Hugh has an interesting platform for a theoretical election run. I agree with most of it and would vote for Hugh. Couple of notes though.
- replace “je me souviens” as a provincial motto. The motto couldn’t be further from my thoughts, who the heck cares and do you really think it changes anything to anything?? Interesting “urban legend” though about the meaning that’s passed along anglo side according to him. They also discuss it in the comments and I don’t think it’s “looking back” it’s “knowing where you’re from”. But again, who cares?
- official endorsement of net neutrality I’d stretch net neutrality to include more “unbridled” mobile access which I’ve mentioned here before. Would also be a good idea to have something regarding DRM, copyright, public domain, etc.
- education Agreed except for the trilingual thing though. How about more people actually bilingual on the west island and “en région” before thinking trilingual? There are a lot, should be more. I’d be 100% for more flexibility on learning a third language if you don’t need the second language classes. (But I think that’s already pretty open, I’m just still bitter about when I was in school but that’s a long time ago)
- Defense & Security First off, as Boris mentioned in the comments, since when does Québec have an army? :-p Second, no need for a stronger military, what does it help?? The only country to fight is the US and really, even with 100% of the budget on the military we’d still have to “go guerilla” to make a dent.
My recommendation would be to take scandinavian countries, average out their policies and use those for everything ;).
4 Comments
1. motto: not sure why that went first, but it was the bug up my nose. just at a party for a friend, from australia, but with quebec roots, who is leaving – the old story of “i don’t feel there’s a place for me here.” (certainly not how i feel)…but we were talking about “je me souviens” vs. “let’s get it on!” …it’s symbolically important i think, even if I got the meaning totally wrong (tho as mentioned, most anglos think it means: we remember the plains of abraham.)
2. you are hired.
3. i say go big or go home. I agree with 100% bilingual (my French came when I moved back to Montreal from Ontario, and decided to become bilingual … before that i was marginally better than those west islanders, but not much). but if the dutch can do 100% trilingual, so can we.
4. bah. if i am going to be president i want my own country, and my own army. and i bet the swedes could kick our ass in a war.
1. Correct me if I am wrong but « Je me souviens » was put in place by René Lévesque (I’m not sure if it was before or after the first referendum). Before it was « La belle province ». On my part, this motto is important. I live in the present knowing what happened in the past. Past, present, future, are all important tenses for me. That’s what makes us what we are. “Get over it but know that it happened.”
2. Yeah, I’m for it.
3. I don’t even know why it’s so hard to be bilingual. The Dutch do it very good: they speek english and know a little bit of either French or German. I consider myself trilingual and I know a bit of two other languages. But of course, this is due to my interests.
I am against raising the tuition fees. In Sweden, education is free (even for strangers) so Pat, you shouldn’t agree on that one.
4. No army, thanks.
I’m wondering, what political party is actually ready to face the REAL emerging situations of the 21st century. I think we in Quebec are a bit smug, particularly in relation to energy security, because of Hydro Quebec; but since the 1970s especially we’re as vulnerable as anywhere in North America due to suburbanization of our local farmland, and our oil dependence. (will someone invade Alberta? Or try to take our electricity? It could happen)
I don’t think we’ll need an army, but I wonder if we wouldn’t need more local police, given that centralized governments may not be very effectual at holding things together on a large scale…(hint, build electric railways while we still can; and while we’re talking about Sweden, they’re moving to a completely oil-free economy!)
other than that, I think Sweden can afford its free education because it’s much, much richer than Quebec – I think it exports at least twice to three times what we do…
mc: Histoire de la devise.
For tuition, you’re somewhat right. I’m not in favor of raising fees directly but I’m also not in favor of status quo. Like for everything governement related I think we should review what we’re doing and figure out what we can afford as well as a lot of review on where we are losing money.
I always find it weird that when the “vérificateur général” comes out with hundreds of millions of dollars missing no one pays any attention but then huge controversies explode for budget changes in education or health for 20 million. Huhhhh, how about we verify the hell out of everything and make sure we don’t waste? It would cover all the controversies and then some.
aj: The answer to your questions would be: none. None of them are ready for it.
I’m with you for the police. Or actually, that our army should be built to help internally and help others internationnaly. We’re pretty much there but while still trying to pay for larger defense goals and we end up affording nothing well.
I looked at GDPs on Wikipedia and they are richer than we are but the spread seems wider to me on services than on GDP although of course that doesn’t tell the whole story and my impression is just that, an impression, not based on much.