David T. Nicholson's

Updated Apr 17, 1998

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A Window on a Wednesday Night #841

JC 

Wednesday Night #841 
April 15, 1998 

AN EVENING AT THE NICHOLSONS'

Wednesday Night # 841

April 15, 1998.

The evening was an unusually informal one. Relatively few topics were discussed and those given the most time were the ones directly affecting a very large proportion of the guests.

The Salon opened with an enigma: most Americans and Canadians deny the existence of an Asian crisis on a scale that will affect their economic lives. Experts are saying it could be as long as 15 years until Japan's economy is fully restored. Despite the relatively small amount of trade with Asia, Canada will experience some fall-out and the U.S. will suffer considerably more.

Paul Martin has suggested to the G-7 the formation of a global banking watchdog committee to detect early signs of potential trouble amd prevent a repetition of the Asian financial crisis. The issue appears to be that the G-7 was left out of the debates and action at the most crucial period, but then had to commit resources to solving the problems. His recommendation was apparently not acted upon despite the fact that critics say that the international financial institutions - World Bank and IMF - are poorly equipped to deal with crises such as the one in Asia.

Bank mergers. Is bigger necessarily better? The situation in the States is very different from the Canadian one. Regulation of the banks here is very strong, there are a limited number (which will be even more limited soon) and virtually no competitive advantages among them; the US has hundreds of banks of all sizes. Despite the assurances from Royal & Bank of Montreal, there will be job losses, economies of scale come into play.

Tuesday 7 Apr Viva Vera's view opponents include such influential suburban mayors as Verdun's Georges Bosse and Westmount's Peter Trent; they also have Mayor Bourque in their corner. They want the MUC to be a mere "service provider" - a dispenser, most notably, of policing, mass transit and sewage treatment. They disagree with Ms. Danyluk's view that the MUC's council should also be a forum for debating issues affecting all of Montreal Island

The MUC Chairman, Vera Danyluk, won a new 4-year mandate at tonight's meeting. The City of Montreal sided with her, as did a number of the suburban municipalities. This is of course a disappointment to Westmount's Mayor who believes strongly that the MUC should be chaired by an elected official and should act only as a service deliverer. Peter Trent's position is that the more power given to the MUC, the more likely Montreal is to move towards the Mega-city approach.

The remainder of the evening was taken up largely but not exclusively with the upcoming battle of the ballot boxes. The antagonists were analyzed and weighted.

Jean Charest has tremendous charisma, a lot of media support and a lot of hype, but up to now, very little substance. He can get away with this for the next half year or perhaps somewhat longer, but will ultimately have to come to grips with real issues. Québec voters are incredibly volatile. They want to hear about social change. Charest will need to focus on policy and programmes, attracting investment. However, in the lead-up to an election, the more substantive the platform, the more vulnerable.

JC Gazette photo Charest: talked with family.

Many Québecois are tired of the brooding, self-centered leadership of the PQ. What they are looking for is a cheer-leader!

In support of this there were comments from a guest who arrived from the rally held for Charest in LaSalle. It was a great success, some 700 people crowded into a room more suited to 400, no food, no drink. Many ethnic communities represented, blacks, Sikhs, Italians, generally working class voters. Lisa Frulla and John Ciaccia were there. When Jean Charest appeared the room went wild. Young Liberals were signing up new members. Very emotional atmosphere. Charest criticized Bouchard, Landry, over-crowded hospitals, no jobs.

Up to this point M. Charest has been building up a lot of support by restricting his campaign to mostly anglophone ridings. He has a great ability to rally voters who are already committed, but when he begins to address policy, he can afford to (and will) discount the anglo-allo vote which has nowhere else to go.

The electorate and the media are eagerly awaiting the results when he moves into Parti Québecois territory. In order to win decisively, his campaign must be successful with the eighty-two percent of Québecois who are francophone. If he is to be successful, he must emerge with something new. He must risk losing the support of both the radical and traditional wings of the QLP and come up with a platform that is different, one that goes straight up the middle.

The window of opportunity remains open for six months to a year if no election is called in the intervening period. If during this time, he can put together a quality "Brains Trust", his chance for success is impressive. Right now, it is obvious that he is observing the party structure and will be making up his mind about who his advisors and team should be. The Party is highly polarized, there is a lot of work to be done in bringing about cohesion. Many heads will roll in the next few months. The risk is that he will bring along the Old Guard Conservative bagmen. On the other hand, he has the qualities and the timing to be a generational politician, introducing a younger, fresher approach and appealing to the more sophisticated outward looking francophones in their 20's and 30's.

As for Lucien Bouchard, he appears to be on his way out. His probable successor does not have the appearance of a winner. Appearances however can be deceptive and M. Bouchard has proven to be the "consummate politician", blossoming in times of adversity in the past.

It will be an interesting campaign and election to watch. In summary, once inside the voting booth, "The electorate will have to choose between a failed philosophy and an undefined one".

The evening ended with a debate on the requirements for professionals to pass language tests. Very few if any of the guests were passionate on this issue.

Reported by

Herbert Bercovitz and Michael Judson Edited by Diana Thébaud Nicholson

  

 
  A N N O U N C E M E N T S  
 
 
 
Attention was drawn to the beautiful floral centrepiece decorating the table, a gift from Councilor Cynthia Lulham to thank David  for his effort in creating original photos  and text on this westweb site. Cynthia credited this with helping to win the "Four Iris" trophy awarded to the City of  Westmount in the Villes, Villages et Campagnes Fleuris contest, one of only two cities to be so honoured. 

John Ciaccia, wearing his hat of Dean of The Québec National Assembly, was most active on   The Assembly of Parliamentarians of the Americas which took place in Québec City, September 18 to 23rd. 1997

The purpose of this meeting was 'the elimination of trade barriers'. Positive responses have been received so far from twenty-six countries, three hundred parliamentarians and three hundred observers.  Now we have
 

Summit in Santiago

 
 

Some previous Wednesday Nights and other /westweb/ pages 

as Apr 17/98