The PLQ struggles to define its priorities a few months before the elections

(Montreal) A few months before the general election in Quebec, the Liberals are still struggling to define themselves and re-establish ties with Francophones without losing the support of Anglophones and allophones.

In the 2018 elections, the PLQ only won four seats outside the greater Montreal area. He lost two of them in by-elections: Roberval and Jean-Talon.

During the last by-election in the riding of Marie-Victorin, in Montérégie, the Liberal candidate Émilie Nollet could not do better than fifth place, obtaining only 6.93% of the votes cast.

“Quebec’s political landscape has changed,” notes political scientist Valérie-Anne Mahéo of Laval University. The debate centered around the question of sovereignty and federalism. He moved to a supposedly more normal political situation, on a left-right axis. Parties compete socially and economically. »

The Liberals are also struggling with voting intentions. A survey by the firm Léger recently gave them only 17% support, far behind the Coalition avenir Québec. It is also an eight percentage point drop from the 2018 election.

They even slipped to fourth place in the Quebec region. They are in third place outside of Montreal and Quebec.

Philippe J. Fournier, the creator of the Qc125 results projection site, foresees a disaster for the Liberals in October. If the Liberals were second in many ridings in 2018, he does not believe that will be the case in October.

Among Francophones, the Liberals are tied for fourth with 11% of voting intentions, behind Québec solidaire and the Conservative Party, a party that has never had a candidate elected to the National Assembly. The Conservatives have a member in their ranks, but Claire Samson was elected under the banner of the CAQ in 2018.

Some Liberals would like their party to occupy part of the ground left to non-sovereign nationalists in order to gain support outside of Montreal.

Benoît Pelletier, a former minister of Jean Charest, deplores that the PLQ has neglected questions of identity. He wants the band to redefine its relationship with Quebecers, especially its French-speaking majority.

He wants the Liberals to defend the French language and Quebec culture even more firmly. He regrets the party’s ambiguous position on the language law reform bill.

“This ambiguity, this ambivalence is something negative and harms the party,” maintains Mr. Pelletier.

A sign of this ambivalence: the Liberals introduced an amendment to Bill 96 aimed at requiring students in English-speaking CEGEPs to take three courses in French – but not one French course – to obtain a diploma. They withdrew it under pressure from MPs and the English-speaking base of the party.

The episode reflects the tensions reigning within the PLQ on questions of identity. It demonstrates the difficulty of broadening the francophone electoral base without alienating the anglophone and allophone base.

Anglophone discontent

And at the same time, even the Anglophone vote may not be a given for the Liberals.

Balarama Holness, a former candidate for mayor of Montreal, announced on Wednesday his intention to create a new party to defend the rights of the province’s ethnic and linguistic minorities. Another group plans to imitate it.

Even if he doubts that his new parties will win seats, Mr. Fournier believes that they could allow the CAQ to seize some hotly contested seats.

Chef Dominique Anglade doesn’t really care. The problem is not the message his party is carrying, it’s rather that people haven’t heard it yet.

“Polls are polls. They give a picture of the current situation. We have not been able to communicate all of our ideas. We weren’t as present as we would have liked to be. That’s why I’m excited about the next campaign. »