Ottawa

Hey look: Slow down, Quebec! We can barely keep up with this stuff!

I would never have thought to chronicle recent developments in Quebec-based corruption, as I do in my column in this week’s print edition, if the members of Parliament you elected and pay with your tax dollars hadn’t fallen all over themselves to use up a bit of their work day crying crocodile tears about how mean — boo-hoo! — we were with our cover story on the same topic several weeks ago.

My preference has always been to look on the bright side, where I can find one. That’s why I’ve written articles about downtown development in Montreal that were far sunnier than what most Montrealers are writing (for a particularly scathing view of the Quartier des spectacles, check out Robert Lévesque’s ferocious essay in the latest Cahiers du Théâtre français). It’s why I saluted Quebec City’s 400th anniversary and have consistently emphasized Jean Charest’s key and unusual role in promoting Canada-EU trade. It’s why I write about the province’s musicians as often as I can find an excuse.

But my colleagues and I literally cannot keep up with the avalanche of shady business unveiled lately by our counterparts in Quebec City, Montreal and elsewhere. My column details events since September, but the problem is, I wrote it on Tuesday and there is already enough material for another one. Why, you could almost say it’s a veritable festival of resignations, withdrawals and expulsions.

If you can read about all of this and continue to think that Quebec’s biggest problem is Maclean’s, then congratulations. You have what it takes to be a member of Parliament.

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