Owner: Anh Khoi Do's blog: Point of view URL:http://anhkhoi.blogspot.com Join Date: Fri, 25 May 2007 23:00:51 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: A blog of a History student dealing with Canadian and international politics in a subjective way. Site statistics:Click here
School is Over 2007-05-25 20:55:00 I seriously don't have anything on politics (or other related stuff) to share with you today. Therefore, I'll take the time to tell you that school is finally over for me. Moreover, I'm going to study History (hey, I'm also going to take some courses related to political science, mind you!) at the University of Montreal.So, to start a new moment with this blog, I'm going to do something that I should've done at the time when I wrote the very first post on this blog: introducing myself to you, politically speaking.Now, where do I start? For those who have been reading me regularly, you know that I'm a federalist. However, I'm against strong federal centralization, because provincial competences must be respected. Moreover, I am not an enthusiastic of the federal spending power. In fact, any given provinces must have the right to spend their transfer payments the way they want to do it in certain field of competences, naturally.Obviously, here's one thing that most of you know a Read more:School
Who Runs Quebec? 2007-05-24 09:25:00 Since Tuesday, employees of Montreal's public transit network (who are part of a trade union) asked for a salary raise of 2% per year in a contract of 3 years. With a basic salary of $42,972 per year (including social benefits), these people don't have any reason to complain. Indeed, this basic salary almost corresponds to what a Quebec
ker teacher will earn after five years, starting with a salary of $36,196! Besides, since the maximum salary is $54,870, most people working in Montreal's public transit network earn $53,435. When Montreal's mayor Gérald Tremblay said that there will be no salary raise, the leader of the Action Démocratique du Québec (ADQ) Mario Dumont supported him. Moreover, Dumont didn't hide his thoughts about the possibility to promulgate at the National Assembly a "special law" that can break strikes from employees of public transit networks in Quebec."The real question is: who speaks for the average people. Who defend the average people in Quebec?" This wa
A Little Bit of History 2007-05-21 22:40:00 No please, don't click the "X" icon in the right top corner of your screen! I'm not going to bore you with another column dealing with History
. In fact, I clearly have nothing to write today, so I'll leave you with some interesting things related to History. Trust me, you're going to enjoy reading these articles in question. Good reading.The Chinese in Montreal, The Gazette (May 21, 2007). A very interesting article about the presence of people of Chinese heritage in Montreal. Obviously, the racism that these people faced from the 1900s to the 1960s is being talked about in this article written by John KalbfleischISRAËL - Pardonnez notre racisme, Courrier International (May 18, 2007). An article from the Israeli newspaper Ha'Aretz translated in French. It talks about the strained relation between the Jews and Muslims (and by extension people of Arabic heritage) living in France.Les 60 ans du Festival de Cannes : la mémoire du siècle, Historia (May 2007, issue 725). Since the cr
Gérard Bouchard and Separation 2007-05-18 21:15:00 Yesterday, one of The Gazette's political columnists, Don MacPherson said that Gérard Bouchard, one of the president of the Bouchard-Taylor Commission, should resign. Apparently, in an interview given to the weekly newspaper Voir, Bouchard admitted that French Quebeckers are having quite a hard time with the "debate" on "reasonnable accommodations", because they "react like [ethnic minorities], display the same feelings of fear, threat, fragility [and] roughness."Here's the pièce de résistance of the news created by The Gazette that wasn't a news as such: Gérard Bouchard said that achieving the independence of Quebec will solve all our problems concerning reasonnable accommodations. Moreover, this sociologist added that the separation would act as a glue to unite all people living in Quebec.Now, that's a hell of a good joke if you consider Quebec's History since 1840! Ok, let's get back to the point. Sociologist Gérard Bouchard spilled his opinion opinion out while he wasn' Read more:Separation
Lise Thibault Finally Gets Out! 2007-05-18 08:07:00 Thanks to a short and amusing blog post written by Élodie Gagnon-Martin, I just learned this morning that Quebec's current Lieutenant Governor will finally be kicked out. The point is that it would have been better if monarchy was abolished in Canada. Again, it's pretty obvious that most Canadians don't want to live in a republic.Who will replace Lise Thibault? Apparently, according to the newspaper Le Soleil, Stephen Harper will designate Pierre Duchesne (not the political journalist from Radio-Canada, mind you) as Quebec's Lieutenant Governor today. Well, it truly was about time that Lise Thibeult leaves. Given her filthy habits at the time when Quebeckers had to endure her, she must now learn how to live with what she has around.In fact, at the time when we had to endure her, she was quite known for using her magic credit card. In other words, she excessively used taxpayers' money to bankroll her lavish activities. Let's also remember that she used her magic credit card to ha Read more:Finally
