Tag: politics

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Music

Swedish pop band visits Montreal

The Radio Dept. to perform at Théâtre Fairmount for their North American tour

Travelling all the way from Stockholm to Montreal are Johan Duncanson and Martin Carlberg, the duo known as The Radio Dept. Théâtre Fairmount will be welcoming the Swedish pop duo on Monday, March 6. They will bring the party to their audience while performing their latest album, Running Out of Love. It’s a politically-charged album that is perfect for grooving to, with its fusion of pop and European electronic dance ballads.

The band has been around for 16 years—Duncanson and Carlberg began making music together back in 2001. “Martin and I, we like pop music and we want it to have a light, experimental touch,” Duncanson said. “We have the same taste when it comes to chords in melodies and arrangements.”The Radio Dept.’s sound has evolved throughout the years. “At first, it was always acoustic guitar, bass and vocals. Now, for the past 10 years, we’ve added drop beats and bass line,” Duncanson said. The band name, The Radio Dept., was originally the name of Duncanson’s previous band. He ended up re-using the name for his current band. “When Martin and I started our band, we did not have any imagination so we stole that band name,” he said.

The Swedish pop duo fuses melancholic dance music with vocals and bass. “We listen to a lot of dance music. Although we are inspired by a lot of instrumentals, we want to focus on making pop music,” Duncanson said. Duncanson writes most of the songs, and Martin plays the guitar and bass. “We live in different cities, [so] I do a lot on my own. I write most songs and then play them for Martin,” Duncanson said. “Martin is better at playing guitar and bass.”

The Radio Dept. explores melancholic lyrics with vibrant pop music. Photo courtesy of Radio Dept.

Running Out of Love opens with their track “Sloboda Narodu,” which means “death to fascism, freedom to the people” in Serbo-Croatian. Duncanson heard about this expression in a Swedish documentary, which is what sparked his inspiration for the song. “The documentary was about a journalist travelling around old Yugoslavia, trying to find people who knew old partisan songs. The journalist came across a girl who sang the sloboda narodu slogan,” he said. “I didn’t know of this slogan before, and wanted to use it.” There have been political issues in Sweden concerning their gun trade for the past seven years, according to Duncanson. The duo wanted to use their musical talents to bring awareness to these issues. Duncanson said their track “Swedish Guns” has been misunderstood by many. “It’s been misinterpreted in the States as being a song about carrying a gun. That is not what it’s about. It’s about the arms industry,” he said.

Radio Dept.’s latest album, Running Out of Love.

According to Business Insider, Sweden exports arms and weapons to different countries around the world. “We have done it for a long time. I don’t know if people know this outside of Sweden, but this is something we are quite ashamed of,” Duncanson said. This issue is reflected in the lyrics of “Swedish Guns,” as Duncan sings, “Cause who can be to blame for Swedish guns? A clue, it’s in the name, a diabolic shame.” The song has a pop-dance rhythm, all while sharing a powerful political message. “We would like to make our money in some other way. It’s not a good feeling to sell weapons to other countries,” Duncanson said.

Running Out of Love has succeeded in fusing upbeat dance music with political lyrics. “We wanted to make our music slightly darker than before, but not too dark because we are optimists and hopeful people,” Duncanson said.The Swedish duo, currently on their North American tour, will be performing in Montreal at Théâtre Fairmount on March 6. Doors open at 7:30 p.m, and the show begins at 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $18 online or $20 at the door.

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Opinions

The mighty emperor wears no clothes

Why the media focuses more on Trudeau’s image rather than politics

In the eyes of the international media, Canada has always been considered America’s dorky, progressive neighbour to the north and relegated to obscurity as a result. The image of a barren cultural wasteland, populated by hockey enthusiasts drinking Molson has dominated Canada’s foreign reputation.

Until 2015, that is. Canada went through a complete cultural makeover. Suddenly, Canadian musicians were everywhere. Artists like The Weeknd, Drake and Justin Bieber released new music and dominated the Billboard charts, pleasing their legions of loyal fans. Quebec-based director Xavier Dolan emerged as new icon in the film industry, winning the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival as well as directing Adele’s spectacular Hello video.

