Open for Business: Canadian Politics 2019

Elizabeth May stepped down.

be kind of interesting to see where they go from here given that the green party has basically been the elizabeth may party for over a decade

It would be interesting to see them go away

haha, yes that too

Paul Manly was deselected by the ndp for not supporting zionism, I think he'd have much better politics as a leader than May and Weaver:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Manly

Was I not paying enough attention during the election, or is it also news to other people that Simon J-B is basically Stephen Miller? On top of the PEQ/student announcement (which they've "walked back" by pulling the same "this only applies to new people" trick as Bill 21), I fundamentally don't understand this kind of state-mandated intolerance and have basically come round to "I need to get the fuck out of here": https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/english-government-services-quebec-1.5348007

that is madness

Quebec Premier François Legault has laid out who in the province he believes has the right to get their electricity bill in English or be served in English when they renew their driver's licence or health insurance card — only those entitled to English schooling under Quebec's French-language charter.

This seems strange. I can see how it makes sense to apply these criteria to require children to go to school in French so that they will be fluent in the province's dominant language. It is another thing to apply the same criteria to require adults to do all of their business with the government in French, even if they are not already strong in the language. Like the constitutional lawyer quoted in the article, I wonder what problem this is meant to solve.

Wrt PEQ, wasn't the biggest problem that the new rules were going to be applied even when people had already been studying in Quebec with the expectation that they would be eligible? Grandfathering people already in the system seems potentially reasonable, although I don't actually know which disciplines they are going to be favouring, which could make a difference. In principle, though, prioritizing graduates in those fields that are most in demand isn't necessarily as unjust and discriminatory as Bill 21, I don't think?

xp

We're talking about this on Jdt: International student from France is rejected for a CSQ (stepping stone to permanent residency in QC) bc one chapter of her doctoral thesis is in English.

https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/1378665/immigration-quebec-francaise-refusee-chapitre-doctorat-anglais-universite-laval

English story: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50241254

I think I am actually a little gratified that CAQ is also discriminating against white francophones in STEM fields.

I wonder what problem this is meant to solve

This is it exactly, and it's the overall incoherence of their approach that's baffling and alarming to me (made quite plain by the idiocy of the story you just posted).

I thought this was a good summary: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-immigration-peq-legault-1.5350730

Legault defends himself by saying that 90% of people on his FB feed support his program. Maybe the youngs have a point about boomers?: https://www.journaldequebec.com/2019/11/07/reforme-de-limmigration-sans-allies-legault-se-tourne-vers-facebook

as someone who is sympathetic to sub-state nationalism, separatism etc. because i myself am a separatist i just can't get over how petty quebec nationalism can be

This story seems wild - Rachel Notley got kicked out of the AB legislature after refusing to apologize for comments criticizing the govt house leader in the debate over Bill 22 (in which aiui the UCP govt wants to eliminate the position of Election Commissioner while the current occupant of said position in the middle of investigating the UCP???): https://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/mobile/rachel-notley-kicked-out-of-legislative-assembly-1.4692936

“The leader of the opposition knows full well that she can’t make a statement like ‘the government house leader is misleading the house.’ She can apologize and withdraw,” Cooper said.

Why not, exactly?

provincial parliaments, or legislative assemblies, I should say, in Canada are like the UK parliament theyre derived from, it's against parliamentary rules for members to offend the dignity of parliament with their speech which includes insults or accusing another member of lying

Thanks. I forget all the rules sometimes.

Hm: https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-sudden-switch-canada-backs-pro-palestine-un-resolution/

Idk what that would mean in practical terms but it is good to see.

I don't know about the rest of Canada but I'm taken aback by these results insofar as French reading comprehension in Quebec is frankly abysmal (granted, due to a wealth of complex historical factors):

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-canadian-high-students-among-top-performers-in-reading-according-to/

I don't know where you're getting that French reading comprehension is abysmal in Quebec.

I mean, this is totally anecdotal, but I happen to know a bunch of 11-12 years olds (my son's friends) and they all seem to be so much better at reading/writing than people were when I was that age, despite the fact that a significant amount of them have French as their second or third language. I get the feeling that the educational system has improved quite a bit in the last 20-30 years.

For older people, sure. There are definitely people my age and older who made it out high school while just barely being able to read. These tests are taken by today's 15 year olds though.