John Edwards and Iraq 2007-05-16 07:00:00 When the Democratic Party's former leader John Kerry designated John Edwards
as his running mate in 2004, he said to a crowd during a rally at Market Square in North Carolina:"I have chosen a man who understands and defends the values of America." Three years later, John Edwards
is now a candidate who seeks the Democratic nomination for president for the election of 2008 in the USA.In 2002, Senator John B. Breaux, a Democrat from Louisiana, said that Edwards "has all the ingredients you're looking for." Breaux also said:"But what is missing is a great deal of seasoning or experience in the business of government. I don't think it's just 9/11. You're talking about North Korea. You're talking about Afghanistan. You're talking about Iraq
."To straighten things out, John Edwards certainly has a clear idea about how social policies would look like if he was elected. For example, Edwards was the first candidate in the presidential primary who presented a clear strategy about how to pro
André Boisclair Steps Down 2007-05-08 20:50:00 Today, André Boisclair
, the leader of the Parti Québécois (PQ), was supposed to meet his party's caucus led by Agnès Maltais. However, according to my classmates from college, an article of The Globe and Mail and another one from La Presse, Boisclair resigned from his post as leader of the Parti Québécois (PQ). Who will be the next leader of this party that seeks the separation of Quebec from Canada?Obviously, this young politician is not fully responsible of his downfall; we must also consider what his predecessors did. For example, you can think about the SPQ Libre - definitely the best ingredient for internal division! - created by Bernard Landry to please the PQ's leftist wing. That being said, André Boisclair certainly inherited his predecessors' problems. Still, one of the main reason of his downfall remain his lack of political judgement.After all, many people wasn't convinced that he could be Quebec's Premier. In fact, on the night of the leaders' debate, he spent
Pakistan's backyard 2006-12-10 08:26:00 According to an article of the newspaper Le Monde, since the beginning of the war in Afghanistan in 2001, the international community didn't succeed to get over the Taliban problem. A few days ago, the respective head of state of Pakistan
and Afghanistan met each other at the White House with American president George W. Bush. Unfortunately, Pakistan and Afghanistan couldn't find an agreement.That meeting was meant to help Pakistan and Afghanistan to find a way to stall the growing influence of the Taliban near the Afghan-Pakistani borders. In fact, during a previous meeting at Kabul, the Pakistani Foreign Affairs minister Khurshid Kasuri couldn't bring forward a coherent common jirga (tribal assembly) to develop a plan to stop the Taliban.Furthermore, Kasuri admitted that many Talibans are crossing the borders of Pakistan although many soldiers of this country are keeping an eye on the borders. This disagreement between Pakistan and Afghanistan is obviously rooted into History.As t Read more:backyard
Nothing wrong with the Clarity Act 2006-12-08 22:03:00 The election of Stéphane Dion as the new leader of the Liberal Party of Canada (LPC) certainly left me with a frosty feeling not because I disagree with most of his political point of view. On the contrary, Stéphane Dion, as a politician, possesses great management skills, but unfortunately, he’s not endowed with the character of a leader. After all, let’s grant him the benefit of doubt. Now, many Quebeckers see Stéphane Dion as the creator of the Clarity
Act, but whether you like to hear it or not, most people are uselessly making a fuss over it.Many public separatist figures in Quebec, such as Jean Dorion (the president of the Société Saint-Jean Baptiste of Montreal) said that the delegates of the LPC elected the candidate who is the most “intransigent towards the national aspirations of Quebec”. How true is this statement, eh? Stéphane Dion is highly attached to Canada, but nonetheless, Dorion is confusing for no reason the interests of Quebec’s separatists and those Read more:Nothing
Parliamentary comedy with Jack Layton 2006-12-06 19:35:00 Watch this slip of tongue made by Jack Layton
during an exchange with Prime Minister Stephen Harper in the House of Commons. Did Jack Layton say it by accident or did he really want to swear? It's up to you to guess. Read more:Parliamentary