The height of this phenomenon came with the election of Justin Trudeau in October, 2015. The young, good-looking, progressive prime minister was the antithesis of the arduous Harper Decade and breathed a sense of life and excitement into Canadian politics. Something that has not been seen since the election of his father into office some 47 years prior.

The Guardian newspaper in the UK even dubbed this moment in time as Canada’s very own “cool Britannia,” harping back to the “British Invasion” of the 1960s. By some anomaly, for once when the word ‘cool’ was used to describe Canada, it was not in reference to its climate.

Photo by Andrej Ivanov.
With the international media fawning over our sparkling new hunky PM, or ‘PMILF’ (Prime Minister I’d Like to Fuck) as he has been dubbed by social media, national media soon followed suit. According to a report by Quebec-based media monitoring firm Influence Communication, generally after a PM is elected in Canada, media coverage typically drops off. Harper’s fell off by 79 per cent and Brian Mulroney’s by 69 per cent one month after they won their election.

Since 2015 however, the coverage of Justin Trudeau in the national media has increased by 40 per cent, according to the same report. And, unlike his predecessors, the coverage has been overwhelmingly positive.

The reason for this increase in positive coverage is mainly due to “the [tabloid] magazine style reporting” of Justin Trudeau, said Jean-Francois Dumas, president of Influence Communication, as quoted in Maclean’s magazine.

Throughout Trudeau’s time in office, national news outlets including the The Toronto Star, Vice Canada, and La Presse have opted to publish an abundant amount of fluff pieces about the Prime Minister. His many summer shirtless sightings, photo-ops with pandas, and his luscious locks has reduced many of Canada’s most prestigious publications to the same level as menial celebrity gossip mags.

It would seem as though “Trudeaumania” part II has firmly rooted itself in Canadian media’s prime-ministerial commentary, baring resemblance to a communist state’s media coverage of their glorious leader.

Graphic by Thom Bell.

Many could argue that this harmless ‘fluff’ is exactly that, and I would tend to agree, so long as this ‘fluff’ does not inhibit the process of meaningful conversation in the media. Since his election, it seems as though the Trudeau administration has been covered with a cloak of invincibility and has been seemingly impervious to any scandal.

Take the 2016 “Three Amigos Summit” for example. It is the annual meeting of the heads of government of Canada, Mexico and the United States, which took place in Ottawa in June. The important issues discussed during this year’s summit included national security, human rights and the environment.

However, much of the coverage centered around a fan fiction-like narrative of the bromance between three relatively good looking leaders, with many articles—such as Vice—reporting on the awkward three-way handshake between the commanders. This is particularly shocking considering the fact that Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto was accused of ordering the execution of eight peaceful protesting teachers’ union members and that Barack Obama had criticized Canada’s involvement in NATO, according to Reuters. Both of these issues did not receive a lot of coverage on a national level.

Canadian news outlets are severely failing their audiences. The job of the media is to be critical and journalists play a crucial role in the democratic process by holding politicians accountable and keeping them honest. Recently, however, it seems that news outlets are more concerned with sharing the latest shirtless Trudeau meme than offering a meaningful, in-depth analysis of this government’s policies and actions.

While we may all be enjoying Canada’s fleeting moment in the sun, it is my hope that we don’t wake up burned because of it.

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News

Protesters march on Mont-Royal Avenue against austerity measures

Opposing the measures implemented by provincial and federal governments

Photo by Keith Race

On March 4, people gathered outside Mont-Royal metro at 6:30 p.m. for the protest “Together Against Austerity” (Ensemble contre l’austerité! Harper, Marois, même combat!) organized by the Comité d’action solidaire contre l’austerité (CASA).

According to the Financial Times Lexicon, “Austerity measures refer to official actions taken by the government, during a period of adverse economic conditions, to reduce its budget deficit using a combination of spending cuts or tax rises.”

CASA encouraged people to bring pans, placards and noisemakers, which people did. The protest had about 50 participants.

One of the protestors present, a foreign worker and also a member of the Immigrant Workers Centre (IWC), explained that in his home country of Spain, austerity has put a lot of people in debt.

“The facts are that after four years of austerity, there is 27 per cent of children in Spain that are below the line of poverty. This was the 12th economy of the world or so they say, like six or seven years ago.”

