Reflect on the future of Quebec, question the best strategies to promote collective and individual fulfillment in all aspects of life. Consult citizens and groups to take their pulse. Develop an integrated vision of the future of Quebec and draft a consistent platform. Establish a few essential key ideas to implement in a first mandate. Has this process become a utopia?
Some parties, more militant, reflect first and foremost strong convictions and can be off-putting to the exercise of power. They will then be confronted with the principle of reality, the constraints and the need to choose and establish compromises. Other parties, more oriented towards power, will shop around for beliefs according to the mood of the moment.
Over the past 20 years, Quebec has often been led by governments in cognitive dissonance with the needs and priorities of the population, the absence of a compensatory mixed proportional voting system exacerbating this phenomenon. To be stubborn in a cul-de-sac by “conviction” generates several problems, of course. However, I believe that the current CAQ government is plunging into the opposite tangent: excessive polling, or “pollocracy”, to dictate its every move.
Whether it’s inflation, the management of COVID, the protection of French, the measures to be applied for the health system, electoral clientelism is in full swing, according to the polls. A single common thread, in a few points: the desire for “moderation”, to stick to the opinion of a strong plurality of citizens and a desire to anchor the perception that the “government acts”, that the action generates an effect or not.
The in-between
What are the beliefs of the current government? On what arguments were they built? For the protection of French, here is the line of communication: we are moderate, one party thinks it goes too far, the other that it does not go far enough, so our approach is good. No argument on the long-term sustainability of French or on the influence of Quebec’s political framework on the situation of French.
For the management of COVID, the same non-argument emerges: one party wants more measures (the PLQ has completely reversed its jacket for a few months), another wants less, so it’s between the two, it’s Well. For inflation and purchasing power, the Quebec government does not speak of the printing of phenomenal sums of money, which is a federal responsibility, of course, but which also stems from the specific restrictive health measures applied in Quebec.
Nor does it talk about the need to obtain productivity gains to counter inflation or the interest of reducing or not reducing the tax burden of Quebecers according to the vision of taxation and economic development. One-off allowances are distributed which act like a bandage on an open wound.
Electoral clientelism is currently in full swing and is likely to reach a powerful crescendo between now and the election scheduled for October. My main question, for the government and the opposition parties: what is your vision of the development of Quebec and on what principles do you rely to build it? I collectively hope that our future will be built on a more solid foundation than the soundings carried out with Internet panels, Quebec deserves better.