Learning

Yes, I should probably be asleep, or studying, or both, but instead I am watching the excellent mini-series on Rene Levesque that is on the CBC tonight. Watching it, it struck me just how much our politicians could learn from the late separatist:
1. He believed passionately that the people were the ultimate arbitrator
2. He stood up for what he believed in.
3. He was a strong democrat.
4. He believed in the power of youth- many of the PQ workers on the ground were under 21.
5. – And this is perhaps the most important- he was willing to listen. He negotiated. An extraordinarily intelligent man, he knew how to speak from the heart and think from the head.

If he weren’t a separatist, I would lament his absence from politics today. We need him or someone like him (preferably a federalist) to step up and carry out the ideals to which he was so committed. Not, perhaps, sovereignty-association, but the idea that the people, ultimately, are the most important part of the equation of power- we need more of that nowadays.

~ by sophiaxiv on June 15, 2009.