“The tax system is for the rich and against the poor.” (Fiscalité pour les riches et contre les pauvres). “The solution would be to not do like Martine Desjardins.” said Justin Arcand, one of the spokesperson of the association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante (ASSÉ). Desjardins, the former president of the University Student Federation of Québec (FEUQ) spent months fighting against the tuition increase during the Maple Spring in 2012. However, she has decided to join the Parti Québecois. Arcand does not understand how she fought against tuition increase and now joins a party who is proposing increases.

As the protesters left the metro area to walk on Mont-Royal Avenue, the police declared the march illegal. Police cars surrounded the area. The protest ended shortly after 7:30 p.m. on Mont-Royal Avenue just by De Lorimier Street.

The ASSÉ will be organizing another protest against austerity on April 3 at 2 p.m. at Émilie-Gamelin Park by Berri-Uqam metro.

Photos by Keith Race

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News

Liberal candidate for newly-formed Ville-Marie riding shares his views

Photo by Adam Scotti

As a politician trying to reach out and better represent his fellows, Marc Miller is all for devoting great amounts of time to collecting opinions and forging solidarity – except while playing hockey in Sweden.

Photo by Adam Scotti

“I just wanted to play,” said Miller about his time in the rink while living with the Swedes, where Scandinavian consensus-politics dictated everybody’s roles be thoroughly agreed upon and worked out before any ice time. “It drove me nuts.”

Miller, is eager for collaboration everywhere but on the ice, and, if his ambitions as Liberal federal nominee in the newly made riding of Montreal’s Ville-Marie are successful, he may one day represent the interests of students at Concordia.

Miller is typical of the city’s cosmopolitan roots. From a Montreal anglophone mother and Nova Scotian father, he received a solidly francophone education until law school led him to corporate law in Montreal, down south, and across the sea.

His passionate Liberal leanings are firm, but not necessarily dogmatic. He is open to self-criticism and he is cognisant of the fact that there is a long way to go to making the Liberals relevant again.

“The Liberal party has reached the bottom of the barrel,” he said, mentioning the sponsorship scandal and other issues that have deeply scarred the Liberal’s ability to reconnect with Canadians. “You know there’s something wrong when 90% of the job is showing up and listening. Simply going into the riding, talking to people, getting a deep understanding of the issues is the first step — it isn’t the only one, but it is the key formal step to getting involved with people.”

In an effort to shift momentum and do his part in Montreal, Miller has set his sights on the Ville-Marie riding.

“Ville-Marie is the centre of town. It is truly the core of Montreal. If you’re truly interested in making a difference, this is a part of the city where you can. There are no sleeper communities [here]. There are communities in dire need of someone that’s really implicated at the local level. We have some of the richest people in the country; we have some of the poorer people of the country.  There’s a real, real need for local politicians, not just federal, but municipal and provincial, to get involved in [the] challenges of income gaps, education, skilled employment, and concern for new Canadians.”

A business-lawyer-cum-politician may not be to everybody’s liking, doubly so for a party that’s been accused in the past for cozying up to the corporate vote. Miller highlights the advantages of his calling, and how working with large corporations can help the little guy: “Sitting where you are, at first glance, they might seem like they are [incompatible]. Being a corporate lawyer, you work a lot of hours and you talk to a lot of people and you pick up the phone and you negotiate and you make compromises. You work extremely hard. You pay attention to your client, and you hope to make the change that they desire. This translates quite easily, from a purely strategic perspective, to politics.”

Miller has drawn on his professional and personal experiences from living both here and abroad to shape his views. He lived for a few years in New York, a city he described as very competitive and affording him the satisfaction of working with some of the brightest people in the world. Yet the hyperactive New York environment, with its grand emphasis on wealth and deep economic fault lines, wasn’t the ideal place to raise his two children. So instead he went to his wife’s native Sweden, in many ways diametrically opposite to the Big Apple, with its socialism, free health care and education, and its low salary and high taxes. In the end there was no place like Quebec, and no home like Montreal.

Montreal’s cultural strengths and activist streak and strong cultural institutions are all things Miller believes can be harnessed to improve the condition of its citizens.

