Faced with the impasse of his nationalist policy and to counter the sovereignist solution of the Parti Québécois (PQ), François Legault proposed the formation of a committee on the autonomy of Quebec within Canada.
There is reason to question this strategy of recovering public opinion which presents an approach aimed at restoring an autonomist policy whose impotence has been demonstrated in the face of the intransigence of the federal government. The CAQ is trying to give a makeover to an option that has aged poorly. Since the provincial autonomy of Duplessis, through the cultural sovereignty and distinct society of Robert Bourassa as well as the identity-based nationalism of Legault, Quebec has hit a wall in the face of the centralizing policies of Ottawa, and this too often with the complicity of the Rest of Canada. Once again, we are trying to postpone an inevitable deadline that awaits Quebec in a federation that is not made for it.
If the goal of creating this committee is to develop an argument to support Quebec’s demands against Ottawa, the approach may seem useful. However, in vain we renew the discourse by renaming the essential powers that we want to obtain or at least maintain, is the crucial question not to evaluate the real negotiating capacity of a province whose demographic influence is in decline in the country? Therefore, has the destiny of Quebec entered into a process of quiet erasure within a Canada which responds less and less to its expectations?
As proposed by Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, the mandate of the committee on autonomy should include the sovereignist option which is intended to be the ultimate outcome of an autonomy project for Quebec. By constantly wanting to reinvent a wheel that turns square, isn’t the CAQ government throwing smoke and mirrors into the eyes of a population that wants to see things clearly?
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