be able to create more than 75 riding associations to out vote the ones in Quebec. I know its a cheap and dirty trick to subvert their vote, but is it really fair that a party that only campaigns in one province makes it nearly impossible for a majority government to form? All they have been successful at is muddying the waters, its time as Preston Manning once said, to get in for the long haul. Its not 1760 anymore, the British decamped generations ago, and there is a new reality that says grow up and stop acting like a colony of France. Digressing a bit, the point isn't to actually do the takeover, but to let Quebec know that we can do it if we want to. Sort of like how Teddy Roosevelt let the world understand the connection of soft talk and big sticks.

The last part, although difficult to do until you get enough of a membership outside of la belle province, would be the sweetest. You could have a detrimental effect on the party by getting a leader nominated that was unelectable in Quebec, or changing the party constitution to abandon the separation option, or even better disbanding the party for good.

Now I am not of any delusions that this will happen, but what I have done is offer up some solution to this old canker sore. My hope is that anyone that happens to come across this little screed will plagiarize some or all of it and take it to the next step. Because frankly I'm tired of seeing the federal government being manipulated by a bunch of socialists posing as freedom fighters with no agenda other than extracting a pound of flesh from the ROC.

Labels: Quebec politics

posted by gimbol @ 3:49 PM