[As my fellow maudit anglais pointed out in a most interesting post, I've been away to get both married and drunk—in that order, I should add. Anyway, I'm back now, sober and sun-kissed.]
It’s sometimes hard to tell if Gilles Duceppe actually likes his job as Bloc leader. Last year, not only did he very temporarily jump ship to challenge Pauline Marois for the PQ leadership, he also laid out the conditions for his departure from the Bloc in an interview with Le Devoir.
Thirty-eight seats: that’s the minimum Duceppe would need to stay on as leader.
For a guy who not so long ago mused about the Bloc getting 50% of the vote in Quebec and who’s been consistently blessed with over 95% support inside the party, the bar seemed a bit low at the time. Even now, the Bloc would have to lose 10 seats to get there. Still, like his too-short-to-be-a-prodigal-son dip in the PQ’s waters, it showed Duceppe with one foot out the door.
As fate (or luck or whatever) would have it, Barry Kay’s latest seat projections peg Duceppe’s future caucus at 38 seats on the nose. Now, imagine you’re Duceppe and this is the final result on October 14: Do you stay? Do you go? What if the final tally is 39 seats? Or 37? What do you do then?
While you ponder the question, let the Bloc’s impossibly earnest campaign theme song inspire you:
(For the truly curious, check out the lyrics here.)
Print
Comment
Jesus, here are the first two stanzas:
J’ai pas envie de me taire
J’veux pas qu’on me dise quoi faire
Je dérange dans les ministères
J’en ai assez d’être locataire
Je préférerais être propriétaire
Reprendre possession de ma terre
Gens de guerre, doctrinaires
Qui se foutent de mon air, de mes rivières
Pour enrichir les pétrolières
Quand à ma langue on fait des misères
Que ma culture devient secondaire
J’peux pu laisser faire
Not only is it the same goddamn rhyme for 12 lines in a row, but some of them have the same consonant! In four lines, ministères – locataire – propriétaire – terre !!!
The Bloc is officially finished.
It should be : (Gilles gabbing with the party faithful)
Darling you gotta let me know
Should I stay or should I go?
If you say that you are mine
I’ll be here ’til the end of time
So you got to let me know
Should I stay or should I go?
it’s always tease, tease, tease
One day it’s fine and next is black
So if you want me off your back
Well, come on and let me know
Should I stay or should I go?
it’s by the clash!