I think I may have helped in last night’s crushing defeat of Pauline Marois’ Parti Quebecois, and with it the the shelving, for another decade at least, of all talk of another referendum on Quebec independence, along with the total demolition of the PQ’s Orwellian Charter of So-Called Values: the crappiest kind of identity politics, which would have seen Muslim women, for instance, who had served faithfully for years as teachers, nurses, civil servants, jack-booted out of their jobs for wearing ‘religious symbols’ at work.
My contribution may have been small – I simply wished, as I put it to Rob, that the PQ ‘crashes and burns in this election’ – but clearly it was significant. So much so that Pauline herself (I may call you Pauline, now, mayn’t I – you’re no longer Premier, after all, not even an elected parliamentarian) in a delightful twist of the electoral knife, lost her own seat as well as having to step down as PQ leader. She had, had she not, led them, the PQ-istas, like a troop of febrile lemmings, over the cliff edge and into political oblivion.
‘If wishes were horses, beggars would ride’, I hear you snort. But it is not just my wishing defeat upon the forces of darkness that did the trick, it was my faith in the electorate, and the democratic process. You see, decent Canadians (who are, I believe, the vast majority) did not take kindly to the divisive wedge politics, the racism dressed up in the dubious garb of culture wars and secularism, the arrogance and ideological fundamentalism, the sheer perfidious nastiness, of the PQ in government, and the PQ on the campaign trail. They rose up, in all their glorious mildness, and slew the demon division, sweeping it from power with a huge majority for the (not entirely deserving) Liberals.
The next trick, I guess, is to remove the mean-spirited Harperites, and their notion – laughable, if not so deeply, profoundly subversive of democracy – of a ‘Fair Elections Act’ – from the levers of power and the statute books, and return Canada to a more civilised and decent notion of itself. Let Canada again be a light unto the nations, say I, or at least a tolerable beacon of working democracy: and then let that light shine where I most wish it would shine, in my home country, South Africa.
Now that’s wishing something.
C’est tres bien!
Aahhh you wrote my comment in your last sentence… general election on 7th May and Ronnie Kasrils is calling for a spoilt vote or vote against the ANC campaign (apparently on FB) – just destruction, nothing positive… so sad what happened to reforming the ANC? Has this become an impossible thought?
Seems that in my ageing state I have to sit back and know that the personal sacrifices we all made in the many years leading to ‘freedom’ in South Africa have been worthwhile and that my penurious state, brought about by those sacrifices, is worth it. I struggle to see the bright side… but it is there and many people are better off than they were 25 years ago. Got to hang on to that!
May Zuma go the way of Marois and the South African people follow the lead of the Canadians and vote as they should to get rid of him and his cronies. Not sure what that might be…
Two things I’m sure of: the struggle to get rid of apartheid was just, necessary, and despite the many soiled hands holding the flag, noble. The other thing: that it is time now for the ANC to go.
It will be a force in the land for many years to come, that I am sure of: but it needs a period in the political wilderness to force it to cleanse and renew itself. And until the ANC goes, we can’t really say we have achieved democracy.
Democracy, so the theory goes, exists only when power has changed hands peacefully twice. That hasn’t happened yet, in post-apartheid South Africa.
A luta continua!