“I realized [after living abroad] I really, really enjoyed living in Montreal. I really, really love my city and I don’t think I could choose, if I had the choice, to live in any other city than Montreal. I see where it’s going, and I want to make sure it doesn’t go there.”

The plan to raise employment, lower debts, and improve education, he admits, is not something you can change in a just a few years. But there are ways to begin, and one of them is with voters.

Cognisant of the deep cynicism of disaffected youth, often alienated by an impersonal and distant political system, he holds firmly to the belief that students and young adults have the potential for great energy and hope, and doubly so for Quebec’s students, familiar as they are with political activism. He’s actively encouraging young people to take back their political rights of participation.

“My advice will be to find a local representative – municipal, provincial, federal – [and] approach them and ask them how you can help. It’s a real eye-opening experience to get in […] and run and organize a campaign. It gives you a skillset you can’t get here [in universities] nor should it be taught here, but it is a fantastic experience in organizing, meeting people, developing people skills, and developing human skills. I would encourage any student to get out there and get their hands in the soil. There’s a lot of clubs and political philosophy groups and they’re great as well but I think the mistake that’s made amongst the university corps is to stay too close to your comfort zone. And that’s too bad.”

“As Montrealers we have do dare to be able to take the risks whether we fail or not.”

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News

Justin Trudeau fills D.B. Clarke

Photo by Keith Race

Today in 2014, why is it so important to make sure that your voice is heard in politics? This is the question that Liberal party leader,Justin Trudeau, posed to the 300-plus students who gathered to hear him speak at Concordia’s D.B. Clarke Theatre on Thursday, Feb. 6.

Photo by Keith Race

The event was organized as part of a campus tour where Trudeau spoke at McGill University, Université de Montréal and Concordia all in one day.

His message was one of youth voter empowerment, in an attempt to combat the “tremendous amount of cynicism surrounding politics.”

“Getting young people to choose to vote and to get involved isn’t just about getting a few more people who are unlikely to vote for Mr. Harper to the ballot box. That’s just a pleasant bi-product,” he said. “What it really is about is changing the nature of conversations that happen in Ottawa and in government.”

According to Elections Canada, in the 2011 federal election, the estimated percentage of 18 to 24-year-olds who showed up to the polls is 38. While Trudeau was there as a representative of the Liberal Party of Canada, he refrained from expressly encouraging people to vote for him. Instead, he called for students to research different parties and find one that would best represent their beliefs.

During a question period following the speech, Trudeau was asked about his position on Quebec Premiere Pauline Marois’ secular charter.

“I had the good luck of being able to sit down with Mme Marois, the very day that the newspapers were leaked information on what would be the [charter of values] and I told her straight out, that I thought that it was a very unhelpful direction to be taking — to try and make people choose between their religious beliefs and their jobs.”

He went on to say that the charter would only lead to “divisiveness and polarization” and that “it does us all a disservice when a politician chooses personal electoral gain over service to the society that entrusted her with power.”

Trudeau was also asked about his views on the environment and comments he made in support of the Keystone XL Pipeline at the Calgary Petroleum Club.

“The one thing that I have been consistent on,” began Trudeau, “Whether I’m speaking to the Sierra club, or the Petroleum club, is that we need to figure out how to make what is good for the economy and what’s good for the environment go together.”

While Trudeau took a few shots at the Harper government’s environmental track record, he did not go into detail about his own platform on the topic.

Cameron Ahmad, president of the Quebec chapter of Young Liberals of Canada, said after the event concluded that he was inspired by the student turnout.

“Whenever there’s a room full of young people that, like us, want to discuss politics and get involved and just hear about the ideas of a major lead, that’s hugely inspiring to us. It means we aren’t alone,” he said. “It means that there are other people out there who are interested and that youth aren’t apathetic.”

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News

Concordia hosts an informative speaker panel

Photo by Tim Weynerowski

On Tuesday Feb. 4, The School of Community and Public Affairs (SCPA), and  the Political Science Student Association (PSSA) encouraged students to come out and get informed, get engaged and get involved in some of the discussions and issues that are going on involving the right to public information in Quebec and Canada.

