As we all know Erin O'Toole is growing more and more desperate. His newser this morning was a horror show.
He's lying like a thief, his polls are tanking, his party is out of control. Nobody listens to him anymore.
But no matter how desperate he is, nothing can excuse this.
O'Toole is now claiming that French is declining in Quebec, and that only his Cons can save it.
Which coming from the leader of a party full of anti-Quebec bigots might be hilarious, if it wasn't so fraudulent, and verging on treasonous.
For let's be clear. While the number of people speaking French at home has declined by a few percentage points on the island of Montreal, more people are speaking French in the province today than at any time since the red coats conquered Quebec back in 1759.
Most French-speaking Quebecers are proud and confident about the present and future of their beautiful language, as is my companion Sébastien.
And the only ones claiming that French is endangered are the shrunken separatists of the PQ and the Bloc, the far-right anti-English bigots at the Journal de Montreal, who O'Toole panders to all the time.
And of course the bitter old fogeys who still claim they remember when "the fat lady at Eatons" allegedly told them to "speak white."
So while the French language does need to be protected, and I will always support that, O'Toole's claims are totally overblown.
And the only reason he is making those claims is because he is hoping to poach some votes from the Bloc Québécois. Good luck with that one.
And because he feels threatened by the growing detente between Justin Trudeau and François Legault.
If their new friendliness is a sign of rapprochement between the two leaders, that should make the Conservatives and the Bloc Québécois a little nervous.
It's the sort of the thing that can only help the federal Liberals in Quebec. Legault remains one of the most popular politicians in the province and his Coalition Avenir Québec party appears well-placed to remain in power for some time to come.
If it was only Erin O'Toole playing cheap politics again, it would just be pathetic.
But what makes it even worse is that he is helping to stir up hatred against anglo Quebecers, and pouring fuel on the embers of an ugly revanchist separatism.
Yes Captain Outhouse is a dud, as even some of his one-time strongest supporters now admit, like Lorne "Grunter" Gunter from the crappy Sun.
But O'Toole is a dangerous dud.
For he is playing with matches in a troubled time.
And unless he is stopped, or muted, his grubby ambition could help rip this country apart...
19 comments:
The Bloc, Conservatives and NDP are all fishing for votes in the same pool of voters. I would love to see them equally split that vote.
The Liberals came in second to the Bloc in around 30 seats in 2019. If the NDP and the Conservatives could siphon off some of the Bloc vote the Liberals could take 60+ seats in Quebec and give themselves a 190-200 seat majority government.
Mr. O'Toole is playing fast and loose with the truth but that is just the way he is. And the fact a Conservative leader is pandering and fear mongering to Quebec Nationalists is also right out of the playbook for Canadian Federal Conservative Parties so it should surprise no one that they have gone back to it. Conservative parties are famous for saying one thing in English and saying something else in French.
So if O'toole his doing anti-english propaganda, how come there are anglos in quebec who are conservatives. I mean, a former anglo friend of mine from elementary school is in this libertarian fringe, and I accidently entered a tory event in a montreal restaurant to a young hindu woman who does not even speak french just like mostly all the other people around me. Just what are their role here in Quebec? As if they would certainly be the ones who contributed to two referendum losses when in fact their tory pals from the western provinces are just wishing Quebec good riddence as more as the seperatists here. I mean, they are insulting themselves.
So, if O'toole is doing anti-english propaganda, how come there are still anglo conservatives in Quebec. I mean, what are their role if there are issues like this? The fact that I had a former friend from elementary school who is anglo and also that I accidently entered a tory event in a montreal restaurant where mostly everyone does not really understand my french, I keep wondering how paradoxal this could be. If these people are mostly the one who voted 'NO' during the two quebec referendums, this is in contrast with their albertan pals who only wishes Quebec to get out of Canada when in fact it's shooting their own foot. Good luck sorting this out!
And the Islamophobia, always the Islamophobia. He sure does enthusiastically throw his full support behind Law 21 too. It's perfectly fair to civilly and respectfully discuss the ideas of a religious belief, while not attacking the person or dictating their wardrobe. The way it's being done under Legault and now Macron (who is desperate to fend off the fascist war bride Le Pen) is a blatant and disgraceful double standard that's just as intrusive as the theocrats they claim to be pushing back against. Note also that a lot of the anti-mask lunacy at those Covidiot rallies in QC overlapped with fanatical conspiracy theories about normalizing or *requiring* the wearing of veils.
