Juste pour rire

J'ai failli avaler ma langue en lisant cet article du Figaro. Il y a vraiment de quoi mourir de rire. À croire qu'ils n'ont pas quitté le 19ème siècle.

Dites-vous bien que ces fameuses troupes française d'élite qui ont 'la réputation de cogner fort quand il le faut' ont été postées exprès dans l'une des provinces les moins dangereuses du pays pour minimiser les pertes. Si les français on pu pacifier leur zone de combat, c'est qu'elle n'était déjà pas bien dangereuse.

Mais il faut quand même leur reconnaitre un progrès. Enfin, après plusieurs années de débats et de mûre réflexion, les soldats français sont autorisés à combattre la nuit. Les talibans n'ont qu'à bien se tenir.

Fighter Jets

It seems that we will be spending (wasting, more likely) 16 billion dollars on a new fleet of fighter jets. Naturally, the jets are American-made. Naturally, they are stunningly expensive. Naturally, there has been no formal competition to find the best provider.

I say naturally, because on the weapon market, the US makes the rules. The French have been building the past ten years a jet that outperforms all its american rivals (the Rafale) but they have yet to make a single sale. Every time a country shows signs of wanting to purchase the Rafale, the US intervenes, Robert Gates makes a few phone calls, and just like that, the deal is dead. It happened in India, it happened in Brazil, it is happening in the United Aram Emirated. It would have happened in Canada. Quite simply, if we had bought a different jet and sent 17 billion of our taxpayer dollars off to Europe, who knows how an irritated Obama would have responded.

Coalitions And Mergers

Talk of a merger of the Liberals and NDP as reported in the media seems a bit premature. After all, the Conservatives have been in power for less than five years, so it would be rash to the extreme to bring an end to the most successful party in the history of western democracy after a stint in opposition that, in the grand scheme of history, remains still very short.

Things will change -they always do-, and eventually, whatever the current government does-, Canadians will want change and bring the Liberals back to power - for a few years.

Nevertheless, it seems clear that the Liberals have lost their status of 'natural governing party'. They lost it on the day Brian Mulroney swept Quebec and put an end to the century-long Liberal monopoly on which all previous Liberal governments were built. The only reason Jean Chrétien managed to win three successive majorities afterwards is because the right was split. Add up the PC and Reform votes, and you get something resembling the Parliament of today.

It is often said that the Liberals won elections by being the party of the centre. In fact, they won elections by sweeping Quebec and taking advantage of a divided right.

Few democracies have been able to sustain succesful centrist parties. In most European countries, governement alternates between the right and left, with a smaller centrist party choked in the middle. And obviously, in the US, there are only two choices

So where are we heading? Unless the Greens or Bloc disappear, or the NDP vote collapses, we have the status-quo. And in a few years time, if the political complex still shows no sign of changing, a coalition between Liberals and NDP might be the way to go.

À l'approche du G20

Stephen Harper reste sourd aux appels de Paul Martin qui souhaiterait que la pauvreté et l'environnement soient ajoutés à l'ordre du jour du Sommet du G20 qui se tiendra prochainement à Toronto.

Harper prétend que les enjeux économiques sont trop importants pour laisser place à d'autres sujets. Mais il oublie que l'environnement et la pauvreté prennent au contraire une importance nouvelle en ces temps d'incertitude économique. Les chefs politiques ont en effet l'occasion rare de recalibrer l'économie pour permettre un développement plus durable qui favorisera l'enrichissement des populations les plus démunies.