Silence in Canada: The Right to Public Information, consisted of a two-hour discourse with invited panelists on the problems Canadians have with the legislation surrounding the Access to Information Act.

The panelists included Carolyn Carluccio, the director of administration at the Commission D’accès a L’information du Quebec; Mike de Souza, a political journalist and correspondent for Postmedia News and a specialist in access to information cases; Jonathan Brun, who has helped in the creation of Nimonik, a way to track and confirm certain laws on mobile devices and Alan Conter,  a former CBC Radio executive as well as a part-time faculty member teaching law and ethics in the journalism department. The moderator for the event was Emily McCarthy,  the assistant information commissioner of Canada.

Photo by Tim Weynerowski

The panel focused on discussing issues involving the limitations that the government has on information that they are obligated to disclose to the public.

In 1983 the Access to Information Act was passed, which gave Canadian citizens “the right to request access to any record under the control of a federal government institution”(Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, Information and Privacy Policy Division).

McCarthy expressed that a lot of pressure is being put on the Harper government to review this legislation and discuss potential reforms. According to Carluccio, her department goes through 500 cases, involving access to information issues, per year with three other judges. Carluccio emphasized that the timing in which a government document is able to be released and whether or not it could be accessible through the Internet are important factors to discuss when deciding on proper legislative reforms, and a “willingness to change mindset” by the parties involved would be necessary.

Brun focused on what the general public could do, through using technology and the Internet, to access information and lobby for more transparency from the government. He stressed that the government would have to improve their “response efficiency” to requests for information if things are to change.

de Souza said that the law could be used to the publics’ advantage in getting the government to answer questions in regards to access to information. He himself has investigated several stories, including the Lac-Mégantic train derailment, where requested information took up to a year to be disclosed.

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Opinions

Poor excuses for PQ’s absence from debate

The minister responsible for the proposed Charter of Values, Bernard Drainville, declined to attend a debate on said charter, held earlier this week by the Graduate Student Association. He declined for reasons of security, saying that he felt the risk of things getting out of control were too high at this event, according to CTV. Yes, there was a well-publicized protest outside the room where the debate was to take place but a protest in itself is only a threat if violence is threatened.

The announcement of the protest, posted on QPIRG’s (Quebec Public Interest Research Group) website, solicited students and other community members to gather outside H-767 at 11:30 a.m. The posting contained no threat towards Drainville. It stated simply that, “QPIRG Concordia is encouraging both community and student members who oppose Bill 60 to mobilize this coming Thursday.” Drainville’s choice to boycott the debate implies that he did not think that his arguments for Bill 60 could stand up to the arguments of those who oppose this bill.

If Drainville really believes that Bill 60 has merit, he should have felt no fear in facing the people gathered against it. A person with strong convictions does not back down from a fight.

There was a lot of media present at the debate and it was a perfect opportunity for Drainville to make his points heard. Instead, his absence ensured that arguments against the bill were the only thing attendees heard.

Perhaps Drainville feared that a debate sponsored by a university would provoke questions that would poke holes in the ideology behind Bill 60. Especially since Concordia is mostly known to be in opposition of the Charter. Perhaps this was the real risk he saw in coming to Concordia on Thursday.

The PQ didn’t seem to feel there was any security risk when they attended debates about the tuition freeze during the student strike, but then in that circumstance they were on the side that had the most supporters.

The PQ should be embarrassed by Drainville’s conduct. By not showing up to defend his Charter he gave the Charter’s opponents all the power. His absence clearly shows a lack of conviction in Bill 60. If Drainville isn’t willing to do everything in his power to convince people of the validity of this bill, then it would appear that Drainville doesn’t really believe in Bill 60 and that says a lot.

 

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News

PQ Minister drops out of Charter of Values debate at Concordia

It was the showdown that wasn’t. Concordia University’s Graduate Students’ Association organized a debate about the highly-contested Charter of Values proposed by the Parti Québécois, which included Minister responsible for Democratic Institutions Bernard Drainville. The minister backed out the morning of, citing safety concerns.

With less than three hours before the debate in Montreal on Thursday morning (Nov. 28), Drainville announced his decision to pull out due to a planned demonstration by students denouncing the charter. In a statement released by the PQ, it cites that Concordia could not guarantee security for Drainville or attendees in the wake of a protest.

