Gilles Duceppe’s Brilliant Move–Most Completely Miss The Ball, Including Andre Pratte, It Appears

Indeed he did, last night. As if writing for La Presse wasn’t enough, he needed to further poison the rest of Canada against the Bloc Quebecois in the Grope & Fail. As usual, like the other right wingnut faction, they miss the ball or don’t even attempt to think of  Gilles Duceppe’s recent 5 billion demands of Stevie Spiteful in exchange for perhaps floating that upcoming fateful budget.  Pratte, who, along with Lucien Bouchard, did endorse the Quebec chapter of the Tea-baggers who boast such misfits of Blogging SupposiTory Dr. Jabba the Roy and that environment hating, Eric Duhaime; the Reseau Liberte du Quebec-Quebec Freedom Network. So, boys ‘n’ girls, let’s remember where his latest column is coming from. Pratte, at least concedes that the Feds do owe us something after twenty years of having harmonized our sales taxes.  Ontario and BC got their HST money from the Feds, I understand.   Be that as it may, most folks in the rest of Canada, and not just Harpercon cheerleaders–many who call themselves progressives too, I’ve noticed from various comment boards–would begrudge us even that. But I digress.

Pratte goes on with the usual tripe about Gilles Duceppe, demanding ‘more than his fair share’ for Quebec. Yadda! Yadda! Yadda! How often have we heard this?

They miss the point.

Has it crossed anyone’s head that perhaps Gilles Duceppe doesn’t want this 5 billion dollars he’s demanding of Stevie Spiteful?  I strongly believe that demand was a stroke of genious on his part. Stevie Spiteful was the one who keeps singing that “We don’t want to go to an election!” Or “Canadians don’t want an election!”  Or “The opposition is sending us to an election nobody wants while we, Conservatives want to govern!” Duceppe, in demanding 5 billion dollars in the form of an ultimatum, basically called Stevie’s bluff.  If Stevie Spiteful really wanted to govern, he’d be sitting and discussing with all the opposition leaders-not just Jack Layton.  Not likely these leaders would get all or even most of their demands but some compromises would be made. Stevie Spiteful, time and again, has proven, doesn’t want this government to work and he only thinks a majority can work. Remember, the only way for Canada to function is in that neo-con utopic vision of his to be realized.  He’s close to it now, judging by recent polling numbers.  I seriously doubt that even the NDP will get any scraps for their trouble.

I think this suits Gilles Duceppe just fine.  Besides Stevie Spiteful, Gilles Duceppe benefits from going to an election sooner rather than later, thus, can most afford to call Stevie Spiteful’s “I don’t want an election” bluff. I have explained why before and will explain again.  At this time, the polling numbers for the Bloc show they have a commanding lead over the rest of them in La Belle Province.  This is likely to remain the case–for the short term–as long as Gilles Duceppe is their leader.  That may not be the case for too much longer.  Pauline “La” Marois, leader of the Parti-Quebecois has her leadership review come April 15–76% is the magic number. She’s not likely to get it, thus,  a PQ leadership convention to follow.  Two names being touted are PQ MNAs, Bernard Drainville and Pierre Curzi and of course, the possibility of Gilles Duceppe stepping down as leader of the Bloc Quebecois to throw his hat into the leadership ring.  Duceppe would quite possibly be the favourite out of the three.

For the above reasons, a leader would have to be sought for the Bloc. As Jean Lapierre had once mentioned on Question Period,  the Bloc  without Gilles Duceppe, Quebec would become “open season” for all parties in any federal election.  It has been proven in the past. When Lucien Bouchard left the Bloc to lead the Parti-Quebecois, they didn’t fare as well, until Gilles Duceppe took over.

I would go so far as to say that if Stevie Spiteful actually gave Duceppe the 5 billion dollars, that would send him scrambling and a worryin’–  the last thing he would want is that 5 billion.  It would, for openers, kind of bind him to float Stevie’s budget. That would not be good for him politically. In the past, when Duceppe floated a Harpercon budget, the Bloc’s numbers would go down. The same thing happened recently when it looked like the Feds would kick in something for that Quebec City arena; you remember, shortly after those Harpercon MPs were photographed sporting those old Nordique jerseys. In fact, Duceppe’s numbers dipped to the benefit of the Harpercons, not the Liberals or the NDP.

Furthermore, Stevie Spiteful handing Quebec that 5 billion Duceppe is demanding would certainly put a kibbosh in Duceppe’s tireless efforts to resurrect sovereignty.

Another thing to remember is, that for Gilles Duceppe, a Harpercon majority would probably be the ‘winning conditions’ for the ‘yes’ side to win in a referendum on sovereignty.

Another interesting thing for a right leaning columnist to bring up–to undermine Duceppe’s lead in Quebec, he brings up the fact that about 57% of Quebecers would vote for federalist parties after combining recent Leger Marketing polling numbers for the Harpercons, Liberals and the NDP.  Fair enough. I wonder how many Harpercon cheerleading readers in and out of Quebec will swallow it? Probably quite a few, given their hatred toward the Bloc. Ok, then, fine. I wonder if they’ll remember that very same argument before the next time they spew how the majority of Canadians voted for the Harpercons in 2008?  I would love to hear how they spin how that would be different.