Election a lost cause

Another Quebec election — whoopdeedoo! An uplifting and intelligent period of new ideas and exciting solutions — not! We are all locked in a prison cell of high government debt, over-taxation, bureaucratic bumbling, and a litany of broken promises. And then there’s that ever-present cell-mate, Bubba, who gets that funny look in his eye every few years and wants a refer-rearendum.

Speaking of André Boisclair, he was quoted as having “the knife between his teeth.” That’s another good metaphor for a Quebec election. The PQ always have their knives out for Canadians and anglophones (the bulk of we West Islanders), but at least we know it. They stab us in the front. The Liberals, our so-called allies, like to stab us in the back; as they did last election with the de-merger riggederendum. The question this election is where will Mario Dumont stab us? Let’s hope he’s not from the Lorena Bobbit school of swordplay!

Let’s face it, we can’t vote for either the Quebec Liberals or the Parti Québécois because of their promises: with the Liberals it’s because we’re afraid that they won’t keep them; and with the PQ it’s because we’re afraid that they will. That’s why four mayors of those little towns met with Mario. These are truly desperate times!

When there is so much passion for environmental issues, how come we cannot muster the same passion to fix Quebec’s financial crisis? How deep in debt do we have to be and how high do our taxes have to go before we feel the waters of bankruptcy rising around us? This is not sustainable growth. What we need is an economic Kyoto about the kind of green that’s on the $20. This is an emergency that threatens the well-being of all our children. Computer models show that by the year 2100 our taxes will total more than 150 per cent of our income.

What to do? Here are some strategies I have heard: 1) Sell your house and move to Alexandria, Ont. You will immediately get to keep ten per cent more of the money you earn. 2) Vote Liberal, and after they get in and housing prices spike up, then sell your house and move to Alexandria. You could buy yourself a horse with the extra dough. 3) Vote for Mario, close your eyes and pray to the Patron Saint of Lost Causes: St. Lucien. 4) Vote PQ and let everyone in the French media know it. You will become famous and valued as a rare, token West Island PQist; assuring you of a job with the Quebec government with two weeks off sick leave each year as well as four weeks paid vacation as well as a generous pension and early retirement.

Perhaps this is the key. It’s not only French as the common language one has to accept to live here; it’s socialism as a worldview. Individualism and entrepreneurship are simply not valued. They are not even understood. In fact, the taxation rates actually punish them. There is no incentive to work hard. So perhaps we should give up and get behind Quebec Solidaire’s platform of — let the rich (those who pay taxes, ie: the middle class) pay! It doesn’t matter how much the government is in debt. We want free daycare, free tuition, free medical care, free rent, free food — and free love! And with any luck our oceans of water will take us before our oceans of debt.