“We see that a group of people are threatening to disturb the debate instead of allowing us to have a democratic discussion,” said Drainville in the statement. “I sincerely regret this situation.”

However, the debate continued and so did the protest against the charter that consisted of approximately 10–15 students.

“We need to walk out on the street without being seen as others,” said protest organizer Christina Xydous, from Quebec Public Interest Research Group.

Jaggi Singh, a well-known Montreal activist and organizer of the demonstration, denounced the charter entirely.

“I’m not saying Bernard Drainville is a bad person,” said Singh. “But he is complicit in racism.”

The debate turned into more of a discussion with Liberal MNA Kathleen Weil and Québec Solidaire’s André Frappier, who both mocked Drainville and the PQ’s absence to discuss a bill proposed by them.

Frappier called Drainville’s absence “disappointing” while Weil said that she was sure the debate would still be peaceful if Drainville was present. The discussion lasted about two hours; both Weil and Frappier explained why they could not support Bill 60. Frappier said while his party supports secularism and sovereignty, the proposed legislation isn’t appropriate.

“What does that even mean, Quebec values?” asked Frappier. “We are horrified to see a process like this that puts others aside.”

Weil echoed the statements, explaining that Bill 60 will fail in court and called it “inapplicable.”

“It’s too disruptive for Quebec society to be living this debate,” said Weil. “You don’t legislate because people are fed up — there has to be a real problem.”

Following the debate, students asked questions regarding the legislation, though some of them couldn’t be answered by Weil or Frappier since the bill was proposed by the PQ.

Drainville has visited francophone universities such as Université Laval in Quebec City to defend the PQ’s charter over the last few months. The debate at Concordia passed without incident.

The Charter of Values, known as Bill 60, aims to promote secularism in the public sector by prohibiting civil servants from wearing “ostentatious” religious symbols and limiting time off based on religious grounds. It also seeks to amend Quebec’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms by outlining measures for reasonable accommodations. The PQ announced Bill 60 in early September and it has garnered a mixture of opposition and support.

 

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News

Concordia student launches Liberal Party campaign

Press photo

Concordia political science student, Jordan Gentile, launched his campaign on Nov. 20 to become the official candidate for Member of Parliament of the Pierrefonds-Dollard riding for the Liberal Party of Canada.

Press photo

Over 50 people were in attendance at the launch. The goal of the launch was to enable members of the community to become better acquainted with Gentile. Gentile is the current Riding President for the Federal Liberal Riding Association of Pierrefonds-Dollard.

“I was very happy with the result of the launch,” said Gentile. “The people who attended were both optimistic and encouraging and I had the opportunity to make some valuable contacts.”

As a Member of Parliament, Gentile would represent each person of the Pierrefonds-Dollard district in Ottawa.

“[I’d] ensure that they have their collective voices heard,” said Gentile, who described this as the most important task. He wants to represent his riding in Ottawa rather than have Ottawa represent them in the riding.

“The only way to properly represent your citizens is to know them,” said Gentile. To ensure this, Gentile said he’d meet with them on a regular basis and spend all the time he could in his electoral district.

“A Member of Parliament does not just attend fundraisers or meetings, they need to bring policy from the riding level to the national level and I vow to do that from the first day I am elected,” he said.

Gentile explained his experience has been rewarding thus far with the support of his family and friends who have helped to get the campaign going.

Working as the Riding President of Pierrefonds-Dollard for the past two years, Gentile said he realized the people in his riding deserve better.

“I truly believe that I possess all of the qualities to represent Pierrefonds-Dollard to the level they deserve,” said Gentile.

As he explained on his website, Gentile’s main objective as Riding President is to show his community that the Liberal Party is still alive and relevant in the district.

“I realized the hard work needed to begin rebuilding this party and began to rebuild the party from the ground up—starting at my local constituent level,” wrote Gentile. “I will put just as much muscle into winning this nomination as I have in rebuilding this riding,” he continued.

