Marois

There is a natural law operating in Canadian media whereby the more knowledge you have of firearms, the more hilarious you find the press and TV reports that follow any prominent incident with guns. Sun News, for example, was quick to tell us after Tuesday night’s attack on the Parti Québécois victory party in Montreal that suspect Richard Henry Bain had been caught with “an automatic weapon.” Global News doubled down, arming Bain with a nonexistent “machine-gun.”

So Pauline Marois had a fit yesterday about something Jean Charest said, and journalists duly collected and printed her words. The subject of said fit isn’t really important––it was something about being responsible for the sad state of health care in Quebec, and her anger seemed as manufactured as Charest’s initial charge. The interesting thing, at least to this tête carré, was her use of the term ‘ras-le-bol’ (or, alternatively, ‘ras le bol.’)

When, in 2001, Bernard Landry referred to the Canadian flag as des bouts de chiffon rouge (‘pieces of red rag’), the entire country was up in arms. Critics on either side of the language barrier were incensed at the then-Deputy Premier’s bon mots, forcing the man himself to apologize.

You can say many things about Pauline Marois, and many have. She’s bourgeoise, she has an Imelda-type infatuation with high heels, she lives in a garish chateau in the exburbs, she has an uncanny resemblance to a Tintin character. She is also politically savvy enough to have realized, after her party’s embarrassing defeat last year, that the PQ’s commitment to holding a referendum during its first mandate in power was the mother of all albatrosses. Marois said she would only return to the party if the referendum clause was put to pasture – and it was, officially and quickly, last month, with hardly a whimper.