04.05.2012 07:12 AM

Wente on Quebec

Coming from Quebec is “a fatal liability.” Who knew?

What about you guys? Did you know being a Quebecker is “fatal” in politics?

36 Comments

  1. Mark says:

    Well I would think that would be obvious from the lack of Prime Minister’s from Quebec, Warren. Has there ever been one? I can’t think of any…

    • Bruce M says:

      Look at the CURRENT electoral map.

      Yes, another Trudeau from Québec may be a great spasm of nostalgia, but for every happy memory within the Party, think of all the animosity without. Imagine if Mulroney’s kid left TV to run for the Tory leadership. (hey, Justin was only a drama teacher, not even a success on TV.)

      By the way, does he have a single policy he owns, or just those strange web-ads trying to get Ontario Liberals elected? Creepy. watch those getting recycled in a branding exercise.

  2. que sera sera says:

    Being a glib hack for the G&M is “fatal” in journalism.

  3. Jon Powers says:

    Obviously not in the past, but I’d agree that going forward it is, precisely because of the historic number of Prime Ministers coming from Quebec.

  4. Nic Coivert says:

    When Mulcair won the NDP leadership I said that’s it for Justin (and Garneau), it won’t bode well having two national party leaders from Quebec. And Mulcair is apparently popular. But then Trudeau came through with a brilliant victory, a stroke of genius really, and now, I’m not so sure. Trudeau now has authenticity, and a a quality like that is money in the bank for a politician.

    One thing for sure is that the national political scene is getting interesting again. And the Harper regime’s worst enemy right now, is, the Harper regime. By 2015 they will be eating their own.

    • Ted B says:

      “Trudeau now has authenticity, and a a quality like that is money in the bank for a politician.”

      Because of a boxing match?

      • He won a boxing match against an allegedly more experience opponent. If Trudeau would have lost his authenticity would have been very different, wouldn’t it?

        Instead of being more defined by his father, he’s his own man and the fact that vitriolic Trudeau haters that frequent this site were silent after the match, says as much.

        • Ted B says:

          I think, either way, it is emblematic of how decrepid and insipid our politicians, our media and even our population is when we start saying this matters whether he wins or loses. That people will go as far as to say this raises his leadership possibilities is absolutely fundamentally bizarre and depressing.

          It’s the game they play and everyone wants to play along – look at the adoration from the media for Harper’s ability to play the piano poorly – but it is also very depressing.

      • Nic Coivert says:

        Boxing is unlike any other sport, there are deep psychological roots, and at root it can be very much a psychological battle.

  5. Tiger says:

    Harper’s the first non-Quebec-based PM to last more than two years since Pearson, no?

    Anyway, it seems like Wente is pitching for the Liberals to choose Alison Redford as federal leader, once Alberta turfs her for Wildrose.

  6. Francesco says:

    Let’s call like it is..some of Wente’s recent columns have been absolutely and utterly bunk. She wrote awhile back on Rob Ford and how he as mayor was a result of the Liberals and how it wuold hurt the provincial Liberals…please come on. Trudeau with this boxing match is now by a lot of Canadians looked at in a different light and someone with his communications skills would be a threat to the Cons and that angry NDP guy.

  7. Kevin T. says:

    I see what you did there, you almost made me read Margaret Wente. I was wondering why my gag reflex was tingling.

  8. William says:

    Millions of westerners would cast their vote for the Great Satan before they’d vote for anyone named Trudeau.

    24% of the Canadian electorate did, in my opinion.

  9. Greg from Calgary says:

    I don’t think it is fatal. However, the Liberals are almost completly shut out of the west due to actions and positions they have created. These include:

    * “Screw the West we’ll take the rest.”
    * NEP
    * Green Shift which would have seen Alberta pay a higher portion of the tax then it produces as greenhouse gases as a whole.

    A leader from Quebec will have a harder time winning votes out west and the west is growing faster in terms of population and the economy. It will be hard because Liberal leaders from Quebec have taken these positions that are seen as anti-western.

    If the Liberals are to be relevant they need to be competative politcally in all regions of Canada. But currently they are shut out (almost) of the West and Quebec. In Ontario they are deeply on the defensive and only seem to hold their own in the Maritimes. They don’t have to win the West but they need to make a dent in it or the conservatives will always be able to count on a base of 80 or so seats before they begin the election. That means the cons only have to pick up 90 of the remaining 234 seats to win gov’t (38% of te remaining seats).

    As long as the cons hold the west they are (almost) half way to power. Either the libs or NDP need to address this.

  10. Nic Coivert says:

    Harper is looking like Canada’s Duplessis.

  11. frmr disgruntled Con now Happy Lib says:

    Not unless your name is Thomas Mulcair…….

    Loved your quote, btw……

  12. bluegreenblogger says:

    Wente is a complete tool. Pretty well the worst columnist with the Globe. ( I will NOT call her a journalist, because she makes everything up as she goes along). No point worrying about what she has to say.

  13. Bruce M says:

    This match will mean little and will be quickly forgotten by anyone not already drinking the Trudeau Kool-Aid. The biggest political pay-off for Trudeau? He’s won a few more workers for his leadership bid.

    As for the gist of the article, old Trudeau is connected to everything modern Canada disavows, other than fighting seperatism: Protectionism, parochialism, anti-Americanism, arrogance, centralization.

    Is Jr. the same as dad? He’ll spend the leadership and general elections fighting to define himself from his father and avoiding a Tory branding iron. I can’t imagine soft nationalists in Québec, rural and suburban families, nor the West, rushing to embrace the Trudeau name in the face of this type of nranding by the NDP and Tories.

    Liberals better get used to calling Rae, Leader.

  14. Bil Huk says:

    anything is possible if your opponent falls on the sword of scandal, and fatal is obviously too strong a word.

    ontario and quebec used to decide who formed government, if the ontario western alliance grows deeper roots than it has now, then being from quebec will certainly turn into a liability.

    just like being from alberta in the 90s was a liability.

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