Besides his role as Riding President, Gentile is Regional President for West Montreal for the Liberal Party—part of Justin Trudeau’s Leadership program—and was chief organizer for Équipe Denis Coderre candidates in the Pierrefonds-Roxboro district during the 2013 municipal election.

Gentile said his political science courses at Concordia helped him gain a wide understanding of the political field, including both the academic and personal aspects.

“The greatest help has been the teachers. Having professors who are experienced in the field of political science has allowed me to understand what it takes to be a politician and what adversities I might face.”

The next step for Gentile is to meet and sign up Liberal Party members from the Pierrefonds-Dollard district, as this is required for anyone presenting themselves for nomination. Once the date of the nomination election is announced, Gentile will bring his members to vote. The nomination candidate with the most votes then becomes the official candidate for the Liberal Party of Canada in Pierrefonds-Dollard for the next federal election.

“I am also going to take this opportunity to get even more known in the area because people need to know who their Member of Parliament will be,” said Gentile.

Those wishing to know more about Gentile can visit his website: www.jordangentile.ca

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News

Parti Québécois aims to electrify Quebec

In a speech on Nov. 1, Premier Pauline Marois announced the Parti Québécois’ plans to electrify transportation in the province.

The PQ released a 113-page public document outlining a three-year plan that would cost $516 million.

Among other expenses, the government will invest $35 million to create the Institut du transport électrique, $50 million to attract companies in the field of electric transportation and spend $220 million to foster the electric transport industry.

“The goal is to make Québec a world leader in electric transportation,” said Marois, as quoted on the Quebec government website. “With this exciting project, we can create wealth here in Québec while reducing our greenhouse gas emissions in order to attain our ambitious targets by 2020.”

The PQ claims the project will play an important role in creating new jobs; in her speech, Marois stated the plan will create 2,000 jobs.

The government believes the Institut du transport électrique would attract world class researchers to the province. As it states on their website, this institution would also encourage “research teams from Québec universities and specialized centres to participate in the research and build ties between researchers and industry in Québec and abroad.”

The plan’s objectives consist of making Quebec a global leader in the transportation electrification field, capitalizing on Quebec’s expertise in electricity, building the future around a high-performance sector and making Quebec a model to follow.

The major projects of the plan include adding more than 12,000 electric vehicles to the current 4.4 million personal vehicles in Quebec, over three years and incorporating an electric trolley-bus network into the province. Funding will also be made available to add 525 electric taxis to the roads.

As reported in The Gazette and on CTV news, Marois said that consumers will be eligible for grants of up to $8,000 for electric or hybrid cars and $1,000 to install a charging station at home.

Furthermore, a section of St. Michel would be electrified with 25 trams, the blue metro line would be extended, and a light rail — an electric railway system — would be created on the Champlain Bridge.

Marois noted only $30 million for this plan would be new money, while the rest would come from the Green Fund. Created in 2006, this fund’s goal is to support environmental measures aimed at promoting sustainable development.

While the intentions of this plan are valuable, several Quebecers have expressed their concern over the cost and budgeting. Coalition Avenir Québec economy critic, Stéphane Le Bouyonnec, told CTV Montreal,

“To try to accelerate the electrification of transportation could be very costly and we know our government is broke.”

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Opinions

Liar, liar, pants on fire: Rob Ford edition

Photo by Shaun Merritt

It’s very difficult to forget the name Rob Ford. The Toronto mayor has been the top story in the news since Oct. 31, when Toronto Police claimed to be in possession of the infamous video which showed Ford smoking crack cocaine. In a press conference on Nov. 5, Ford did not resign, despite the demand from both politicians and citizens.

Photo by Shaun Merritt

Public figures need to be vigilant with what they do in their personal lives because they are under constant surveillance by media, and under rigorous scrutiny by voters.

Private lives of politicians should be kept separate from how one views them. It’s important to think of them based on how they handle issues in office and try to work for a better society. The Lewinsky scandal, where former United States’ president Bill Clinton admitted to having sexual relations with a young woman working at the White House, is a good example. Despite the fact that Clinton lied when allegations were first being made, he eventually admitted to the problem and corrected his lifestyle, unlike Ford. Clinton continues to have a positive and successful life in politics despite having undergone a scandal is his personal life.

