Sigh . . . Oh, Quebec . . . Sometimes I wonder just how dumb the politicians think we citizens are . . .
You gotta know the Quebec Liberals are desperate when they side with former Parti Québécois (separatist) leader Jacques Parizeau, who has written a column saying he’s worried about Quebec’s economic future, and that we are all living beyond our means.
Gee, ya think? But why do the Liberals feel they have to ride piggyback on Mr. Parizeau to take pot shots at the PQ? Couldn’t they have come up with their own financial-ceiling-is-falling line of thought, like the CAQ did?
Sorry, I don’t buy the Liberal line. Sure, the financial situation is weak in Quebec. But to blame it on the PQ after nine years of Liberal rule?
Hahahaha!
Surely they must have known how the PQ would respond, yes? I mean . . .
Jean-Francois Lisée, the international relations minister, blames nine years of Quebec Liberal misrule for the province’s economic situation. “They dismantled fiscal credits for innovation that put us behind,” Lisée says. “They let corruption go rampant and hike our costs for infrastructure. They dismantled Investment Quebec…whose work it was to bring foreign investment to Quebec.”
As for Mr. Parizeau, Gazette columnist Don Macpherson has this to say:
The 83-year-old Parizeau, who has broken with current PQ leader Pauline Marois over her passivity on sovereignty and has recently supported the rival sovereignist fringe party Option nationale, was up to his old tricks again on Monday.
Oy . . . such tangled webs these politicians weave. Meanwhile, we taxpayers pay through the nose and get deeper in debt, no matter which political party rules.
Yes, Jacques Parizeau is right when he says the province needs some shock therapy to make things better. But to expect the PQ — or anyone else — to do it in short order is a pipedream. Capitalism is imploding around the world. No one political party is going to fix it.
But, hey, if we’re going to dream . . . how about all the creditors writing off all the debt, and letting us all start over again with clean balance sheets? Cause it’s only numbers on paper, right? Wouldn’t that be the patriotic thing to do? Wouldn’t that be the brotherly love approach? Why should so many people suffer while so few profit, especially while the few profiting are already living high on the hog? (But I digress, revolutionary that I am.)
Yes, you may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one, apparently . . .
With love to John Lennon . . .
– Jillian
Write to: jillian.page.blog@gmail.com
Also at: http://www.montrealgazette.com/turningthepage
On Twitter: @JillianPage1
Jillian Page 
I am not qualified to comment on Québécois politics, but I think the world over the politicians think we citizens are dumb. We had 13 years of the Labour Party (centre-left) getting us into huge debt (something if a theme emerging here?) who seem to think we’ll have forgotten all that and elect them again next year so they can spend some more. Meanwhile we have the Conservative / Liberal Democrat coalition (centre-right) apparently unable to anything about a substantial amount of England and Wales (mostly in the south and south-west) being flooded. They might actually start to do something now that London and the south-east is also getting wetter than it wants to be. In the meantime we citizens know all too well that the politicians are mealy-mouthed and will say anything if they think it might get their noses in the trough for the next term. The only good thing to be said about democracy is that it is better than any of the alternatives that have come up so far. We elect our dictators based on promises they do not intend to keep. But at least we get a chance to have a new set of fools every election. And I freely confess to being a cynic with respect to all things political.
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