Competence or incompetence? 2006-12-04 10:05:00 Things might appear to be very strange for Canadians, but Stéphane Dion got elected as the new leader of the Liberal Party of Canada (LPC) by of 54.7% of its 4,605 delegates who were present in Montreal after four rounds. As for Michael Ignatieff, the only remaining candidate in the final round, he collected 45.3% of the votes (2084). This leadership race might look very strange, but it is, above all, "the triumph of competence" (Stéphane Dion) against incompetence (Michael Ignatieff), as political columnist André Pratte said it.Stéphane Dion drawn by caricaturist Serge ChapleauThe author of this text is definitely not a supporter of the LPC, but at least let's recognize that unlike what so many people think, Stéphane Dion, as a former professor of political science at the University of Montréal, knows federalism more than any Quebecker separatists out there. When certain Quebecker separatists used sophistic statements to smear his reputation, Dion always knew how to smartly rep Read more:Competence
Two good caricatures 2006-11-21 09:41:00 Since I have nothing to write today, I'll leave you with two good caricatures that are in French about the Parti Québécois (PQ), the Quebecker provincial party that wants to separate Quebec from Canada. Anyway, next time, I'll try to find a caricature about Canadian federalists.Thirty years ago...Thirty years later...Source: http://ygreck.ca/
The Multiculturalism Act's backlash 2006-11-17 20:27:00 It appears that for the eulogists of the Multiculturalism
Act, which came into effect in 1971, criticizing the Canadian doctrine of multiculturalism rationally with nuances is something racist. Really? Did you know that racism is actually a theory of hatred that advocates the superiority of an ethnic group or a nation? To be very honest with you, the Multiculturalism Act has a backlash
on the Canadian society, because it depends on stereotypes and “[it ensures] that ethnic groups will preserve their distinctiveness in a gentle and insidious form of cultural apartheid”, according to Canadian writer Neil Bissoondath. This man also adds that multiculturalism leads “an already divided society down the path to further social divisiveness.”My doubts about the Multiculturalism Act started to grow when I started to keep both of my eyes on what’s going on in Canadian politics in high school. Unfortunately, the size of my doubts about multiculturalism doubled because of the behaviour o
Just a few words before my break 2006-11-12 16:07:00 Hello, I just want to let you know that I am nominated for the "Best Blog" and "Best New Blog" in the Canadian Blog Awards. The votes for the first round will begin on the 15th of November. Be there. Obviously, I'll try to improve my blog as much as I can.By the way, here's a very interesting link about a conference in Montreal held by the Shiite muslim elite of North America. Those who are there are trying to find a way to help Muslim to integrate in the Canadian and US society. Wow, good luck. Now, I'm going back to my work.
Ignatieff's lack of judgement 2006-11-09 12:12:00 As the potential leader of the Liberal Party of Canada (LPC), Michael Ignatieff
believes that his willingness to recognize Quebec as a nation will seduce Canadians from coast to coast. You’re wrong, Iggy! The dynamics of Canadian politics has changed, but the meaning of the words didn’t change. Ignatieff, this miserable dumb-ass who spent more than 30 years outside Canada, should know that his decision will not help him to get votes in the other Canadian provinces, because nobody (except the Quebecker separatists) wants to see the same bind in which Canada put itself back in 1987 at the time of the Meech Lake Accord.Michael Ignatieff, one of the 8 candidates in the leadership race of the LPCOnly 42% of Canadian voters (and 44% of the LPC’s supporters) would be "less likely" to vote for the LPC if the leader of this party wanted to recognize Quebec as a "nation". A nation (in English and in French) is a civil community of people (citizens) sharing a common history, culture and lan Read more:judgement
U.S. Democrats' short-lived joy 2006-11-07 09:44:00 Two years after George W. Bush, the leader of the American Republican Party, got elected, at least 200 million American citizens are asked to head to the polls today. Midterms election are meant to bring a new configuration to the House of Representatives (435 seats) and to the Senate (33 new Senators will be elected out of 100). Tomorrow, the international community will know the taste of the Americans' comments about their government.Obviously, one would have expected this midterm election to be about domestic policies, but as strange as it might look, George W. Bush's reprehensible foreign policies are at the centre of this event that will influence American politics in the upcoming weeks. Afterwards, we'll see what American citizens are really thinking about the war in Iraq.In my opinion, the Democrats
can certainly win a majority in the House of Representatives. Speaking about the Senate, I really doubt that the Republicans will appreciate losing their grip on it. As you can se Read more:lived
Supporting our soldiers in Afghanistan 2006-10-31 18:49:00 For the opportunist leftist people out there, let me remind you that despite the fact that our soldiers are facing dangers, they're nonetheless proud to serve Canada. In addition to this pride, they also feel that their efforts will bring good things to Afghan people. It's deplorable that some Canadians ignore the raison d'être of our country's mission in Afghanistan
