QUEBEC the second largest PROVINCE in Canada holds 75 seats AND cannot be ignored.

 

 

 

I have found it very surprising that Most Canadians are really ignorant of what Quebecers, Quebec is really like, and they do falsely rely on distorted third party information, myths, and most, actually the majority of  English speaking Canadians have not spend a significant time ever in Quebec. To learn more : Culture Québec, A culture that travels the world, from the ministère de la Culture et des Communications.

 

Intro to Quebec, Quebec outwardly is fairly typical of most Western societies in many regards, with, however, a few significant particularities of its own. A French Language, most Quebecers even younger ones do not still speak English ,  and a Culture of it’s own that has been very significantly influenced by the  Catholic Church beliefs.. The influence of the Catholic Church  has decreased significantly  but has not been removed. While  Montreal was once the centre of Jewish culture in Canada this is no longer true, nor visible as much too.   Quebec was a major  Roman Catholic society until recent years. The Church has maintained itself  the protector of the French language and culture. Archbishops of large cities once were very influential at all government levels. In small towns, the influence of the priest was often equal or superior to that of the town’s mayor. Before any political decision could be made, politicians made sure that it would be in accordance with Catholic belief and attitudes. Congregations of nuns controlled and managed the province’s education, social and medical service. Simply put, Quebec was one of the world’s Catholic strongholds.  Since the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s, Quebec has become much more secular. Nonetheless about 90% of the population still claims to be Catholic, but few regularly attend services or pay the tithe ** ( See note below) which the faithful are supposed to give to the Church. The strong Consumer protection and close social aspect of the French speaking mostly  persons is also very evident , Quebec has the highest percentage of unionized workers in North America.  Half of Quebecers do also  have strong adversarial relationships with residents of neighbouring English-speaking provinces as well as Quebec’s own Anglophones because they rightfully sense no serious  attempt has been made to understand, appreciate or to integrate into the French Quebec culture  . Such an attitude stems mainly  up  to 20th century, when the Anglophones dominated the spheres of industry ,  commerce, ownership and management  and they the Anglophones had falsely tended to favour their own for promotion to management-level positions. EVEN TODAY MOST  CANADIAN Anglophones, AND NOTE THIS Francophones as well  outside of Quebec are generally STILL INDIFFERENT AND VERY UNFRIENDLY TO THE FRENCH SPEAKING QUEBECERS. One notable vestige of the Catholic Church’s influence of Quebec culture is that francophone curses and expletives are nearly entirely composed of religious references and vocabulary.  While the majority of Quebecers still have not been to the rest of Canada, starting probably in the late 1940s and reaching its apogee in the 1970s, many  Quebec residents have been known to vacation or spend the whole winter months in southeast Florida, and in Cuba as well. And many Quebecers have obtained jobs in the US and also had  moved there as well.. There are as many ex Quebecers in the US as there are presently in  Quebec. But in a direct contrast Quebecers have not moved to the other parts of Canada because they have not been treated very nice there as they have been in the United States..

 

The Canadian federal Parliament formally recognized Quebecers as a “nation united within Canada” but often fails to act accordingly still too.

 

 

OTTAWA, March 17 2009 (UPI) — Canada’s Conservative Party, which leads a minority government, has a 35-31 percent popularity edge over opposition Liberals, a poll released Tuesday indicated.  The Angus Reid nationwide online poll of 1,002 adults last week for the Toronto Star said Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservatives had lost 3 percentage points since January. Opposition leader Michael Ignatieff’s Liberals gained 2 percentage points during the same time period, the report said. The socialist New Democratic Party posted 16 percent support and the Green Party had 7 percent, the poll indicated. The balance was scattered among the separatist Bloc Quebecois or others. The poll had a 3.1-percentage-point margin of error, the report said. The findings are similar to a poll of 2,002 voters published by the Canwest News Service March 10, in which Conservatives led the Liberals 37-33 percent. That poll suggested Conservative support was steady, while the Liberals gained 2 percent support. This was not unexpected since Harper’s recent negative acts, policies have again continued to  alienate a lot of people, especially Quebecers. Hold on – politicians are always saying the only polls that count are the ones on election day, so maybe we shouldn’t put too much stock in this report. Or maybe we should? The Conservatives are definately losing serious ground..

  

“  Whatever love existed between Quebec and the Tories has turned sour. Last week, two different polls showed the Conservatives are in dire straits in the province they used to count on to gain a majority government. Everything is in the numbers. A province that is the second largest in Canada and holds the key to 75 seats cannot be ignored… Of course, from the beginning the Tories were poorly equipped to deal with Quebec. They had a mediocre roster of candidates and a dramatic lack of articulate local leaders — that’s still the case.,,Mr. Harper’s closest adviser on Quebec and spokesperson for Quebec affairs is Dimitri Soudas. Mr. Soudas’s only connections are with the Action Démocratique du Québec, a small right-wing party that is becoming more and more insignificant. (The ADQ received 16.3 per cent of the vote in the last provincial election and its leader, Mario Dumont, the only Quebec politician Mr. Harper was on good terms with, has resigned from politics.) The Prime Minister wasn’t even able to find a high-profile Quebecker to appoint to the Senate. And since the Conservatives didn’t win any seats in the Montreal area, it’s a young neophyte MP from Mégantic-L’Érable, Christian Paradis, who’s in charge of the metropolitan area. Mégantic is 300 kilometres east of Montreal, and Mr. Paradis candidly admits he hasn’t visited Montreal more than a few times in his life.

