2011-02-21

Quebec Blog

Coalition pour L'avenir du Quebec (Coalition for the future of Quebec) up and running.

Always good to see the population engaged. Therefore, ergo, hence, it gets a plug here.

8 comments:

  1. Sorry, those guys are to the right of Deltel and Harper. No vote for them from leftist me.
    They could join the Wild Rose though.

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  2. Yeah well, you know what Paul?, it's soooo dirty and messy right now out there, their outlook makes a hell of sense to many.

    It's not a left-right, English-French thing. It's calling it what it is.

    Are you impressed with Tremblay (our property taxes in Montreal are so high now we may as well sell those suckets) and Charest; a lawyer who can't lead on the lawyer problem?

    And don't get me going on the disaster freight train known as public health. It's not normal for all the taxes we pay our wait times are through the roof and we have the lowest percentage of medical equipment per capita in the OECD.

    Est-ce que les gens ce rend contre? At least these guys are trying to spark debate because the current situation is unacceptable.

    I'm a dynamic member of this society and I DEMAND more transparency and accountability. How we achieve this is up to us but I'm not going to accept it.

    I don't see ANYONE on the left side offering solutions - just maintaining the status quo which is simply A) not feasible anymore and B) not resonating with people fed up of seeing their tax money going to waste C) that makes it very difficult for enterprising minds like me to make it.

    Try and go out and talk to business people. Not the big shots. The small entrepreneurs. See how much they're sinking in needless red tape and taxes. Go ahead. C'est l'enfer mon ami.

    We live in a society where bus drivers and SAQ workers earn more per hour than crown prosecutors and day care workers. That's not normal to me one bit.

    In daycare, it's patently laughable how the government runs things financially and with their paternalistic regulations that crush innovation and blow cost structures.

    It's tough.

    My daycare will be one of a kind not because of the government's "regulations" but because of MY VALUES.

    But we distrust business so much we feel we need to "watch" over them.

    Then they wonder why there's a huge black market for every decision they take. It seems like Prohibition, War on Drugs, and places like Italy and France (where the black market is something like 35% of GDP) haven't taught us enough lessons.

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  3. And notice I don't attack the public sector because it's not about that. I don't see the purpose in playing that game. It's about letting society move about with less paternalism. Put some trust back into the people.

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  4. I agree that the whole thing needs discussion and some parts of the system need overhauling but the Wisconsin way, that is basically what the coalition is advocating, is not the solution.
    When, in my managing days, I could sit down with the staff and work out some modifications respecting the union contract...but slightly out of it, we always managed to lower costs without laying off anyone and getting more done.
    Even with government apparatchicks just plain horse sense at times prevailed.
    No use antagonizing people and going in there with a chip on your shoulder. Trust is a matter of listening, understanding and coming to reasonable compromises.
    Unfortunately we have come to a state of things that make this almost impossible. I'm worried and I don't think the solution is in throwing the baby out with the bath water.

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  5. I don't know enough of the Wisconsin details to confidently comment, but it sounds as though, at the very least, that budget needs to be balanced.

    As for here, there's no doubt the unions have way too much power. We have to seriously rethink our cost structure and how we manage money. I don't think it's fair to take it out on the workers in the public sector but the ones controlling the purse strings and portfolios need to do better; and that includes voters. Maybe we need to be more realistic.

    That being said, I wholeheartedly agree antagonizing is not the solution. Concessions will have to be made on both sides; what they entail one can only hope the powers that be come up with one.

    As a side note, my friend is in labour negotiations with the union with his company. The union wants the company to PAY THEM to negotiate.

    Funny.

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  6. Dear TC:

    The Gov of Wisconsin is hood-winking his people with his-made-up budget crisis. As I understand it, the former Governor, left them with a surplus. Mother Jones has an article The following clip summarizes the so-called crisis. Americans are in the midst of their own revolution. They have been manipulated, lied to and stolen from since Reagan. I think that Wisconsin is the tip of the ice-berg.
    http://vodpod.com/watch/5614872-wisconsins-fake-budget-crisis-gov-scott-walker-scamming-workers-to-reward-the-rich

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  7. Regarding the new Coalition in Quebec: Charest tried this with his 're-engineering of Quebec' 10 years ago. It fell-through, because he didn't have the political courage to do it. The Liberals have no clear vision and the PQ are all unilingual, navel gazing socialists holding on to the Quebec Utopia. Watch the movie Les Invasions Barbares. The main characters in the film are basically the PQ base. Their days are numbered

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  8. What no connection to Wisconsin?

    Oh wait...

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Mysterious and anonymous comments as well as those laced with cyanide and ad hominen attacks will be deleted. Thank you for your attention, chumps.