.First of all, Canada doesn't do this mission to serve the imperialistic ambition of the USA. In fact, it's part of Canada's responsibility to put some order in the world when it's really worth it. As opposed to what is being done in Iraq by the Americans, Canada took the wise decision to adopt a step-by-step approach to help the Afghan people. As a result of that, we're now starting to see that the efforts made by Canada's troops is starting to pay off.In fact, while the order is gradually being established through the training of Afghan soldiers and policemen by Western military officers, we can say that the hu
The NATO's role in Afghanistan 2006-10-29 07:50:00 In his column published in the Edmonton Sun, Doug Beazley is asking us if the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) will abandon its mission in Afghanistan
. One might be tempted to say that we can't confirm it for the moment if we look at the International Security Assistance Force's (ISAF) key figures.However, a careful look at the present situation that prevails in the international political sphere probably gives us a hint that some members of the NATO might leave Canada on its own with the Afghan task that is getting more complicated than it were.According to the latest source from the NATO (5th of October 2006), there are 31,000 soldiers serving in Afghanistan. In my opinion, the number of soldiers is certainly going to diminish. In fact, while Beazley indicated in his column that there are 5,000 American soldiers in Afghanistan, we can guess that this number will go down, because the USA is still stuck with its war in Iraq.Furthermore, the harder the USA finds it to control
Gravel's religious hypocrisy 2006-10-26 12:42:00 On the 27th of November, two by-elections (in the ridings of Repentigny and London North Centre) will be organized to attribute to any political parties two empty seats of Canada's House of Commons. However, at the light of what we saw, we can really wonder why Raymond Gravel
will be the candidate in the riding of Repentigny for the Bloc Québécois (BQ) to replace the late Benoît Sauvageau.Raymond GravelRaymond Gravel made a reputation for himself in Quebec for openly displaying his advocacy of same-sex marriages even though he was a priest. However, this priest of Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines declared that once elected, he'll remain loyal to the Catholic Church. This means that he won't approve any bill that doesn't fit into the moral doctrine promoted by the Catholic faith.What commonly unites Raymond Gravel and the other members of the BQ is his desire to defend the interest of Quebec and also to fuel the Quebecker separatists. However, if Gilles Duceppe knows that his big-shot can Read more:religious
The story about Stronach and MacKay 2006-10-22 13:07:00 During a fiery debate in the House of Commons about the Clean Air Act, a Liberal deputy asked Peter MacKay
, the Foreign Affairs minister, how his dog was doing and guess what he said. MacKay told to the Liberal deputy that the Liberals "have it" by pointing the empty seat that is normally occupied by former Human Resources minister Belinda Stronach.It's true that Stronach, in her days as a Tory, was MacKay's girlfriend. I don't see why McKay referred to his former love interest as a "dog". This is not the first time that Peter MacKay makes a tough remark to a woman. Do you remember the time when he said to Alexa McDonough, a deputy of the New Democratic Party, to "go back to [her] knitting"?It looks like these pathetic Tories tolerate this kind of attitude towards women if you look at the financial cut that Heritage minister Bev Oda did to organizations that are supposed to defend the condition of women... I'm getting sick of Stephen Harper and his fellow Tory buddies.On an another Read more:story
The UN's last hot seat 2006-10-20 20:54:00 Actually, the members of the United Nations are trying to put a country from Latin America on the last seat of the Security Council. Venezuela and Guatemala are the countries that are trying to conquer the heart of the UN's state-members. To win this hot seat, one of these countries must obtain the two thirds of the votes, which means 128 votes.I can hardly imagine what will the discussions look like at the Security Council if Venezuela was elected as the occupier of the last seat that is the object of a vote. Hugo Chávez, the president of Venezuela, probably wants to have a better forum to challenge American president George W. Bush, but his stubbornness will not help him to have a better diplomatic relation with the USA.Anyway, the vote is now interrupted and it will be done again in five days. What's your opinion about this race between Venezuela and Guatemala for the last hot seat in the UN's Security Council? Maybe other countries from Latin America will show their interest fo
Ambrose's No Objective Act 2006-10-19 11:47:00 A decade ago, Canada signed the Kyoto Protocol when the Liberal Party of Canada (LPC) was reigning and the objectives were not fulfilled. Yesterday, in the nation's capital, Environment minister Rona Ambrose
