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Paranoia

Saturday was a miserable day in Montreal, the weather was just awful with heavy rain most of the day, so I was reading the papers (on my Ipad...Please) and listening to CBC Radio One (French) generally their opinions are just a little strange; a few weeks ago a commentator was bitching that the process of building one of Montreal's two teaching hospital was very slow because the Quebec government has used Public Private Partnerships (P3 for short). This was not challenged by anyone on the show, despite the fact that contracts have not yet been awarded! It's like blaming the taxi driver for being late when you have not yet called him!

Back to our story, many will remember that there was an electoral tsunami in Quebec during the May 2, 2011 federal election, where the Block Quebecois (a nationalist movement) was wiped out by the left wing NPD (trust me they are left wing...). This was a vote of protest for many Quebecois tired of hearing the word "independence" and wanting to change the conversation after more than 30 years. In fact, most Quebecois would be hard pressed to understand the electoral platform of the NDP, some candidates won with out running or even setting foot in their electoral district!

Back to our radio station, that said that one major reason why the celebration of June 24th was so poorly attended (considering the weather Friday evening, my gut instinct that the only people out would be ducks!) because Quebecois didn't want to hear about sovereignty anymore. Yep, this too went unchallenged, despite ample evidence that the primary sites in Quebec city and Montreal were covered in mud, and that the rain was relentless. OK, maybe in years past Quebecois would have overlooked such bad weather, and maybe this can be associated with the lack of interest in the independence movement, but a free concert is a free concert (BTW with some of the biggest names in show business). It is an indication of how far the discourse has moved that any "shortfall" in participation is deemed to be proof that the movement for independence is dying.

Maybe it is (actually probably) the youth of the province has different concerns (and different social makeup) that their parents or grandparents. It was easier to plead for "Quebec injustice" when the rest of the world was remote, and not part of the daily conversation. It is difficult to complain about our lot when we see the events in the Middle East in general and in Syria in particular; our "oppression" looks like the complaints of a 7 year old (in this context).

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