After a good deal of consideration, I have decided to delve into the party policy of the Bloc Quebecois, despite the fact that they are indeed not a pan-national party.
The reasoning behind this choice is quite simple: one should always enter arguments armed with the facts, and separatism is still an argument that we contend with at a national level. For the sake of brevity, this week's analysis is restricted to policy alone.
It's always best to get your cheapest jabs and observations out of the way first, as these seem even pettier as an argument gets deeper and wider. So for those readers who have thought of starting a political party or writing a manifesto, I would highly encourage you to reread your policy manual before posting it online, not simply for the love of grammar, but to double check whether you left editorial notes idling in parentheses scattered throughout your document.
No, I'm not joking. The BQ has notes that do in fact say things like "missing an ending to that sentence" and "define: fire sale" within the official text of the document. Cue laugh track.
Moving on to deeper issues, the single greatest contradiction rife throughout the document is of course the separatist cause.
While claiming a respect for universal suffrage, the BQ still somehow manages to say "50%+1 in a referendum is good enough to separate" with a straight face. This is nonsense of course, but as it is so fundamental to their platform, it in turn skews every other policy plank.
For example, the BQ speaks about Quebec culture as fragile and in need of statist protections to keep it from being eroded by the combined English-speaking powers of North America. To do this, the BQ wishes to shun English in all its forms; centralize and plan the economy; implement controls on arts and culture; hyper-secularize the state; reject multiculturalism and influence immigration; and remove all symbols related to the monarchy.
While it's true that Quebec never signed the Charter, these policies are wholly baseless even when viewed from pre-1982 standards. Confederation guaranteed language rights, and the Bi and Bi Commission also states that English and French are official languages throughout the country.
Furthermore, the hyper-secularization and anti-multiculturalism exhibited by the provincial Parti Quebecois in last year's election was rightly labelled racist, and caused their government to fall. Why the BQ would align with such a self-defeating argument is insane.
Also, the republican mindset of the BQ shows a complete lack of respect for the Crown's attempts to keep Quebec sequestered from undue English influence over the centuries.
Finally, it is important to understand that the BQ's ideas rest on two misplaced notions. First, the BQ assumes that even if Quebec did vote to separate, it would be sovereign over its current borders.
This doesn't add up, as Quebec's current borders, unlike B.C.'s, were created by federal statute, and so it follows they can be reduced by acts of parliament as well.
Second, the BQ wants to be a philosophical island, fully in control of all market, cultural, demographic, and political influences, an impossibility in an age of YouTube and mass air travel. This romantic notion has had a fair number of supporters over the years, but all attempts at a self-sufficient state have resulted in the worst kinds of tyranny and control. It can't be done.
But perhaps the most profound fact about the BQ is just how antiquated its notions have become.
The Quiet Revolution that gave rise to the separatist movement is now over 50, and the issue of identity in Qubec is not nearly as central as it once was. In the end, BQ will most likely die of that most natural of causes in politics: failure to adapt.
