Maybe Harper is trying to force the sovereinty issue: ie trying to alienate Quebecers (you and I and Jane and her mom, even, included) into holding another referendum and voting for secession. Then the ROC, which will all be Anglo, conservative, and god-fearing, will be able to overturn laws based on these pesky things like diversity and universal human rights, and go back to the tasks at hand, like making money, babies, and nuclear families as the fundamentalist god intended. Or perhaps I am giving the Conservative strategists too much credit.

no, the thought had occurred to me too. What better way to conquer then to first divide and all that jazz.

But see, what Harper isn't taking advantage of is the fact that quebec has a huge and unexplored vein of reactionary conservatism running through it's northern communities. I think, I mean pur lain quebecoise can be very tolerant, but they can also be bigots. I mean what are staunch catholics if not anti-divorce anti-homo, anti-whatever, conservatives with a religious agenda.

Too bad for him, they are all going to have to suck it up and vote bloq because soveriegnity issues are probably more important than whether pierre and jean-francois in the chalet next door are married.

Ah, he will have to leave the reactionary conservatives for the ADQ. At least their leader doesn't have to wear sunglasses to hide his shame . . . yet.

I'd like ot point out that I don't sound nearly critical enough in your take on the conversation we had the other night. My political affiliations and beliefs are not always clear cut, but it is clear to me that Trudeau's reaction to the October crisis cememnted the view of generations of Franco Quebecers that the Anglo Canadian government was out to get them.

I think enacting the war measures act was a horrible thing to do to a people already distrustful of the Canadian government. Check out the film Les Ordres. It's 4 hours of footage of people being dragged from their homes en masse and loaded into police vehicles by the military on orders from the PMO. Tanks rolled down St-Laurent and soldiers kept guard with huge guns. People were held without charges and without explanation, as per the war measures act, on suspicion of being terrorists. The burden was on those arrested to prove they had no ties to the FLQ, rather than the onus being on cops/prosecutors to prove that they did.

Hundreds of absolutely unaffiliated people were in their homes, minding their own business when the cops burst in and took them away. By casting such a wide net, the PM got some criminals, but got a lot of innocent people too.

More than anything, my point the other night was that Trudeau's decision backfired, because in the subsequent 6 years, the language divide became complete, hundreds of thousands of young, Quebec-educated people left the province, businesses shut down or moved, new construction came to a halt, Montreal went from being the most vibrant city in the country to a shadow of what it once was, and everybody, regardless of their political stripes, felt the effects of living in a province that was in economic ruins.

Not all of this was because oif Trudeau's decision in October 1970, but the period was a turning point in our collective history, and I think it could have been handled differently. The October crisis was the culmination of hundreds of years of unrest between anglos and francos, but it was about other issues too, including basic repsect.

The PMO had to react to the terrible things that were happening in a province being held hostage by a handful of people committing terrifying crimes, but I don't think that perpetuating a climate of disrespect by unleashing military force on average people was the best answer.

ps - thanks Miriam for printing my name in your blog again. More! More! More! Ego! Ego! Ego!

I'd also like to point out that I didn't say
"No they made sure to take the mail out first stupid."

I said
"No they made sure to take the mail out first." and then IMPLIED stupid, with my sideways, full-toothed, eyes looking at you over the top of of my glasses, eyebrows raised just so, grin.

Big difference.

I would NEVER call you stupid. That's just mean.

wow I think that your comment is one of the smartest things to grace the bandwidth of this blog ever.

hats off to you for concise and well articultaed political criticism. I guess your four years (or was it six?) of j school were worth something.. I am being serious btw you give great comment.

However as a point of historical fact. we have often referred to each other in our better years together as either; "asshole", "stinky" or "stupid."

Now I can't have been the only one saying stupid, that would seem impossible given your obvious intelligence.

AND in defense of my writerly privalege you try descibing your toothsome sarcasm as a descriptive pasage, it's much less funny than "no they took the mail out first stupid."

AND if truth in reporting is on the line here, what was actually said;

"they killed some guy, and they blew up mailboxes."

Miriam (simply aghast); "with the mail in them?!"

Jane (faking gravitas): "yes"

Then you did your "you stupid momo" face at me.

okay that's the truth,