Quebec Values Charter – Some Articles

Best commentary and analysis of the day from Chantal Hébert of The Star, trying to understand why Premier Marois engaged in such a risky strategy:

Moreover, the premier’s contributions to the debate so far — starting with the clumsy suggestion that multiculturalism is at the root cause of domestic terrorism in the United Kingdom, and the ill-informed assertion that France’s rigid secular system is a great model — suggest that her views on a diverse society may be shaped by impressions rather than evidence-based knowledge.

For the record, that view — as it is put forward — is strikingly less cosmopolitan than those of better-travelled predecessors such as René Lévesque, Jacques Parizeau and Lucien Bouchard.

At the end of the day, the motivations that drove Marois to lead the PQ across a Rubicon that distances it from the civic nationalism that it has always promoted in the past probably involves a mix of calculation, conviction and willful ignorance. But the combination, under any of its variations, does not add up to a compelling portrait.

Hébert: What motivated Pauline Marois to take such a risk?

First comment by Prime Minister Harper on the Quebec proposed Charter. Focus is on likelihood, rather than principles, compared to other federal leaders (but Minister Kenney has been dealing with those).

Quebec’s charter of values will fail, PM Harper predicts – Politics – CBC News.

Margaret Wente makes her usual generalizations but I think captures the political dynamic well in:

 Ms. Marois lays an egg 

And Warren Kinsella in The Sun provides credit to the federal politicians who have spoken out forcefully on the proposed Charter, where all three major parties have been consistent and clear:

The best of Canada, the worst of the PQ