Fuzzy left

Naturally, but only with the benefit of hindsight, some of what I just wrote will seem like absolute nonsense to the typical Québécois radical nationalist. In the latter’s point of view, and I know ‘cos I’ve been there, if one thing should have been expected from the Party of Pierre Trudeau, it was precisely its thoughtfully calculated selection of yet another “p’tit gars” of somewhere in Québec who would do the dirty work for the mean Anglo colonialists. I even bet you that some of our sovereigntist sisters, uncles, co-workers and friends, are just as convinced as your usual conspiration theory buff, that the whole nation thing around Michaël Ignatieff, that the money and power flowing to his campaign as well as to that of Bob Rae, were all carefully planned diversions to make Stéphane Dion “appear” like the choice of ordinary people, those with more hopes and goodwill than hard colonial power. As an aside, it’s quite interesting, although unfortunate, that what in english is called the grassroots may be so deprived of any real life force when we translate it in french by “la base” (the basis - as if a political party was an inanimate construction).

But even that kind of conspiration would have to be surprising to the “stolen referendum” sovereigntists who believe that even good Québécois votes can so easily be bought with enough money. Just watch those angry ultra-nationalists boast of their admiration at such a subtle strategy, twisted yet somehow true to form, in the coming days, while they complain ad nauseam about how crooked and despicable their own sons and daughters can be, as soon as they refuse to join the collective destiny that their “enlightened” minority has so lovingly crafted for their ignorant (therefore without sin) souls. But Canadians could also be surprised to learn, soon enough, that there actually are sovereigntists that are trying to elevate themselves over these childish and divisive games, and as I’ll try to argue in coming posts, these “realist” sovereigntists, as they have called themselves, should not be dismissed too early.

Getting back to the last few months, though, I have followed enough politics in my life to know that changes in circumstances can affect our perspective in a matter of very little time. This is why I wasn’t too disturbed by the Ignatieff episodes of loose firing, as his learning curve wouldn’t necessarily be that long to climb, and because the unpredictable stuff is way more important to adapt to, in politics as in any other area of real life, than all the love and care we can muster to plan things ahead. Thus if he won, it would have proven him right in the end. Yet I thought, why take these kinds of risks unless there are appropriate gains awaiting us, and to be quite frank, I do believe that there is one thing that Canadians in general don’t trust any more than the Québécois do, in particular, and it is intellectuals. To me, this was the biggest hurdle for Ignatieff, as well as for Dion, quite frankly. Even Trudeauites of yesteryear were enamored first, in my view, with how atypical an intellectual he was. Judo, football, canoë, hitchhiking and little pirouettes in front of the Queen are just as part of the mythical figure as his intellectual combative edge, even more so, as the real message here was that you could be a strong jock, a hunk and a clown, as any normal Canadian guy would want to be, and still stand up to all these arrogant nerds with the long sentences. The more of an enigma it’s been to me, therefore, that so many liberals actually ended up choosing the closest thing you could get to one such nerd, as is now becoming (too?) conventional wisdom.

Basically from day one, my hunch was that Bob Rae would be the best choice for Canada because of what had always appeared to me like the most cogent and compassionate sort of pragmatism, something that could make us forget grand theorizing and focus on real practical teamwork. I thought that this was exactly the kind of approach that would get at Québécois brains, hearts and guts, as we are now starting, in this province, to face the hard consequences of our very own unsustainable mix of pro-culture and anti-money biases. Dion made a good point when he said that Canada worked better in practice than in theory. But Québec isn’t working that well in practice right now, and the rest of the team seems so afraid that it could steal the puck, that we have a hard time seeing the passes coming. Ignatieff’s recognition of national status was perceived as one such pass; the ensuing debate, as an intercept by less friendly teammates. But thanks to the Bloc and the Conservatives, there was nothing left to split the Liberal Party in half yet again at the convention.

Then throughout this great red Mass, I remained convinced that Rae was the safest choice, as I did think we had gambled enough with this country’s future in the last couple of decades. Second came Ignatieff in my mind, with Dion third, as it seemed even more risky to gamble with those who could actually leave than with those who could only get mad. Well, we’re all mad about something anyway, so Québec or something else… And when time came for the candidates speeches, this impression was reinforced by Stéphane appearing as nerdy as ever, while Iggy recited mantras and Bob adlibbed a string of pretty good punchlines. Sure I was getting a bit nervous as he waited more than half his speech before uttering his first word in french. I had not understood either why he had never been more present in the french media in Québec, as his french is even better than Iggy’s and his passionnate style could have impressed lots more people. Thought he was the one who was actually “working hard to be underestimated”, the way Jean Chrétien boasted about his own efforts in the best televised punchline of the week-end, but obviously Stéphane had beaten him in this very area.

One speech I really did get quite impressed by was that of Ken Dryden, who hit the nail hard on how Québec should be understood in this country once and for all. If you’re gonna be so proud as to how tolerant and how diverse your country is, you will be true to yourself if and only if you accept to deal respectfully with the most powerful of your minorities, that one minority that rattles your cage the most annoyingly. Then you’ll understand that Québec fights for all minorities in this country, because what the most powerful minority can’t get from the majority, the other ones won’t ever get either. Here’s a guy who would just need to polish his french a bit more to get truckloads of influence in Québec.

Well next, the big day came around; and by the way, the guy or gal who thought of the green scarf strategy must absolutely get a huge raise. I remember realizing all of a sudden that the Kennedy move had probably sealed the day, although I kept some hope after someone almost convinced me that Ignatieff could actually drop from the ballot before Bob. So much that when he lost, I was so mixed-up that I thought I was lucky I didn’t make it to delegate. After a while, my heart still went for Iggy though, even if it was getting as green as Granny Smith that I had chosen the next loser. At least, I was vindicated by the grace with which he accepted defeat. That’s also when Stéphane started appearing to me like he had lots more going for him than I had ever thought. Far from being that new french guy who would put Québec in its right place, he was an intellectual who spearheaded a real grassroots movement, he was this little guy with a big team who would fight the one-man government of Stephen Harper, and he certainly was the man who had all the credibility we needed to remind Quebeckers that a vote for the Bloc (and the NDP elsewhere and the Greens) would be a vote against Kyoto.

At the end of the day, when my new leader spoke in his totally impeccable french, with the respect he had earned from everyone after a darn good game, I also realized I had not been that proud of being a Canadian for a pretty long time. Heck, that’s so cool. Go, Stéphane, go.