martin14 martin14:
Please, convince me about this idea of the QC mainstream.
I haven't been in QC for 20 years, but for me, any discussion of immigration
or cultural identity brings me right back to the 50% 1995 referendum.
I don't think that much has changed, except maybe there are more allophones in Montreal.
He opposes Bill 101. That, right there, puts him offside with the vast majority of Quebecers. Even Stéphane Dion, who first became famous as Quebec's "national rat" for raking separatism over the coals and ripping into Lucien Bouchard and Jacques Parizeau's plans for secession, supported Bill 101.
Bernier's views on supply management and subsidies are also offside with Quebecers. And while I'm less than thrilled with the amount of money sunk into Bombardier over the years, I don't entirely feel right complaining about it when the oil and gas industry gets its own subsidies through incentives, tax breaks, etc.
Thanos Thanos:
Don't know about that. Ethnic-identity and anti-immigrant thinking seems stronger in Quebec than anywhere else in the country. Now it seems to be shifting right instead of still belonging to the Marxist Quebec left that owned it for decades. Bernier could be in a prime position to set up a revived alt-right version of the Bloc Quebecois that belongs to neither the federal Liberals or Conservatives.
Quebec does seem like it has more ethnic identity issues than the rest of Canada...except not really. The
National Post Global News both reported on the number of people in the ROC that had their own hangups about religious symbols in the public sphere.
Le Devoir also reported the number of prominent separatists who opposed the Charter of Values...and of course the voters told Pauline Marois where she could shove the Charter in the 2014 election.
And these issues have cropped up elsewhere in Canada. It's not like Quebec is that big an outlier.
CDN_PATRIOT CDN_PATRIOT:
When the Conservative leadership convention happened, I voted for Maxime Bernier as my first choice. Andrew Scheer was my third choice. If Bernier had been elected as the Conservative leader, the 2019 election would almost be guaranteed.
Everything I have seen from Andrew Scheer shows me that he is Trudeau-lite, and not willing to stand for much at all.
I have not renewed my party membership, as I feel Scheer is turning the party against the grassroots and common people that made the Conservative party what it is.
We're all doomed....
-J.
If Bernier was elected Conservative leader, the 2019 election would almost be guaranteed, all right...
...guaranteed for the Liberals.
Here's the thing. Rob Ford was one of the best retail politicians Canada's ever seen. Bernier is probably one of the worst retail politicians we've seen since Michael Ignatieff. He does have some worthwhile points about cultural assimilation and how diversity should work...but he phrases them in a way that allows the left to revive all the same talking points they used against the Reform Alliance 25 years ago. The Conservatives returned to power in 2006 in part because of the work they did to court ethnic voters and candidates, and at one point they had the most colourful caucus in Parliament. His comments about Trudeau's tariffs aren't impressive either, given that Donald Trump is the one that started the whole damn fight in the first place. What are we supposed to do, just bend over and take it without reacting?
And look how prominent Conservatives ranging from
Stephen Harper to Doug Ford to Jason Kenney are all ripping into Mad Max for his stupidity. These guys all know something about winning elections and building broader coalitions-and Kenney is currently dealing with his own version of Bernier in Derek Fildebrandt, whose judgement is even worse than Bernier's.
Guys like Bernier and Fildebrandt can muster a band of fiercely devoted followers, but those followers aren't enough to win an election by themselves. Guys like Harper and Kenney understand this.
Forum Elite 
