Québec Liberal Party

The Problem with Québec politics:

As is somewhat generally true of politics in Canada but particularly in Québec, there is an absence of a variety of basic political philosophies identifiable with a particular party. Both the Parti Québécois and the Québec Liberal Party embrace a wide gamut of members and philosophies ranging from conservative to social democratic, soft sovereignists, hard sovereignists, federalists, union leaders and industrialists. What distinguishes the Parti Québécois from the Liberal Party is its ability to rally its members (and a large part of the electorate) around a single issue namely sovereignty and against a common enemy, namely the federal government.

As these and similar questions were debated, some consensus emerged, particularly with respect to the essential qualities in the next leader of the QLP.

• Must be a social democrat
• Demonstrated ability to win
  • Must have a vision and the Leadership skills to create common goals by consolidating opinion, creating a consensus
  • Sells well to both urban and rural electorate
  • Charismatic
  • Competent, Tenacious
  • Can think on his (or her) feet.
• Ability to rouse the ire and passion of the electorate over issues both in a campaign and in the Assembly
• Ability to rally the francophone vote. The anglophone and allophone vote is committed to any federalist party.

• Pierre Pettigrew - too closely identified with Claude Ryan
• Lucienne Robillard -- not viable
• William Johnson - non starter
• Raymond Garneau, Pierre Gobeil, Laurent Beaudoin ( or another business leader), -highly unlikely in the first two cases and perceived as "vieux jeu"- most business leaders perceived as politically too right wing.

Among the guests, more were inclined to endorse Jean Charest, but the opinions were far from unanimous, particularly when at least one individual who knows Mr. Charest maintained that he would not succumb to the pressures to run.

Alliance Québec Elections

The discussion turned to the anouncement that William Johnson will be a candidate for the presidency of . It was generally felt that, if successful, the imposition of his extreme, partitionist views would represent a huge step backwards for Alliance which has been reaching out to federalists of all hues and has attempted to create genuinely helpful policies with respect to issues such as health care and education. Furthermore, it appears that Mr. Johnson and his supporters are attempting to turn Alliance into a power base for the Equality Party in the next election. Alliance, which receives federal funding, is not - and should not be - representative of any single political party. It is a lobby group for the interests of anglophones in Québec.

Those who wish to become involved and are not currently members of Alliance have until one month prior to the Meeting on the 26th of April (25 March) to become members and therefore eligible to vote for the slate of delegates to the Annual General Meeting.

Perhaps a Johnson win would mean the Government would have to cut off its $900,000.00 funding because of it affilation to the Equiks.

To have a say on who wins this race you must be a member. Just fill in ths form at or e-mail AQINFO@AQ.QC.CA any questions. You do not have to be a Canadian or from Quebec to be a member just a resident. Please Phone 875-2771

Please see Constance a Hope!

The unanimous reply (excluding abstentions) from software manufacturers, professors, computer teckies, stock market analysts, professors, economists and the other guests:

MILLENNIUM CPU BUG

Too many companies are ignoring the situation, even in North America and the developed world. Among those companies are some very large ones.

The problem, suggested one guest, is more acute overseas. Now that it has been identified in the financial markets, North American corporations will throw money at it until it is solved.

Another guest spoke of ramifications which have not yet been considered, citing a recent take-over which fell apart when the extent and cost of the corrective work to solve the Millennium bug in the target company was ascertained.

Others' experience indicated that for some major North American companies, it is already too late, pointing out that the correction of the situation involves endless, tedious tasks of checking and re-checking every line of code. In many cases there just isn't enough time if the task isn't already underway.

One consultant stated that there is so much risk of litigation that their company is refusing to take on de-bugging assignments. To underline the risk, the example was given of a control tower operation which has been thoroughly realigned for year 2000. One line of code is missed. As a result, there is an air disaster, many lives lost. The consultant would be sued and wiped out. A lawyer objected, suggesting that the answer is to establish a limited liability company for the purpose of carrying out such assignments. However another aspect of the reluctance to take on such assignments is that they would require that many talented young experts immerse themselves in old technology, losing the necessary edge for career development. This is not good long-term strategy for them or their employer. You must see our full page on Y2K for real help.

On this cheerful note, the discussion was brought to a close.

Notes by Herb Bercovitz and Michael Judson

Edited by Diana Thébaud Nicholson

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