We’ve been talking a lot about the housing crisis for some time. But not many politicians looking for a place to stay. One of them has been giving us a nice demonstration of political squatting for several weeks. This can also help resolve another housing crisis…
Here’s how it works. You see a political party that is looking for itself and of which no one seems to want to take the lead, except an illustrious unknown. However, this party has a pretty good dowry, around twenty constituencies which lean inexorably towards its side election after election. And then, he has been in power for at least 150 years with some more difficult intervals. Living there is almost like squatting in a new building that has just been abandoned.
Opportunity makes a thief and, for Denis Coderre, a political itinerant since his ouster from Montreal town hall, the Liberal Party of Quebec (PLQ) represents, how can I put it, a great party… So he enters and makes himself at home. He first places his most comfortable chair, that of Captain Canada, then hangs his favorite posters, that of Jean Chrétien (a guy who never really lived in the neighborhood…) with some slogans from the last referendum campaign. In two steps, three movements, the places belong to him. Already at the National Assembly, his occupation of the premises is recognized. Paul St-Pierre Plamondon spoke of him yesterday as the probable leader of the PLQ.
Ironically, we have already seen a remarkable lesson in political squatting in recent years. A certain redhead with no family, no base and even no real ideas, in short a pure political orphan, has managed to squat a veritable palace of his own among our neighbors to the South. That happened almost ten years ago, and he still occupies the immense property that he completely redeveloped a long time ago. In fact, no one recognizes the old palace anymore, and the real owners no longer even dare to venture there. This shows how squatting can be a way of finding political accommodation at little cost.
It is my opinion that, in the case of our dear Denis Coderre, who must already be called “Denis the menace” in the PLQ, the scenario will be different. I have the impression that the real owners, encouraged by the “eminences grises”, are preparing to clean up the building. All this to say that everyone is perhaps getting excited a little too quickly about this itinerant politician. Will the squatter become the owner or even tenant for a time of this beautiful, large empty home? Let me doubt it…