It's pretty obvious then, that the corresponding language bill is aimed at people speaking Arabic at home. To borrow a line from PET, there should be no place for the state at the kitchen table conversations of the nation. So much for small-government conservatives. When they're not shooting themselves in the foot, they're looking to cut out your mother tongue. In the name of "free speech" of course.
O'Toole concern trolls plenty about the plight of Uighurs in China to appease his nationalist base, yet he voted against Motion 103 right after the mosque shooting, which was a simple non-binding motion to condemn Islamophobia and study ways to counteract it. Rebel and other garbage hate sites blew it up into some "Muslim Brotherhood plot" to impose sharia law over Canada and replace the Carillon on Parliament Hill with a minaret. The backlash fostered by the stochastic terrorists of the Trumpian CPC led to Liberal MP Iqra Khalid, who introduced M-103, requiring 24/7 police protection from the frothing mob of MAGA morons looking to kill her. O'Toole wears complicity in this. But of course, the Vanilla ISIS sausage handlers posting "Jihad Justin" memes all over Facebook just wanted to save her from unspecified "barbaric practices" by... threatening to cut her head off. Paging Monty Python: No one expects the Canadian inquisition!
The ol' skinhead sure has himself some delightful fellow travelers. Yet it's no surprise, not when his #1 backer Kenney is the onetime Herr Harper immigration minister and Christopathic zealot behind the infamous niqab ban. Funny how somehow Trudeau is able to broach a truce with Legault while not pandering to white nationalists with a persecution complex. Inshallah, Pepe Le Frog O'Toole and the equally creepy and obnoxious (but far more articulate and charismatic) Yves Blanc-Cheque will fight each other for "money and the white ethnic vote" and end up cancelling each other out, to Trudeau's benefit. Now that's a kind of "cancel culture" we all can get behind.
Con aspirations such as socially restrictive government legislation based on a narrow minded set of religious beliefs and climate destroying tarry oil have no traction in Quebec. Cons love emotional issues such as the future of the French language. Its not that they really care or hope to gain a significant number of votes in Quebec. Its directly aimed at driving a wedge between Quebec Liberal supporters and those in the rest of Canada. By stirring up emotion the hope is Quebec supporters will believe the Liberals are not doing enough to protect language and the rest of Canada will view it as catering to nationalism at their expense. The Cons really do not care where the votes go as long as its not for the Liberals. Typical Con think... weaken team Canada by dividing and stirring up 'us against them' emotions until authoritarian style rule is necessary to fix the problems they created. The Outhouse has reverse flow plumbing where the sewage is pumped in for regurgitation rather than out to the sewer where it belongs.
RT
I wish O'Toole the best of luck in QC for the reasons ottlib outlines above. But O'Toole's French has a heavy Shwa accent and is far from fluent. He hasn't a chance against QC natives like Trudeau and Blanchet. He's just flinging crap at the wall hoping something sticks.
Here's a good one. How do you know when you are (as Con leader) having a really bad day? When the likes of Lorne Grunter drags his knuckles to the keyboard and says without saying that you're worse than Blandrew Schmeer. Ouch! That's gotta hurt. I read someone's post that Andrew Scheer had set the bar so low yet somehow the tool still managed to trip over it. Foot dragger.
The tool better, as he likes to say, "get to work" soon or he'll soon fall(if he hasn't already) below "unsure" in favorability polling. Oh the irony. As he battles it out with "unsure", it's becoming increasingly evident that the majority of us don't want the tool anywhere near the PM's office unless it's to pump out the porta pottys. The perfect metaphor for what's become of the big blue tent.
JD
Hi Ottlib....I’ve been monitoring what O’Toole says in French, but not in English, but this is the most two faced he has ever gone. He seems to have written off the Anglo vote and I only hope that if there are any non-Liberals among them they will make O’Toole pay for his shameful opportunism. I also hope that some Cons in the rest of Canada will hold what he is doing against him. But for that to happen it would help if our useless media would let people know what O’Toole is doing....
