Hey Quebec Anglos, stop voting (or not voting) from a place of fear

I know the CBC and other anglophone media love to emphasize this stuff for the sake of controversy or whatever is driving their agenda these days, so I may simply be reacting to media hype.  On CBC Radio 1 they are now having this inane series called "None of the Above" which purports to examine why anglos in Quebec aren't voting.  Then they go and inteview people who complain that nobody represents them. 

It drives me bonkers when I hear this argument.  It's actually code for "these people are all francophones and therefore they don't represent my interests."  It's true that none of the leaders are addressing the concerns of the anglophone majority and many of them are actively supporting policies that are antithetical to anglophone concerns in Quebec (growing the hated OQLF, planning for a referendum, restricting growth of english schools, etc.).   The biggie is separation.  Again, I don't know if this is actually real or just the media creating, but it has become kind of a deal-breaker issue.  This plays big time outside of Quebec to the idiots in Ontario or the even bigger retards in the west who love to get angry about Quebec even though they do not have a fucking clue about anything having to do with anything here.

[Aside: I have to rant about this, because it makes me so crazy, but here is a prime example of the kind of stupidity I am talking about:  Unfriending Marois on Facebook because she is "a politician whose only goal in public life is to break up the country that I live in."  Okay, what the fuck?  Really?  Let's review the logic one more time.  You hate separatists and all that they stand for.  They stand for an independent Quebec nation based on their cultural values.  So therefore you hate their cultural values.  So why do you want them in the country that you live in?  How do you propose to keep them in Canada if you hate everything they stand for?  Should Quebec be like a giant amusement park controlled by the Federal government where anglos can come and look at the quaint Quebeckers with their emphasis on the arts and education instead of the hard realities of pure commerce?  It's like you are a big family and everybody hates one aunt who married into the family, but if she tries to get a divorce everyone is outraged because that will "destroy" the family.  Is this just a geographic argument then?  Should we just round up all the French-Canadians and ship them out somewhere so Canada can keep the land and resources and the Québécois can keep their culture elsewhere out of our hair?  Talk of "destroying Canada" is just a bullshit argument and anybody who brings it up needs to get slapped.  If, as you read this, you are thinking right now that Quebec separating is "destroying Canada", please feel the virtual stinging slap of either my open hand or my back hand, depending on how I feel at the moment.  Then when you have stopped reeling, come to your senses.  Okay, I feel much better now and so should you.]

I got distracted from my main point here, which is that as an anglo voter in Quebec you should just ignore all the talk about separation and a referendum.  Look at your candidates from a practical perspective and choose the one that fits your economic and political positions the best.  The main thing is that WE HAVE TO GET RID OF CHAREST.  The corruption that he has allowed to flourish must be stopped. It's far and away the biggest problem in this province, it's why our roads are so bad, why our publics works projects are so shoddy and slow, it's tangentially responsible for all kinds of other inefficiencies and high prices that we suffer here.  If you are a leftie environmentalist like me, vote Quebec Solidaire.  If you are more of a rightie business-type (who might have voted for Charest in the past), then vote for the CAQ.  I can't really support Marois--her stance on immigration and other cultures reflects a profound and problematic racism of ignorance in Quebec and I don't really see the PQ doing much about the corruption since they were deep in it not so long ago themselves--but she is still a better choice than Charest if you are more of a centrist.

Quebec is stagnating and it has been allowed to stagnate because voters playing it safe have allowed Charest and his cronies to remain in power.  They have done nothing for anybody, except their mafia developer friends.  It's time for him to go and the anglos in the West Island can help by knocking out a few bricks in the wall this election. 

Do not worry about a referendum.  It's not going to happen.  The PQ will not get a majority and if they do, they will see the moment they start talking about actually doing a referendum what a mess it will create for them politically.  Marois is just parrotting to the powerbrokers in her party to appease the old guard who actually fought for sovereignty back in the day and can't accept that they have lost that war (despite having won many great battles).

Go vote.