Canada 360 | The Political DNA of the Quebec Liberal Party

The Liberal Party of Quebec (PLQ) is currently going through a difficult period: it is unable to redefine itself in a convincing and coherent way. If the party will not be wiped off the map as easily as some suggest, its future nevertheless rests on its ability to renew its political DNA.

The political resilience of the PLQ

The PLQ is the only political formation which, since 1867, has always benefited from a substantial contingent of deputies in Quebec (the exception being the meager harvest of eight deputies during the 1948 election, under the leadership of Adélard Godbout ). Of the 42 provincial general elections held over the past 155 years, the PLQ has formed the government 24 times.

This is largely due to the party’s ability to adapt to changing circumstances. He was able to realign himself at the right times, and thus update his speech to offer voters the most convincing partisan option.

Realignments

One of these phases of realignment took place with the election in 1960 of Jean Lesage and his “thunder team”, when a nationalist and interventionist PLQ brought the Belle Province head-on into a phase of modernization: the Quiet Revolution.

Two decades later, under the leadership of Claude Ryan, the QLP undertook to offer an articulated and authentically federalist response, enshrined in what was called the “Beige Book”, to the independence project carried by René Lévesque.

The decentralizing and reforming spirit of the beige book will then be transposed into a list of specific demands by the Liberal government of Robert Bourassa during the constitutional rounds of Meech (1987-1990) and Charlottetown (1992), aimed at having Quebec sign the Constitution Act 1982.

It was on the ashes of the Meech Lake Accord that Bourassa said: “Whatever we say, whatever we do, Quebec is, today and forever, a distinct, free and capable of assuming its destiny and its development. In the wake of this declaration, the QLP developed its autonomist and federalist thinking with the Allaire report in 1991 (A Quebec free of its choices), then with the Montigny report in 1996 (Quebec Identity and Canadian Federalism).

By regaining power in 2003 with Jean Charest as leader, the QLP transposed its vision into action, under the leadership of the member for Chapleau and professor of constitutional law, Benoît Pelletier. By presiding over the creation of the Council of the Federation, the Charest-Pelletier duo wanted to provide Canada with a forum where the provincial partners of the federation could establish a common front to oppose the centralizing aims of Ottawa and force the government center to negotiate rather than dictate.

From beige book to blue book

Former Prime Minister Philippe Couillard is not seen as a visionary statesman of the caliber of Lesage, Ryan or Bourassa. He was nevertheless able to renew his party’s federalist discourse, relying on the leadership of his Minister of Canadian Intergovernmental Affairs, Jean-Marc Fournier, and on the expertise of the Quebec Secretariat for Canadian Relations. This is how, in June 2017, the Québec Affirmation and Canadian Relations Policy was born, Quebecers, our way of being Canadianswhich sociologist Simon Langlois called the “blue book”.

This Policy was intended to reopen the Canadian constitutional debate and allow Quebec to give its assent to a Constitution that would fully recognize its specificity. Even if Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rejected the spirit of it out of hand, without even having read it, it was a commendable effort to reposition himself in the face of the thorny question of the renewal of federalism in Canada. It was also essential, given the rise in the polls of another federalist and resolutely autonomist force, the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ).

The trouble is that the blue book is a government document, which advances a federalist vision of which the PLQ does not have a monopoly. Moreover, since coming to power in 2018, the CAQ government has borrowed a federalist grammar very similar to that of the blue book, and we even feel it is more sincere in its approach. The blue book therefore cannot establish the original political identity of the PLQ.

The PLQ under Dominique Anglade

In the midst of the first wave of COVID-19, Dominique Anglade was elected leader of the PLQ by acclamation. This conjuncture has hardly allowed a confrontation of ideas and to create a momentum around the new leadership. Also, the “Pandemic Parliament” did not give Mr.^me Anglade to establish herself as Prime Minister-in-waiting.

But the problem is even more serious. Admittedly, the Liberal leader tried to renew the federalist, nationalist and pluralist position of the PLQ¹. This did not arouse passions. Above all, this did not make it possible to clearly distinguish how its federalism differs from that of the CAQ, nor its pluralism from that of Québec solidaire.

The PLQ thus runs the risk of appearing politically insignificant, especially since its leader seems to navigate ideologically according to the polls. The flip-flop of last week, where M^me Anglade demanded to back down from an amendment that his own party had passed in the wake of the reform of Law 101²illustrates the situation.

If M^me Anglade wants to be something other than a leader of the transition, she will in turn have to redefine the terms of the political DNA of the PLQ and respond convincingly to current challenges. But it may already be too late…