It boggles the mind

You know, there are a lot of things about Canadian politics that I just can't seem to understand.

Take the logic of Quebec separatists, for example.

Here is a profile of Gatineau BQ candidate Richard Nadeau. Now, Mr. Nadeau has been president of the local Bloc association since 1999, which is almost as long as he has been teaching for the Ontario French school board.

Now, I wonder if it has ever occurred to Mr. Nadeau that if he ever gets what he wants, a separate Quebec, he may be out of a job. (Personally, I've never heard of any residents of Windsor, Ontario who are employed by the Detroit, Michigan school board, but that's just me.)

If you don't think it quite makes sense that someone who is employed in Ontario wants to be a resident of another country, wait for this.

Mr. Nadeau's wife is Edith Gendron, who made a stink some time ago because she was fired from her job at the Department of Canadian Heritage. As a federal civil servant, Ms. Gendron was required to serve Canadians. However, she also served as the president of Outouais separatist group "Le Quebec, un pays" which means "Quebec, a country". According to Ms. Gendron and her supporters, she should have been allowed to keep her job at the Department of Canadian Heritage while working to undermine Canada.

So here we have a couple, one who works in Ontario and is employed by the Ontario government as a teacher, yet seemingly thinks that if Quebec were to be its own country, life would go on for him as usual. The other thinks it is her right to have a job paid for by Canadian taxpayers while in her spare time she works to break up the country.

What really stinks about this whole thing? In order to try and reason with these people and convince them of the merits of staying in Canada, the federal government has decided that those citizens who do not speak English should be increasingly denied access to civil service jobs.

How can you possibly expect to rationalize with people like Richard Nadeau and Edith Gendron? And why do it on the backs of ambitious and passionate Canadian kids who want to give something back to their country though a career in the public service?

I also feel bad for patriotic French Canadians who love Canada and aren't shy of saying so, like Gatineau Liberal MP Francoise Boivin (who is in a tough fight against Nadeau to keep her seat out of separatist hands). Whenever the rest of Canada hears about stories like those above, it is Boivin and strong federalist Quebecois who are left out in the cold because the rest of the country is running out of patience with their province.

One thing I know for sure: the next time there's a referendum, there won't be nearly as many people travelling to Montreal to plead with Quebec to stay in Confederation as there were last time. And the antics of people like Nadeau and Gendron will be to blame.