My concern is not so much with Ms. Turmel's former membership in the Bloc as her current membership in Quebec Solidaire.
Apart from the fact the Leader of the NDP remains a member of a separatist party (that concerns me) is the type of separatist party. Quebec Solidaire is a very far left group -- the sort that organizes boycott rallies outside shoe stores selling Israeli sandals. The idea of an evolved NDP as plausible government in waiting does not sit well with Quebec Solidaire.
4 comments:
What provincial party should one join in Quebec if one's politics are to the left of the Quebec Liberals, led by former Progressive Conservative leader Jean Charest?
Morton, I agree with you on Quebec Solidaire. The boycott... sometimes they act like socialists from an Ayn Rand novel.
You are quite right --- her Quebec Solidaire affiliation is more telling than the Bloc membership. For a Quebec labour leader to belong to the Bloc is about as shocking as her Ontario counterpart being a New Democrat. It comes with the territory.
But Quebec Solidaire is a small but not negligeable party which attracts committed socialist idealists, and doesn't make many compromises. Liberals, though, should be relieved that the NDP is not galloping too assertively into centre field.
I'm not so sure a boycott of stores selling Israeli sandals is unreasonable. Like many others, I am concerned for the health and welfare of the people living in Gaza, and can see no good coming out of the ongoing blockade.
With respect to Ms Turmel's political leanings, as another commentator pointed out, the only left-wing alternative in Quebec has long been one or another separatist party. The right has successfully politicized federalism, but that era is now over.
And so what do we say to former separatists? Do we say they have no role to play in the Canadian federation, that they must be outcasts for life? That is the best way to ensure that separatists remain separatists. There has to be a life after separatism, and it is not surprising that it is Layton, and not partisan politicians of the right, who extends the hand of friendship, even at cost to himself and his party.
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