However, the main issue is not the video of crack cocaine use. It’s also the way Ford has handled the scandal, and the lies he has told. Speculation of Ford smoking crack cocaine first surfaced back in March of this past year and was allegedly confirmed by various news outlets in May, but no video had been released to the public. Ford kept denying he had ever smoked crack cocaine all throughout the summer. The story eventually got pushed to the side, but not for long. Ford was again spotted at a party in August, extremely belligerent and intoxicated.

In 2006, he was at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto watching a Toronto Maple Leafs hockey game when he began insulting a couple behind him. He was clearly intoxicated, and was escorted out of the building by security. When asked about it a couple days later, he denied ever having been at the game.

It seems that every time something new about Ford’s personal life makes it into the news, he explicitly denies it. He often finds himself caught in a web of lies and he shows no signs of slowing down. Is it possible that he doesn’t realize his personal life is severely affecting his credibility?

When your personal life starts affecting your political life, the obvious decision is to deal with the issue. In this case Ford has decided against that, and has not resigned. That’s what I see in Ford — someone who doesn’t seem to care all that much about his political life based on the fact that he hasn’t made any effort to change his lifestyle. People expect their politicians to be honest with them. How can they expect a blatant liar to do a good job of transmitting the truth?

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Pauline Marois’ electoral gamble will amount to a loss

Graphic Jenny Kwan

It would be untrue to say that Quebec’s political scene isn’t wildly entertaining. This zoo we call our political system has been embarrassingly inadequate for the past few years, no matter who has been running it.

Graphic Jenny Kwan

When it came time to hit the polls last year, it was none other than Pauline Marois, infamous leader of the Parti Québécois, that took the vote by a mere one per cent, ousting the corruption-laden Liberal Party.

After over a year of watching Pauline Marois and her minority government struggle to make any valuable contribution to Quebec, Quebecers were eagerly awaiting to see whether she would call an election at the end of this year.

The answer is a resounding no. It seems 2014 will be the next time we’ll be choosing a provincial leader.

“The government doesn’t want general elections in 2013,” Marois told the press on Oct. 26. “The population gave us a mandate and we will continue to assume it. In the next few days, we will present our governmental orientations for solidarity because we think a responsible government must take care of people. We will also present our electrification strategy in transportation because we want Quebec to be a leader in that technology.”

Most importantly for Marois, it gives her a bit more time to convince voters to let her stay, no matter how unlikely that seems when you look at the facts.

Marois’ time in office has been a laughing affair. All the good she’s done politically has been almost completely shunned and overshadowed by a few major stunts that changed her reputation from separatist leader to separatist wacko.

Regardless of when the elections are held  the hole Marois and the Parti Québécois have dug themselves will barter the same result:  a change of heart politically for Quebecers. Whether it’s the reformed liberals, with Pierre Couillard now holding the reins, or the newly formed Coalition Avenir Quebec, it is highly unlikely that Marois will ever lead this province again.

QMI Agency political analyst Jean Lapierre said the PQ realized it didn’t have the poll numbers to win a majority government.

“Marois got spooked,” Lapierre said, according to The Toronto Sun. “Marois has been preparing for months to open a window for an election, and she choked.”

The truth is that as a province this isn’t what we need at the moment. Like the rest of the world, Quebecers all over the province have real issues that need fixing.

Our education system is in debt and needs more funding, our construction system is a mess, and our province is falling apart economically, mirrored by the economic plan the Parti Québécois announced last week.

“The economic plan announced last week signals a shift away from fiscal austerity, along with a hefty dose of interventionism in industrial policy that is destined to be rejected by the opposition parties at the first possible opportunity,” said Pierre Martin, a professor of political science at the Université de Montréal, in an article for The Toronto Star.

We took a gamble when we gave a separatist party a chance, and we lost our chips. Truth is, Quebec is a diverse province with an amazing population, and preserving the French language is an incredibly important issue. That being said, the party in place is simply too immature to lead. You cannot focus all of your attention and energy to language and “identity issues,” and ignore other pressing matters. It’s especially disconcerting that the one issue they are focusing on is being handled incorrectly.

The people in this province need to be united, and all the Parti Québécois has done is create issues to separate us. It’s time for a change.

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