 

Instead of looking for a strong, well-connected lieutenant and broadening his circle of Quebec advisers, Mr. Harper naively thought he could handle Quebec himself and that his goodwill gestures toward the province would do the rest. He’s now reaping the results of his own delusion.” http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090313.wcogagnon16/BNStory/specialComment/home 

  

Harper certainly will never  get the support of Quebecer by STILL falsely bashing them for a start. Quebecers ARE VERY different,  AND they are a separate WHOLE  community and they are NOT just North Americans who speak French. They have a catholic and not a protestant background too, and they believe in the sprit of the law over the letter of the law, and they are not easily fooled like the Anglophones often are.

 

PROUD HARPER, AND THE WEST  WRONGFULLY CANNOT UNDERSTAND STILL THAT IF YOU DESPISE, ABUSE QUEBECERS THERE NEXT IS A SERIOUS PRICE TO PAY FOR IT.. A REAL SERIOUS PRICE.. AND NO ONE CAN HAVE A MAJORITY CANADIAN GOVERNMENT WITHOUT THE QUEBEC VOTE.

  

CANADA’S PRIME MINISTER STEPHEN HARPER HAS A DIFFICULT BALANCING ACT TO DO.. HE HAS TO PLEASE BC, NATIVES,  ESKIMOS, THE WEST, ONTARIO, QUEBEC, AND THE MARITIMES, INCLUDING NEWFOUNDLAND TOO. HE PLEASES ONE AND IT TEND TO MAKE SOMEONE ELSE UPSET.

  

Harper is losing it also in Ontario now too. Mar 21, 2009 04:30 AM Liberal support in Ontario clocked in at 44 per cent while the Conservatives have 31 per cent and the NDP 14 per cent, according to the poll, done for the Star and La Presse by Nanos Research.http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/606075 

The Conservatives are down and out in Quebec – and know it  Globe and Mail -  While Prime Minister Stephen Harper made the spot decision to recognize the Québécois as a “nation” within a united Canada. They betrayed the Harperites’ lack of touch when dealing with Quebec sensitivities, Then came Mr. Harper’s bad attack on “separatists” during the coalition acts last December … jsimpson@globeandmail.com

Bashing Quebec makes the bashers even bigger losers next still too.

MOST QUEBECERS CLAIM A RELGIOUS AFFILIATION http://www.montrealgazette.com/Life/United+church+converts+French/1497838/story.html

 

How Quebcers differ from the rest of Canada in their views..

http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/04/28/what-canadians-think-of-sikhs-jews-christians-muslims/

 

Three-quarters of Canadian voters who attend evangelical churches (such as Baptist, Mennonite and Pentecostal) opted for the Conservative Party of Canada. In general Protestants, who nominally make up 30 per cent of the population, tend to split their vote between the two major parties.

Even though a majority of Quebecers don’t attend church on a regular basis, more than 95 per cent still claim some sort of formal religious affiliation.

Following are the latest figures for Quebec, for selected religions. They were collected during the 2001 federal census. Although the last census was held in 2006, questions about religious affiliation are asked only every second census. The next census will be in 2011.

Roman Catholics 5.9 million

Protestants 335,595

Muslims 108,620

Jews 89,920

Buddhists 41,375

Jehovah’s Witnesses 29,040

Hindus 24,530

No religious affiliation 413,185

Note: Among Protestants in Quebec, Anglicans were the most numerous, with 85,475 adherents; members of the United Church came second, with 52,950. For Canada as a whole, the United Church was the leading Protestant denomination, with 2.83 million members to the Anglican Church’s 2.03 million.

The  April 2009 poll, by Angus Reid Strategies for Maclean’s, surveyed 1,002 randomly selected Canadians on religion. 
    RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE: POLL HIGHLIGHTS

    – 70% of Canadians hold a positive view of Christianity

    – 41% hold a positive view of Hinduism

    – 30% hold a positive view of Sikhism

    – 45% believe mainstream Islam encourages violence

    – 44% Nationally would not want their child to marry a person of Jewish faith. Even fewer would be comfortable with a Sikh or a Muslim. In Quebec, that number rises 

    – 62% Nationally  think laws and norms should not be modified to accommodate minorities. In Quebec, that number rises to 74%.

