A few weeks ago, I wondered how Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois (GND) was going to negotiate the independence project of Paul St-Pierre Plamondon (PSPP) in the next elections.
However, during the famous National Council of Quebec Solidaire in Saguenay, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois gave an idea of the strategy that he is refining for the next electoral campaign. He said: “We cannot let Paul St-Pierre Plamondon transform this beautiful and great project that is the independence of Quebec into a referendum against immigration. »
The news passes quickly, but I wanted to come back to this sneaky declaration, so distant it already seems in editorial memories. What to say ? In Quebec, this tactic of dividing between the bad guys and the good guys with immigrants is not new. What surprises me, however, is that this clientelist approach comes from GND. I must admit, in fact, that since I saw his energy, his intelligence and his passion in the student demonstrations of spring 2012, I have great respect for GND.
This is also why this very populist turn he is taking disappoints me. We can reject PSPP sovereignism for different reasons, and fight it in many ways too. However, saying it comes at the expense of immigrants is not far from some of the statements coming out of Donald Trump’s mouth.
This way of always trying to paint adversaries on this sensitive issue does not help to improve living together. When done with discernment, talking about immigration is not a taboo subject in our plural societies.
Do you think that immigrants do not realize that we are reaching an excess of the reception capacity of Quebec, but also of all of Canada? Even among English speakers, where talking about this subject is traditionally prohibited, tongues have been loosened to ask Justin Trudeau to slow down before the system collapses. As a result, many of those who disembark now find themselves facing a wall of difficulties.
Today, unable to find housing from coast to coast, many new arrivals are languishing in precariousness. GND knows this, because we must recognize that it is to him and to Manon Massé that we owe the first warnings about the housing crisis which François Legault said at the time did not exist. A crisis that Justin Trudeau has greatly accentuated.
Why did Trudeau open the immigration floodgates so widely? Largely for the same reason that prompted GND to demonize the PQ on the same subject. In both cases, by placing oneself on the “open and tolerant” side of the Force, one invests to ultimately reap political dividends. But by wanting to take too much advantage of this advantage, Justin Trudeau has shattered Canada’s reception capacity. So much so that now, the too rapid increase in population is decried by demographers, economists, bankers and community organizations overwhelmed with requests for assistance.
Even those in solidarity have ended up accepting this reality. Not long ago, Québec solidaire said it wanted to reduce the number of temporary immigrants staying in Quebec to reduce pressure on public services. Does this make QS a den of xenophobes? Obviously not. In the same way, voting for the PQ motion on religious exception does not make the GND anti-religious. It simply says that QS is for equal rights, because granting additional rights to one group is not compatible with democracy.
Talking about integration, francization, secularism and welcoming capacity does not make a person an ideologue of exclusion. We simply need to approach this sensitive issue delicately and in a less guilt-inducing and stigmatizing way. Precautions, I must admit, that the PQ and the CAQ have not always taken. However, even if a few cases of unfortunate cases of slippage on immigration punctuate the recent history of the PQ, it is absolutely false to characterize the sovereignism of the PSPP as a project against immigration.
This approach reminds me of the methods previously used by Philippe Couillard to demonize François Legault. A strategy which, in my opinion, largely led to his downfall.
Many people continue to say that it was Couillard’s austerity program that sunk him. This is not entirely my opinion.
I rather believe that by feeling identified as intolerant by Couillard who was resolutely multiculturalist and resistant to secularism, people saw themselves ugly and bad through his eyes and opted for divorce without discussion.
Let’s say that on the path that led to the great extinction of the liberals in the French-speaking vote, GND is starting to walk. By constantly trying to demonize the CAQ and the PQ on immigration, like Couillard before him, he alienates a lot of people.
For a party looking to get out of Montreal, this is certainly not a good strategy. If Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois really wants a great, united Quebec nation, it is not a good idea to get into a mudball fight.