I went to a 'good' francophone school in Montreal and we learned jack shit in French class. The amount of concessions teachers were willing to make just to get us to read YA fiction or conspicuously simplistic novels was utterly tragic. At the Cégep level teens are taught works of literature that their French (from France) counterparts are asked to read at the age of 12. And by the time you hit university, a disturbing amount of students (including in literature programs) are incapable of picking up on more than just a given work's most obvious meaning. Far too much time is spent just correcting the most basic of linguistic mistakes – and I'm not just talking about FSL here.

The framing of the article is a little suspect. These results are actually a small drop for Canada compared to 2015, both in numerical score (524 to 520) and competitively. (Only Singapore beat us in 2015.) 2xp

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.cmec.ca/Publications/Lists/Publications/Attachments/365/PISA2015-CdnReport-EN.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwj3jJ_l1ZnmAhVHq1kKHccFBD8QFjAKegQIBhAC&usg=AOvVaw2xPbM03k4kkEdXOnYCHaQ0&cshid=1575382753353

(Young Québecois are killing illiteracy, clearly.)

The sole logically consistent QED, of course.

High school teachers and elementary school staff in Ottawa striking tomorrow. Issues such as class size, mandatory e-learning (?), and high-need student services seem to be on the table in addition to wages : https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/osstf-announcement-harvey-bischof-1.5377227
https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/ottawa-parents-scramble-for-childcare-as-clock-ticks-toward-school-strike-on-wednesday

*in ONTARIO, not just Ottawa; typo

Something something secularism: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/catholic-quebec-california-françois-legault-gavin-newsom-1.5393170

Reading international news, I keep marvelling at how the French can get 800,000 people on the streets and shut down Paris over (afaict fairly generous?) pensions and we can barely get a few thousand to protest Ford attacking core services for the vulnerable after getting elected on no platform.

starting to think we actually should break up Canada into several smaller countries tbh

canada too large

We'd still take after our neighbours, who make similar excuses for their quietism.

The Legault link didn't work so here it is.

(No, Simon, that's what they want you think!) xp

Ugh, what a two-faced piece of shit. I guess it's consistent with his logic according to which all muslims are unassimilable foreigners.

Tbf it's important to point out that much of this jingoistic, neo-theistic authoritarianism is cheered on by a genuine majority that is deathly afraid of heterogeneity and actively wishes to restore a premodern hierarchical model. If anything, this has historically been the norm, so we may have gotten used to a small miracle that is slowly coming to an end (or so I tell myself in my more pessimistic moments).

I'm not inclined towards pessimism or defeatism generally and I know it's not useful but the notion of a robust left program that even the slightest majority of the voting public of this country could get behind just seems like such a distant dream at the moment. I try to remember that tremendous change can and does occur very quickly but it's fuckin dispiriting man!

On the other hand, Quebec's social model is fairly solid when compared to those of most Western countries (tax rates are already quite high, even when set against France). It's just that we could do so much better and the push at the moment appears to be towards the exact opposite: hoarding by and for the few.

Scheer resigns

holy shit

Well hot damn. Let's see if they can get a proper terrible populist in.

Can't tell whether this is a good or a bad thing. Leaning towards bad.

same tbh

Guess he's gonna run for President instead

I'm cool with that.

I haven't been following Conservative party discourse, has this been brewing for some time or is this some excuse they just pulled out of a hat?

BREAKING: Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer is resigning after sources tell Global News he used Conservative Party money to pay for the private-school education of his children #cdnpoli https://t.co/OOWQDsVy4y

— Amanda Connolly (@amandacconn) December 12, 2019

Global News has learned that Scheer is resigning after it was revealed he had been using Conservative Party money to pay for his children's private school education. #cdnpoli #CPC

— Mercedes Stephenson (@MercedesGlobal) December 12, 2019

if he'd become PM, would this have been a genuine scandal for more than a week? I can't tell anymore.

Probably not. It comes across as a lame pretext to me.

I'm trying to think of something interesting to say, but I don't really know enough about the conservative party and have no idea in which direction they are heading. I feel like it could go either way (either doubling down on populism or trying to distance themselves from it). I'm guessing the main objective of the party for the next election is gaining votes in Ontario but I don't know what the best approach is for that.

I can't imagine them going less populist from here unless they're total morons (I know, I know)