announced the release of her government's "made-in-Canada" Clean Air Act that is supposed to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half.Environment minister Rona AmbrosePhoto Canadian PressUnfortunately, this plan, "which aims to protect human health and the environment by taking an integrated approach to reducing air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions" according to the Ministry of Environment, will only be meant to cut greenhouse gas emissions in 2050.As strange as it might look, Ambrose wants the Canadian government to take action in order to secure our environment. However, the Tory government doesn't necessarily notice that the Clean Air Act is a pathetic parliamentary initiative of idleness. The astounding amateurism of the Tories in terms of environment can be reflected in t Read more:Objective
Hugo Chavez's Crusade 2007-05-29 20:55:00 On Sunday, Venezuela's socialist president Hugo Chavez
was at the centre of an international crisis. At midnight, he decided not to renew the license of TV channel Radio Caracas Television (RCTV). Before that, on Friday, the Venezuelan army received an order from the Supreme Court to seize the TV channel's broadcast equipment and to occupy its head office. Chavez's critics are not necessarily wrong when they uphold that his regime starts to look like Cuban president Fidel Castro's regime.Actually, there's one difference with Chavez and Castro. In fact, Venezuela's current president got "democratically" elected with 62.87% of the votes during the election of December 4, 2006 despite the low participation rate. Nonetheless, Chavez is not really convincing as a democrat. Evidently, his country got ranked 115th in the press freedom index of Reporters without Borders last year.When RCTV was closed, it was replaced by a state-run channel called TVes. This new channel will be used by Hu Read more:Crusade
, Hugo Chavez
Harper's cabinet makeover 2007-01-05 21:19:00 Yesterday, Canada's Prime minister Stephen Harper
proceeded to a cabinet shuffle. There are eight ministers who switched roles, but many national media outlets drew our attention on a few important aspects of this shuffle: while Rona Ambrose was appointed as the Intergovernmental Affairs minister, John Baird, the former president of the Treasury Board, took her seat as the new Environment minister. Besides the Environment portfolio, Harper also removed Vic Toews from the Ministry of Justice in order to get rid of the Tories' image of "law and order" freaks.In the first place, do Canadians have to be surprised by such a risky move? Definitely not. As Jennifer Ditchburn, a journalist from the news agency Canadian Press, mentionned it in her article's title, Stephen Harper's move was clearly "aimed at reinvigorating [his] minority government". All that being said, Stephen Harper had one intention in mind: to increase the "sellability" (from the verb "sell") index of his party in order
John Bolton's resignation 2006-12-05 16:05:00 John Bolton
, the very fiery and "blunt-spoken" ambassador of the USA at the United Nations (UN), resigned. Even though he didn't take it very well, American president George W. Bush still accepted it. Apparently, George W. Bush will be going through a bereavement, if you know what I mean... In fact, John Bolton
is no longer at the UN to preach George W. Bush's will to the international community. Besides, John Bolton always hated the UN if you look at his critiques about it.Some newspapers in Canada suggest that the Democrats, whether they're in the Congress or in the Senate, are looking for a candidate that can reach both the Republican and the Democrat Party. All right, this is true, but can we have the whole truth, please! Today, the New York Times is saying that the eyes are starting to turn on Zalmay Khalizad, the actual US ambassador in Iraq.If all eyes are on Khalizad, let's hope that he won't be "at odds with the multilateral approach at the United Nations [just like John
Aboriginals are not nations 2006-11-30 15:07:00 We can learn in today's edition of the newspaper Le Devoir that a commission about the Aboriginals within the Liberal Party of Canada (LPC) adopted a resolution that recognizes the Aboriginals as nations within the Canadian nation. Furthermore, we can also learn that the Aboriginals want their so-called "government" to be recognized equally with the federal and provincial government.Now, I don't want to sound really rude, but even though Aboriginals are involved in the foundation of Canada, a part of their identity has actually crafted the Canadian cultural identity. That leads me to my central point. Do I recognize Aboriginals as "nations within the Canadian nation"? Obviously, the answer is a clearly no. There are certainly different ways to embrace their cultural (and ethnic) difference without looking like a clown.It's so pathetic how Canadian politicians don't even dare to put their pants and stop using great words that are only meant to seduce some categories of voters that I
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