Showing posts with label Bloc NDP. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bloc NDP. Show all posts

08 November 2011

Bloc NDP wants more seats for Quebec

So apparently three’s not enough for the Bloc NDP, at least when it comes to adding seats in the House of Commons.

The humorously titled democratic reform critic David Christopherson is quoted in the Globe and Mail:

The NDP is demanding Stephen Harper respect his own 2006 motion that recognized Quebeckers as a nation within a united Canada by changing its new bill to give the province more than three seats in an expanded Commons.

“That motion meant something. It was meant to mean something to the people of Quebec,” Opposition democratic-reform critic David Christopherson told The Globe recently. “But it will only mean something if they see that the House is respecting the spirit of what that was.

Seats in the House of Commons should be apportioned according to population across the country.  That would be democratic. 

Rather than do that, the Bloc NDP wants to give one province an entirely artificial share of the seats in the lower chamber of parliament.  That’s decidedly undemocratic.

It’s also unsurprising, given that the party is now dominated by Quebec sovereignists.

Wonder how the Newfoundland sovereignists are going to explain their party’s stance on giving more power to Quebec.

Anyone heard from Ryan Cleary on this lately?

- srbp -

05 August 2011

Bloc Quebecois not separatist party: NL NDP leader

You read that correctly.

Newfoundland and Labrador NDP leader Lorraine Michael is quoted by VOCM making the argument that the Bloc Quebecois is not a separatist party:

On VOCM's Backtalk with Paddy Daly Thursday, Michael also said that, according to former Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe, the Bloc has been about securing a better deal for Québec from the federal government, not about separatism. Michael compared Turmel's past actions to people who have fought politically for this province: it's like saying someone who goes to Ottawa to fight for Newfoundland is a separatist.

Lorraine is out of touch with reality.

Either that or she is so desperate for any political success in her last election as NDP leader in Newfoundland and Labrador that she will say anything, no matter how preposterous it might be.

- srbp -

03 August 2011

When bullshit fails…

try more bullshit.

Well, that’s apparently the latest tactic the Bloc NDP are trying to deploy in an effort to distract attention from the fact that Jack Layton’s handpicked successor was a card-carrying member of the separatist Bloc Quebecois until January when she left the party to run for the NDP.

I didn’t inhale, Turmel says, of separatism, contending she is and always has been a federalist.

No one outside the troubled Bloc NDP bought that line.

So now they tried another one:  Turmel will cut all ties to separatists.  As the Globe quotes:

“I am a federalist,” the rookie MP and Interim Leader of the Official Opposition said in an interview. “I want to reassure people about my allegiance to the NDP, my allegiance to Canadians, and reassure them that we are getting ready for the fall sitting of Parliament to work on their behalf.”

Turmel, who has been an NDP member since 1991; also claims that she joined the Bloc in 2006 because she liked their anti-scab agenda.  She didn’t support separatism, she says.

At this point you can see this story is not going to get any better.

At worst, Turmel is a liar.

But at best, you have to believe that the woman who ran the Public Service Alliance of Canada, has been active politically for more than a couple of decades and who now leads the Bloc NDP was so politically stupid – naive isn’t strong enough a word – that she felt she had to join the Bloc in 2006 because she liked one of their policies.

Beggars the old imagination, doesn’t it?

This is the latest variation in the story of Turmel and her membership in a separatist party. The fact that it is the latest variation in the story should be a clue that what you are getting from the Bloc NDP and its leader is bullshit.

A simple story requires only one variation:  the truth.  When politicians start adding all these sorts of rationalizations or childish claims, they just make their own problem worse.  if nothing else, this sort of stuff smacks of political arrogance:  Turmel and her handlers apparently feel they can bullshit Canadians and that voters will just accept whatever codswallop they spit out.

Time will tell if that’s true.

It hasn’t been a very successful political strategy for others.

And given that the Bloc NDP has more than a few sovereignists in its caucus  - apparently - and an agenda that sovereignists like, odds are it won’t work in this case either.

The fractures are there. 

Once Jack departs the leadership, as it seems he inevitably will, don’t expect the paper Nycole and her supporters have slapped on them to hold for very long.

- srbp -

02 August 2011

BlocHead - Dipper Watch

Bloc NDP leader Nycole Turmel is supposed to be in St. John’s on Wednesday for the annual regatta.

Local Dippers will be out in force.  As local president Dale Kirby tweeted on Tuesday:

Will be at Royal St. John's Regatta tomorrow with Interim #NDP leader Nycole Turmel, @lorrainemichael, our MPs, & #NLNDPcandidates #nlpoli

Members of parliament will include Ryan Cleary.  Mainland readers of these e-scribbles and those following the Bloc NDP leader will find that an interesting photo op.

Maybe Cleary can offer his new leader some tips on how to answer questions about supporting separatism.

Or maybe the pair have more in common than either of them care to admit.

Anyway, they both have some explaining to do.

And if that doesn’t work, ask Turmel and local party leader Lorraine Michael to discuss the merits of a loan guarantee for Muskrat Falls.

Michael supports the plan to double the public debt and saddle local taxpayers with skyrocketing electricity prices.

Michael just doesn’t seem to want to answer any questions about why she thinks that’s a good idea, though

- srbp -

06 June 2011

Unite the Left

Some members of the Bloc NDP think the party needs to take a turn to the left in order to capitalise on the gains from May’s general election.

As the Globe and Mail reports:

Its wish list of convention resolutions include calls to close “the Alberta Tar Sands,” legalize marijuana, boycott “apartheid Israel,” nationalize the auto, bank and insurance companies and repeal the Clarity Act.

The chair of the socialist caucus, Barry Weisleder, says they’ve succeeded in getting some of the resolutions endorsed by riding associations and youth clubs.

Interesting thought.

On the right, the federal Conservatives are the result of first a marriage of the ideological and non-ideological bits of what people regarded as the political right wing.  as they got closer to power and especially after Stephen Harper became prime minister, the Connies have gradually repressed the more staunchly right-wing elements within the party.

Meanwhile over on the left, the New Democrats united with the other left wing party – the Bloc – and became the official opposition. Now they’ll basically face the same sort of question the Conservatives already addressed.  There’s no guarantee how they’ll answer it nor is there a correct answer.

But now that the left in Canada is politically more united than it was a few months ago, Jack Layton and his gang will have to finally come to terms with the fundamental question.

Do they head toward the centre, as other successful left-wing parties have done, or will they continue to embrace their ideological base and potentially kiss power good bye?

Put another way:  Is Jack Layton going to emulate Tony Blair or Michael Foot?

- srbp -

23 May 2011

Meet your newest frankenparty: the Bloc NDP

An assessment in the Globe and Mail of the political parties and their voter profiles concluded that:

the NDP constituency has gone from being overwhelmingly English speaking and more diverse than the national average to mostly French-speaking and less multicultural.

Sounds like calling it the Bloc NDP would be a good name for Canada’s newest frankenparty.

- srbp -