IntenseDebate - Olivier

14 years ago @ Macleans.ca - It’s the investment ... · 0 replies · +3 points

Charest is many things, many of them bad, but he certainly isn't stupid.

He wholly applauded the whole thing and immediately said his gov. implication was conditional to the feds equivalent implication. Equivalent meaning a percentage of the total cost, not just some cash amount (in case there are, y'know, "unforseen expenses").

Charest, who currently is in the dumpsters and need any kind of good will possible, knows full well the feds, at worst, won't oblige and, at best, will oblige. Either way, he is out of the way and has the early adopter benefit (with Labeaume) of blaming it all on the feds if it goes wrong and getting a large pie of goodwill if it works.

He basically threw harper under the bus on this one by jumping the gun. Dude knows how that kind of stuff works. As I wrote about Bellemare, if you want to play with Charest, you better be good at faustian deals.

14 years ago @ Macleans.ca - Long live the Nordique... · 0 replies · +3 points

Yes. As Pat Lagacé said over at La Presse, we now wait with baited breath for his next courageous assault on such shameful antics in an inspired speech in Calgary.

Seriously tough: the whole thing is happening in his backyard, it's contrary to anything he ever stood for and he's nowhere to be seen. Those people calling him a coward for that Calgary speech? That's what they were talking about.

14 years ago @ Macleans.ca - Long live the Nordique... · 0 replies · +2 points

Actually, that's the beauty of it: they really are pitching it as a build it and they will come. More precisely, build it and the Nordiques *and the olympics* will come.

Man, is Labeaume having a blast out of this whole mess. Both Charest and Harper are currently in a loose loose situation, even tough Charest's lob toward Harper was a good way of managing an exit route.

But Labeaume? If it doesn't come to happen, it's the feds / prov fault, if it works, it's because of Labeaume's relentless commitment.

He is good.

14 years ago @ Macleans.ca - The Righties are comin... · 0 replies · +2 points

You mean like the The Gazette columnists? Those from La Presse, Le Droit, Le Soleil and other Gesca? Like Nataly Elgaby and Facal and JJ Samson and whoesle from le Journal de Montréal / de Québec?

Seriously, Marcotte is out to lunch. Not ignorant, mind you: off the rails, in denial, the works. Her critics basically apply to two media entities: Radio-Canada and Le Devoir. That's it. Other than those two (and Rad-Can aren't exactly the most obnoxious or intellectually dishonest and nobody reads Le Devoir), who would you say Marcotte's description apply to?

14 years ago @ Macleans.ca - Bastarache, day one: h... · 0 replies · +2 points

What doesn't square is that, at the end of the day, his main attack on the Premier is about a crime without witnesses. Good luck with that (and the 39 pro-charest guys [with assorted lawyers] lining up to testify).

Your two points that "don't square" are actually probably very telling of the whole ordeal: flashbulbs and politics loving lawyer with a few causes (No-fault, reform of administrative courts) gets elected for established party who just made said causes into electoral platform planks. Dude gets onto it, realize he doesn't have that much power and has to obey a bunch of dudes he's rather brush off. But he keeps his eyes on the ball, swallows it all. When it becomes apparent he won't see those reforms, he bolts, hoping to money his good soldiering in a bid for his home city's mayorality. Actually gets two shots at it, takes a beating both times.

The guy sucks at faustian bargain. You'll find a bunch of guys like him in the wake of any successful politician... What's unusual is when said politician mounts an inquiry about it...

14 years ago @ Macleans.ca - Bastarache, day one: h... · 0 replies · +2 points

Well, Bellemare isn't exactly seen as a noble whistleblower, that's for sure.

That being said, I'll be blunt: basing one's understanding of the current political mood(s) in Quebec on the Gazoo's editorials isn't a very good idea. On politics, I'd say they are more often than else completely out of whack with the mainstream. Doesn't mean they are wrong, mind you. And their political reporting is, as far as I can tell, pretty darn good.

14 years ago @ Macleans.ca - There's probably a fac... · 0 replies · +2 points

The internet is an awesome thing.

Thank you, Al Gore!

14 years ago @ Macleans.ca - How can a Bloc MP take... · 0 replies · +1 points

It doesn't matter.

Separatists are bad.

14 years ago @ Macleans.ca - The slow march to inde... · 0 replies · +2 points

Jesus man, have you looked at the polls over the, err, last year or so?

If that's what you call "nowhere fast", I bet you a pint of your favourite beer Charest would love to go there even faster.

Doesn't mean the PQ has a clue, mind you.

14 years ago @ Macleans.ca - More bureaucrats please! · 1 reply · +1 points

The trick for the Greens is to pull a Muclair without having their leader poached by the PQ, I guess :).

But if the Greens are, indeed, federalists, then that shut them out of Mercier, don't you think? And, more broadly, it cuts them away from a large chunk of the franco progressive vote, which makes them ineffective ball carriers for the english speaking communities. Which, in turn, pretty much means the anglos are stuck with the Liberals.

Unless there is a shift in the political debate, that is.

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