Pauline Marois Making Lemonade from Lemons

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Pauline Marois, Quebec's most dangerous Premier.

It's a political reality that elected officials need to project an aura of calm control, even in the face of bad news.
Depending on the situation, politicians uphold that truism by sometimes telling the truth, sometimes spinning or colouring the truth and more rarely, ignoring the truth and outright lying.

It's part of the game based on three incontrovertible political truths, the first that voters are generally not too bright, secondly, that partisan supporters of any particular political party will accept just about any nonsense spouted by their leader and thirdly, that the press is uncomfortable in calling out politicians as liars, as it may lead, more often than not, to the reporter losing access, something that will affect his or her ability to make a living.

Let me offer a couple of examples that illustrate the above.

Telling the truth.
This is easiest concept to understand and when the truth lines up with what a politician's and political party's agenda, than truth it is. Unfortunately, it's rare.

Preaching to the converted
When Pauline Marois and the Parti Quebecois tell the faithful that they are working towards sovereignty, despite the fact that support for the option is practically at its nadir, they are providing a false and cynical view that only the faithful buy.  But buy it the faithful do, and keeping the party base satisfied is rule number one in politics.
So Pauline has now decided to spend waste $15 million on a new government department whose task is to promote an option that is a strictly no-go.

Lying
When an elected official is positively sure that a lie cannot be discovered and that the lie is more convenient than the truth, then lie it is.

My favourite possible examples are these two. I say possible, because nobody can disprove the stories, regardless of how implausible and unrealistic, therein lies the beauty.

Back before the last provincial election, Pierre Duchesne told the press that he never had a conversation about becoming a PQ candidate while working as a reporter for Radio-Canada.
According to him, he quit his job as the network's chief correspondent at the legislature in Quebec after 25 years without any prospects.
Both he and Pauline swore up and down that there were no conversations about a PQ offer to run, yet another potential PQ candidate, who asked for a chance to run in the riding that Duschene now represents, told reporters that she was told months before the announcement that it was reserved for a  “star candidate from Radio-Canada” Hmmmm....

And then there is poor Olivia Chow, I cannot help but remember her impassioned defence of her husband, Jack Layton, when she sucked it up and said this;

"Sixteen years ago, my husband went for a massage at a massage clinic that is registered with the City of Toronto," Chow wrote. "He exercises regularly; he was and remains in great shape; and he needed a massage."

Of course, the massage therapist wasn't exactly licensed, she was a young Chinese immigrant who police said they observed throwing a wet Kleenex in the trash bin while a naked Layton was confronted by police in the washy-washy. Yuch! Read the hilarious story and denial

Years later, after the death of her husband, in an interview with Peter Mansbridge, Chow insisted that Layton didn't want to reveal the type of cancer he had  in order to give others, similarly afflicted, hope. LINK
Really? Did Chow expect us to believe that drivel?
A more likely suggestion was that Layton lied by omission about the extent of cancer before and during his last federal election and Chow was protecting his legacy.
But in Chow's defence, we all know that dead men tell no tales.

The 'Perfect Storm' that combines every element of political dishonesty.
When Thomas Mulcair proposed that the high Canadian dollar caused by the Alberta oil boom is hurting the economy by attriting manufacturing jobs, he hit on a perfect issue.
Too bad it wasn't true.
This so-called 'Dutch Disease' played well to the faithful, especially in Quebec where the concept of job disappearance caused by Alberta's boom economy was music to the ears of separatists and leftists.

"Yet another study has found that a Canadian dollar boosted by high oil prices isn't a big factor in manufacturing declines, but NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair isn't buying it." Link

The fact that the theory is outdated and discredited doesn't faze Mulcair at all, who continues to defend the concept, because well, those who support the NDP, so want it to be true.
Thomas Mulcair is the consummate political operator, where spinning the truth, deluding the deluded and defending the undefendable is not only possible but probable, when voters are cynically told what they want to hear, irrespective of the truth.

At any rate, all of the above negative political traits apply to Pauline Marois to a degree that I have never in my life witnessed in any Canadian politician.
When it comes to Quebec's Premier, obfuscation, misdirection and outright prevarication are practices that she has raised to an art form and in this respect she is a cut above any politician I have ever followed, even Mulcair.