Across Canada, 72 per cent said they have a “generally favourable opinion” of Christianity. At the other end of the spectrum, Islam scored the lowest favourability rating, just 28 per cent. Sikhism didn’t fare much better at 30 per cent, and Hinduism was rated favourably by 41 per cent. Both Buddhism, at 57 per cent, and Judaism, 53 per cent, were rated favourably by more than half the population

A mere 17 per cent of Quebecers said they have a favourable opinion of Islam, and just 15 per cent view Sikhism favourably. Only 36 per cent of Quebecers said they hold a favourable opinion of Judaism, far below the national average, and in sharp contrast to neighbouring Ontario, where 59 per cent expressed a favourable view of the Jewish religion. “ .., all religions were regarded less positively in Quebec than in Canada as a whole, including Christianity, which 67 per cent of Quebecers view favourably, five points below the Canadian average.  Buddhism’s favourability rating of 57 per cent is four points higher than Judaism, . Buddhism was the only religion, including Christianity, for which more than half of people who said they don’t have a friend of that faith held a favourable opinion of it anyway.

When asked if they thought “the mainstream beliefs” of the major religions “encourage violence or are mostly peaceful,” only 10 per cent said they thought Christianity teaches violence. But fully 45 per cent said they believe Islam does, and a sizable 26 per cent saw Sikhism as encouraging violence. By comparison, just 13 per cent perceived violence in Hindu teachings and 14 per cent in Jewish religion. A tiny four per cent said they think of Buddhism as encouraging violence. By far the highest percentage who viewed Islam as encouraging violence was found in Quebec, 57 per cent. Sikh doctrine is mostly likely to be viewed as violent in the province where about half of Canadian Sikhs live: 30 per cent of British Columbians said they think Sikhism encourages violence.

Angus Reid also took that debate national, asking how far governments should go to accommodate minorities. A strong majority of 62 per cent agree with the statement, “Laws and norms should not be modified to accommodate minorities.” A minority, 29 per cent, agreed with the alternative statement, “On some occasions, it makes sense to modify specific laws and norms to accommodate minorities.” Another nine per cent weren’t sure. In Quebec, 74 per cent were against changing laws or norms, the highest negative response rate on the accommodation question in the country

The Angus Reid poll   found 51 per cent oppose funding of Christian schools, and the level of opposition soars from 68 per cent to 75 per cent for all other religions. On even hotter-button religious issues, opposition is overwhelming. Only 23 per cent would allow veiled voting, and just three per cent Islamic sharia law—an even lower level of support than the eight per cent who would allow polygamy. There’s substantial sympathy for recognizing religious holidays, 45 per cent, but a solid majority still opposes the idea.

** Still today Quebec’s official welcome to non-Catholic immigrants  in addition to the huge crucifix atop Mount Royal in Montreal are wall mounted crucifix and their public prayers.

 

Quebec’s Catholics special religious rights  goes back to the Quebec Act of 1774, and is central to the asymmetrical features of Confederation in the British North America Act of 1867. This The Quebec Act explicitly guaranteed the freedom to practice the Catholic faith. It also restored French civil law alongside the British common law even till today. Furthermore, the Quebec Act allowed Catholics to hold public office, and removed a reference to the Protestant denomination in the office holders’ oath of allegiance to the king of England. It also allowed the Catholic church to collect the religious tax known as the tithe…  http://anyonecare.wordpress.com/2009/05/28/the-not-so-secret/

The Catholic church collects tithes, but so do many evangelical churches, and some cults too.. even though tithes is applicable only in the Old Testament and to the Jewish persons only too.  The Tithe in the new Testament is voluntary, non compulsive..  but the problem also today still is that many of the people who collect the tithe, violate often the OT laws on tithing and do  steal from the tithe as well.. the OT had specified 1/7 of the tithe had to be given to the poor.. something the present  tithe collectors do not mention, do not preach nor practise wrongfully in reality..  http://anyonecare.wordpress.com/2008/05/29/the-ttihe/

Quebecers alone in wanting to save gun registry: Poll Wed Nov 11, 12:47 PM  OTTAWA – A new poll suggests Quebecers are alone in wanting to save the long-gun registry. This is because Quebecers actually are more peace loving persons over those in the rest of Canada, and the Catholic region tends to preach pacifism, love and forgiveness over war mongering.

 

Harper recent win in one riding in Quebec. It’s an exception to conventional wisdom that by-election results can’t be extrapolated into a broader trend. Stephen Harper’s first attempt to woo small-town, rural Québécois voters was only a partial success. He then stabbed himself and his party in the chest during the 2008 election with maladroit policies on cuts to arts funding and tough youth-crime measures. Since the setback, his Conservatives have offered rural, small-town Quebec a much warmer and tangible second French kiss. Will it be reciprocated? Yes: There’s more than enough circumstantial evidence to conclude his second gambit might do the trick. The Conservatives have reached out with bags of taxpayers’ stimulus cash, as well as more pandering on the language front.Will this let them rout the Bloc in rural, small-town Quebec to help win a majority? It depends on if and how Gilles Duceppe can counter the steady flow of hard cash in rural constituencies that have fallen on hard times. Neither the Liberals nor NDP can challenge the Bloc or the Conservatives in rural Quebec. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/letters-to-the-editor/a-second-french-kiss/article1360304/

 

Face it like anywhere in Canada, even in Alberta many people can be bought with cash.. something Harper knows and practices now even though he had first lied and said he never would.. the Liberals also used it successfully for years..

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