Hi Myworld1916.....The Cons have a long history in Quebec, and the old PCs have been joined by the toxic Trudeau haters we know only too well. The area around Quebec City is small-c conservative and was singled out for special treatment by Stephen Harper. Fortunately O’Toole is not as effective as Harper was, and since he is not the PM , so he won’t be able to buy any votes. ...
Hi Jackie... Yes, anti-Muslim, anti-Chinese, anti-refugee, and now anti-Anglo, O’Toole doesn’t miss anyone when it comes to pandering to the ugliest bigots in Quebec. And let’s not forget Pierre Paul-Hus, the shadow minister for security, who demanded that Trudeau apologize for calling a group of bigots from La Meute bozos. How Paul-Hus got away with that one I’ll never understand or accept. But O’Toole’s merry band in Quebec is both small and disgusting. I am however looking forward to Blanchet taking on the hapless O’Toole, for he should make short work of him.🤡
Hi RT... IThank goodness religion is not what it used to be in Quebec, or Outhouse would be plucking those strings like a harp or a banjo. But if English Canadians realize what kind of people O’Toole is pandering to in Quebec, he will pay a political price. For as I tried to say in my post, many of the separatists he is trying to appeal to are more like Trumplings than the ones who followed Levesque or Bouchard. The Journal de Montreal, Quebec’s Sun, is an absolute sewer of bigotry. And the more Canadians realize the company O’Toole is keeping the
more they will reject him....
Hi anon@10:25 PM....I agree, O'Toole is now so desperate he is flinging crap in every direction and hope it sticks. Although I give him credit for learning enough French to understand and answer questions, the way he speaks it is very annoying, especially the way he opens his mouth so wide a bus could drive through it...
Hi JD....Yes, you're right, if you're a Con you know you're in trouble if even The Grunter comes after you. O'Toole's negatives are soaring so high I'm afraid he's heading for a spectacular crash and burn. It must be horrible to know that you can't even trust your own Cons, but it's only what he deserves. He got hitched to the Canada Proud crowd, and went sewer surfing with them. Now, he's trying to convince us he's really a nice guy, and it's just not working. And now that he's debased himself so completely it never will...
E. O'toole continues his abysmal attempt to portray himself as a leader of the Cons and will stop at nothing to gain support even from Quebec whose politics are far too complex for his thick head. Les québécois doivent se tordre de rire de le voir prétendre défendre la cause du français dans leur province! Even fools are thought wise if they keep silent, and discerning if they hold their tongues. Aphorisms aplenty describe the cons and their assault on J. Trudeau who despite his shortcomings (who doesn’t have them?) is attempting to keep this country together and fight with much determination the pandemic. I enjoy immensely reading your blog and always look forward with much trepidation to Jackie’s closely knit and always well-packaged comments!
"since the red coats conquered Quebec back in 1759" 😣 The 20,000 or so French colonists were defeated by Louis X1V & the Treaty of Utrecht...
Treaty of Utrecht
Quelques arpents de neige and a few fish.
Hi Unknown...I must admit I had to google the treaty of Utrecht to find out what it was all about. But as significant as it was it doesn't change the fact that more people are speaking French in Quebec today than ever before. And although more could be done to make the language even more vibrant, only fanatics can claim it's disappearing. That claim is only being used to club Anglos and immigrants....
Hi jrkrideau...I'm glad you say that, because thanks to anon I was feeling very ignorant. And when I read this long dissertation on the Treaty of Utrecht I almost passed out from boredom. Until I read that the treaty forced the French to give up their support of the Jacobite cause in Scotland. And then of course I was outraged !!!!!
Hi Sisyphus...Thank you for your kind words. My writing has deteriorated a lot during the pandemic, and after watching the superb Ken Burns documentary on Ernest Hemingway, I felt like shooting myself. Just kidding. But I'm still as committed as ever to trying to keep O'Toole's ugly Cons from taking power, and when they threaten the country I love I still have enough energy to keep on fighting them in my very humble way. And yes, when I see the power and brilliance of Jackie, I also sometimes feel like shooting myself, but just give thanks that she is on our side...
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