Now before I am accused of launching a partisan screed against separatists, the above description does not apply to any of the previous PQ leaders, even Bernard Landry, who while a dedicated and committed separatist was never any guiltier than the average Canadian politician when it comes to political honesty. As for the rest of the PQ leaders, none can compare to Pauline, who is the darkest, most dishonest and treacherous Quebecois political leader in my memory.

I remember being told, by a highly placed source in the real estate industry, that after shaking the hand of Pauline's husband, Claude Blanchet, one would be advised to count your fingers. 
How Marois dared complain about Charest's 'secret' salary (which was altogether legal) in light of the dubious circumstances by which she and her husband managed to get the agricultural land on which they were to build their famous chateau, re-zoned, is a story that reeks of sliminess.
The PQ government of the day, of which she was then a member, approved the unlikely re-zoning making the couple instant millionaires.
Let us not forget the circumstances by which Blanchet was named the head of a government investment agency.

"In 1997, in contrast to 20 rules, the PQ cabinet, instead of the elected Board of Directors,  appointed the husband of Pauline Marois (then Finance Minister) as Chairman of Société Générale de Financement, a bizarre resemblance to Elvis Gratton. It's was Marois herself that established his contract and his salary,  contrary to the rule that specifies that this must be done by the elected Board of Directors.  Link{fr}

Blanchet, by the way, led this agency, the SGF, to over $500 million in losses. When he was pushed out of the job, Pauline got him a lifetime pension of $90K. Link{fr}
After all this, with a straight face, she gallingly dares call the Liberal Party corrupt!

Aside from her dubious personal ethics, in all the years I've watched politicians, none have so cynically mislead the public and in fact her own political party as does Pauline Marois on a daily basis.

In the face of a deteriorating economy, crumbling infrastructure, rampant corruption, a failing health system and deficit spending that will soon have the province facing a crisis, Pauline chooses to offer an alternate view of reality, one where every failing is a golden opportunity and like Eric Idle, in Monty Python's The Life of Brian, Pauline has her minions looking on the bright side of life, singing an unrealistic song of fantasy and self-deception.


For Pauline making lemonade out of lemons has become an exercise in spin, misdirection, deception and outright prevarication, elevated to the nth degree.
While attending the economic summit in Davos, Switzerland, she unloaded this beauty concerning Quebec's growing electricity surplus, a statement that nobody, but nobody in the mainstream press, called her out on.

"We have surpluses at the moment," Marois said. "I don't  see that as being negatives. These surpluses are available to attract investment to Quebec. And I think that's a comparative advantage we have to use." Link

 "Whaaat???"
That's like saying having cancer is a good thing because it allows you to try out all the new treatments and remedies available!
Electricity, like airline seats is a perishable item. If an Air Canada jet flies with empty seats on Monday, those seats can't be sold Tuesday.
Could you imagine an airline executive explaining to shareholders that having lots of empty seats is an opportunity to attract more customers in the future, because they can be sold cheaply? Such utter nonsense would have shareholders out for his scalp!

There was a story in the Montreal Gazette about public figures lying and our ability to observe body language that indicates dishonesty. Link
Notwithstanding, it's my opinion based on a lifetime of observation that con artists and experienced public officials who lie, are impervious to this method of detection.
They are so used to lying that is natural and so they feel no guilt or tension at all.

And so when Pauline unloaded this whopper in an interview aired on the BBC, she didn't flinch one bit.

 "If you have a poll, you can see that the approval of the sovereignty is at maybe 42, 44%."

Yikes!!!!
By the way, nobody but nobody in the mainstream press has called her out on her obviously misstatement of the truth.

She's a dangerous character, able and willing to advance her own agenda by any means, which is not sovereignty, but rather maintaining her position as Premier, a job like her predecessor, that she relishes.

She will say and do anything, damn the consequences. She is an operator extraordinaire.

She is perhaps the most evil and destructive Premier this province has ever seen, having no qualms about destroying Quebec in order to advance her personal agenda of mindless and reckless power.