Gilles Duceppe: Just Another Pawn in Steve’s Culture War? Or Could Duceppe Really be More Dangerous to Him Down The Road?

After reading a  post from Cathie in Canada, where she was recently polled over the phone by Harris-Decima about whether or not she would support opposition MPs signing an oath of confidentiality, which, while underhanded, may or may not fall under Milliken’s rule, depending how you view that (remember, he did provide a way out for Steve that many seem to overlook; that while Steve must produce the documents to opposition, he also said that it must not infringe upon ‘national security’; as usual, that is always subject to interpretation). She was also asked specifically, since it is believed the Bloc Quebecois should not sign a confidentiality oath, thus should not even view the documents. As Cathie pointed out, that question certainly did smack of  pitting ‘disloyal’ Canadians against ‘Loyal Canadians’. Yes, perhaps it does.  The rest of Canada, particularly the west already have growing hostilities (more from the right, and center, but I also expect some western progressives as well) toward Quebec. Albertans are of the mistaken belief that they and they alone are supporting our social programs; hell, even Beauceron  Ex-Lax Max is touting that talking point (QC Liberal finance minister, Raymond Bachand had him for lunch, but…again, truth and facts aren’t always as important as the kool-aid being served).  Many would like to see bilingualism gone, let alone multi-culturalism.

Cathie, as well as Pogge, have both observed that Harris -Decima, with not only the questions they asked Cathie themselves, but also the way these questions were worded, that someone better question Allan Gregg about his partisanship for the Harpercons. In addition, someone should ask who commissioned this particular poll.  Of course, we know that will never happen.  But, I think most of us know, even those on the right would be ga-ga-giddy over that, and as usual, they would spin it in their favour to Canadians as to why it is ok for Allan Gregg to be involved with partisan polling, but not Frank Graves, or something along those lines. That would remain to be seen.

Logically, as Jack Layton pointed out so astutely to Craig Oliver on Question Period yesterday, of course the Bloc should have the opportunity to see those documents as they were voted into parliament by tens of thousands of Quebecers to represent their interests in Ottawa.  As long as we’re still in Canada, we are paying federal taxes, same as everybody else. But, these are far from ordinary times.

Yes, this would be a classic Brother Steve game move, for not only his game of Divide and Conquer, but also, perhaps, to further alienate Quebec from the ROC? This brings me to my next question: what if this went beyond Steve’s wedgie games?

We know that Duceppe is actively travelling all over creation to promote Quebec Sovereignty. He had pointed out recently how a sovereign Quebec would be actually better for the ROC, which led many pundits, bloggers and other observers to wonder if Duceppe was deliberately trying to get Quebec thrown out of Canada rather than have another provincial referendum. Frankly, this strategy wouldn’t be so off the wall. It would certainly further stir up anger in French Quebecers who may be considered ‘soft’ nationalists or still on the fence over sovereignty. It would certainly get almost all of Quebec more enthused over sovereignty. So, would Brother Steve be planning on booting out Quebec from Canada? How hard could that be, given we never signed the constitution.  If that is indeed Steve’s plan, then it would make sense for him to not even want Gilles Duceppe signed on to some confidentiality oath if Quebec becomes sovereign, one way or another.

With potential sovereignty in mind,  perhaps Steve would be afraid that perhaps a confidentiality oath would only be valid as long as Quebec was still in Canada; that if Quebec separated, would all bets be off and he started singing about them? Or,  would  he find some anonymous schmuck to leak at least some of what would be revealed to him to separatist media in  and around Montreal long before any move on sovereignty would be made to further promote the cause?  Not to mention, more than likely,  that would be one of the fastest ways of getting the detainee issues to the international community where Steve is terrified of having this played out.

For Steve, it is obvious to me that yes, he is playing his favourite game of divide and conquer; no question.  If he were truly afraid of the above scenarios, all he would have to do is have the confidentiality oath extend to a potential sovereign Quebec, even though, I think it would be a safe bet that Duceppe would probably never agree to such a stipulation.

So, Steve’s ongoing culture wars or concerns for a potential  sovereign Quebec?