The press gang-up last week on interim NDP leader Nycole Turmel shows that despite Quebec nationalism’s detour through the federalist NDP, nasty old anglophone reflexes persist.
The sovereignist menace: oh, how we quake.
The choice of savvy Turmel, a former head of the Public Service Alliance, a dedicated activist and 20 years a New Democrat, was inspired. But the forces of division are aroused because the Hull MP – like thousands of socially conscious Quebeckers – laid down five bucks for a Bloc card.
What part of Canada does the media commentariat not understand? For all the historical reasons conveniently forgotten, nationalism permeates the civic landscape in la belle it sets the emotional tone even when it fails to be an actual goal.
No surprise, then, to anyone but “rest of Canada” pundits that activists there find themselves rubbing shoulders with social dem sovereignists – all the more so since the NDP was, until mere months ago, lest we forget, strictly fringe. Not strange at all, actually, to have two memberships.
In 2005, Turmel (who’s already been around the block, so to speak, on this issue) defended the PSA’s support for Bloc candidates because the party was “proactive and progressive.” She reminded her critics that a quarter of Blocists were federalists.
Water under the bridge, of course. Most of this constituency has now melted into the NDP. “That should be a cause of rejoicing for anyone who cares about the future of Canada,” says McGill politics expert Desmond Morton. “It’s revolting that the media have decided her appointment is a disaster. It’s contemptible.”
So, too, is Stephen Harper’s “disappointment” over Turmel’s Bloc tie. Where does the quintessential hater of central governments get off posing as a federalist saviour anyway? In 2004, as we know, he was ready to coalesce with those dissolvers of the union. But his susceptibility to nationalist pragmatics has deep roots.
You might even say Reformer Harper felt a comradeship with the Bloc based on their shared disdain for federal structures. In a famous 1997 treatise written with Tom Flanagan, he opined that Bloquistes “are nationalist for much the same reason that Albertans are populist they care about their local identity… and they see the federal government as a threat to their way of life.” A “strategic alliance” with fellow autonomists was entirely possible. “It might be enough to sustain a government,” the two enthused.
But we digress. The delicious regroupment of Two Solitudes progressives in the NDP means there is now a historic opportunity to do what all the constitutional confabs couldn’t. Don’t let the wreckers and splitters bust it all up.
ellie@nowtoronto.com
