A Bloc Québécois MP is refusing to hand out Canadian flags to the local Legion for Remembrance Day services this year, angering veterans as they prepare to remember their fallen comrades.
MP André Bellavance says he was elected as a sovereigntist and if his constituents want Canadian flags, they should call Heritage Canada. “A majority of people here elected an MP who's a Bloquiste and a sovereigntist — I never hid it during the campaign — and I don't want to become a distributor of Canadian flags,” he said in an interview yesterday from his office in Ottawa. However, he said he wouldn't have any problem giving out Quebec flags if someone asked him, even if he had to buy them himself.
Since Mr. Bellavance is a “Bloquiste” and a “Sovereigntist” and feels that his political principles are compromised by handing out a Canadian flag to local veterans who sacrificed on the behalf of all Canadians, yes - even the Bloquistes. I suggest that he and his like-minded sovereigntists immediately give up all benefits of Canadian citizenship and learn to speak German. Turn in their passports, give up their salaries, pension benefits, refuse transfer payments to the province, refuse to accept federal funding for all Quebec educational & medical institutions, immediately demand the removal of all federal government offices from Quebec, demand that all businesses supplying goods or services to the federal government cease immediately. The Bloquistes claim to be Separatists and Sovereigntists; then let them live out the full consequences of their principles – any less is a hypocritical compromise. Until then, go buy the flag and stop trying to score cheap political points on the backs of Quebec veterans.
7 comments:
*applause*
Hear, hear!
Why Trudeaupia and not Mulronia? The Bloc are the Conservative's bastard children, after all. Surely, you remember that great Conservative, Lucien Bouchard?
Trudeau's handling of the October Crisis and invoking the War Measures Act did more for the cause of the Quebec Separatist movement than anything to be found during the Mulroney years 1984-1993.
Ordering the military into the province and suspending civil liberties gave Rene Levesque and the separatist the edge they needed to capture the imagination and hearts of Quebeccers for the Separatist cause.
History didn't begin in 1970 and end in 1984. Don't get me wrong, I never voted for Trudeau ( My hero, Tommy Douglas bravely told Trudeau he was wrong during the October Crisis, and the NDP stood alone against the War Measures Act. Stanfield wimped out). However, the central point is this, the Bloc was created, largely, by nationalists brought into the Conservative party by Mr. Mulroney. Trudeau hated the nationalists even though he dealt with them in a ham handed way, Mulroney on the other hand gave them positions of power. Hence, long live Mulronia!
My point is that whether your a Bloc or Levesque supporter the common theme is separatism. Trudeau help give rise to the separatist agenda on a national level that could not have existed before the extremist measures taken against ordinary Quebeccers without inacting the War Measures Act. There were alternative ways to deal with the FLQ crisis without enacting the War Measures Act against the whole province. Trudeau's failure to lead started the whole ball rolling downhill and I agree with you, Stanfield wimped out and Mulroney fed the Bloc in the hope that the old divide and conquer philosophy would check the Levesque separatists. Neither Trudeau or Mulroney dealth with the legitimate complaints of franophones in a viable way - hence this issue is has not been put to bed. But making hay with cheap political points against Quebecois veterans is inexcusable.
So maybe we should call it Mulreaupia or just forget the whole thing and expend our energy figuring out how to defeat the seperatists! On a serious note, these kinds of stunts must give Gilles Duceppe (who has grown into a smart politician) an ulcer. The Bloc has ended up looking petty and stupid (which is a good outcome).
Ok, I concur.
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