Almost as Annoying as the PQ

The Quebec Liberals have always ... sucked.  They know that the anglophones and the allophones cannot really vote for the PQ much.  So, they have to compete with the PQ in pandering to the worst instincts of the majority.

So, we should not be surprised that the Liberals tried to split hairs and be slightly less xenophobic and only 98% as Islamophobic as the PQ with this stance: the only religious garments to be restricted are the chador, niqabs or burqas.  The pandering move is not just to Islamophobes but to feminists:

“We consider that the wearing of these three items of clothing by women is the instrumentalization of religion with the end goal of oppression and submission. We are applying this judgment,” Couillard said.

Um, maybe.  Maybe not.  Isn't it up to the women involved to assess for themselves?  Is forcing these women to lose their ability to work probably not a good one for their lives?  Remember, heaps and heaps of Quebec jobs are public jobs--teachers, day care workers, university employees, doctors, nurses, other medical jobs, and so on.  For many of these jobs, the public sector is their only potential employer.

So, let's give these women unemployment checks instead?  Is that a progressive move?

I firmly believe that tolerance is a better long term strategy for dealing with alienation.  Alienation, on the other hand, is a pretty good short to long term strategy if you want to alienate folks.  So, good work "Liberal" Party.

I did have a series of tweets where I tried to figure out what to call this move: splitting pander hairs? Semi-pander? Quasi-pander? Dodgy-pander?

All I do know is that the Liberals have done a fine job of betraying their principles (if they had any that matched the name of the party) and yet probably hurt their electoral chances as well.

Well done, PLQ, well done.