Choose between Klô Pelgag and Valérie Plante

Let’s sum up. We know that the participation rate in municipal elections is always desperately low. The authorities have been racking their brains for years to try to interest citizens in municipal democracy.

We also know that Quebec culture is fragile and that the appeal of English-speaking music is difficult to counter. The Legault government has also released 259 million to create “blue spaces” promoting our culture.

In short, we are doing everything possible to interest citizens in both Quebec culture and politics.

Despite this, on Sunday night, viewers were faced with a choice that should never have come up. They could follow either the political high mass by tuning in to the municipal election evening, or the cultural high mass by watching the ADISQ gala.

We had to choose between Patrice Roy and Louis-José Houde. Between Valérie Plante and Klô Pelgag. Or zap between the two by missing half of each event. That is problematic.

Those whose hearts are inclined towards the music scene missed an emotional election night. We think of the spectacular turnaround in Quebec, where Marie-Josée Savard was mistakenly declared the winner by the media before suffering a heartbreaking defeat. We also think of the election of many women and many young people across Quebec, including a mayor of barely 21 years old in Chapais. Or the revenge match under high tension of Valérie Plante and Denis Coderre in Montreal.

What make some citizens want to follow politics.

For their part, those who followed the democratic joust missed the crowning of Klô Pelgag, who tied a Celine Dion record by winning 13 Félix this year. They missed the parade of Quebec artists of all genres – native (Anachnid), electronic music (CRi), hip-hop (Conn Thick Ticaso), country (Alex Burger).

Enough to make discoveries, buy an album from home and help make Quebec culture vibrate.

It will be said that it is easy to catch up with one viewing or the other. Except in both cases, the suspense of who wins is part of the fun of watching these events live.

There are 52 Sundays in 2021. Why on earth did you aim for the municipal elections to schedule the ADISQ gala?

“The Gala is always presented in the last week of October or the first of November,” says ADISQ. This year, it was either during Halloween or during the municipal elections. As artists are less available on Halloween, we chose election night.

This unconvincing response shows that ADISQ did not make great efforts to avoid the confrontation between the municipal elections and its big annual gala. The latter could very well have been held two or three weeks earlier or later than usual without the Earth stopping to turn. Especially since the date of the municipal elections had been known for a long time.

ADISQ would do well to examine its conscience since the same situation could happen again in four years. Especially since it doesn’t seem to serve her very well. The ratings of the gala have fallen sharply this year to reach 677,000 viewers (against 234,000 at LCN and 225,000 at RDI for election nights).

Seeing the gratin of Quebec artists give each other trophies while we learn the identity of the 1802 mayors of Quebec is certainly not dramatic, but it sends a bad signal nonetheless. A signal that contributes to the climate of indifference and growing disinterest in municipal politics.

This year again, the turnout in municipal elections is discouraging. Despite the polls which foreshadowed a constant race between Valérie Plante and Denis Coderre, barely 38% of voters in Montreal went to the polls, even less than four years ago. The figures for the whole province are not yet final, but they do not look much better.

Finding ways to increase interest in municipal elections is not easy. But we could at least start by avoiding shooting ourselves in the foot.

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