The death of Queen Elizabeth II opens the door to a collective reflection on the roles and functions of the Crown within Canadian and Quebec political institutions. Canada and Quebec, it should be remembered, have at their head a Head of State who is no longer in tune with the spirit of the times and who symbolizes, even naturalized, the colonial era with all that involves: genocide against Aboriginals and Métis, deportation of Acadians and systemic oppression of French Canadians across Canada, particularly in Quebec.
Posted at 1:00 p.m.
Despite its anachronism, the Canadian Crown is maintained without too much difficulty because of the historical ties between Canada and the United Kingdom, the relative indifference of the population to this issue and above all the governments’ lack of will to open the constitutional “vault”.
Indeed, changing the regime necessarily implies reviewing the architecture of the Canadian political system, which heralds the reopening of other much more sensitive projects: Senate reform, the review of equalization, the recognition of Aboriginal peoples in Canada and the Québec’s place within the federal space.
While in Quebec the leader of the Parti Québécois Paul St-Pierre Plamondon is currently waging a battle to avoid taking the oath to the Crown, the Bloc Québécois seems timid to make this issue a priority.
However, the Bloc could seize a chance to stand out since all the other political parties on the federal scene have announced that they do not want to review the constitutional monarchy.
Justin Trudeau even went so far as to go so far as to affirm without shuddering that Elizabeth II was “one of my favorite people in the world”.
Why does the Bloc Québécois not take the lead on this issue by vigorously fighting monarchism and campaigning for the Republic of Canada and Quebec? While waiting for a very hypothetical referendum, this is a raison d’être that is perfectly in line with the defense of Quebec’s interests on the federal scene, because, let us remember, Quebecers are largely in favor of the abolition of the monarchy.
The Duceppe years
Originally, the Bloc Québécois was to be a temporary party whose primary objective was to ensure the defense of Quebec’s interests following a winning referendum. After the defeat in the 1995 referendum and with the arrival of Gilles Duceppe, the Bloc reinvented itself by defending broader objectives such as the defense of Quebec values, the protection of Quebec’s political weight within Canada or the health transfers.
If this enlargement allowed the Bloc to reign over Quebec and play an important role in Ottawa until the orange wave of 2011, it risked, on the contrary, making it a federalist party like the others. In other words, the Bloc members, despite their excellent work, have unwittingly become mere civil servants in the pay of the Canadian Crown.
To avoid this backsliding, the Bloc must regain the initiative, because with the erosion of power, it will no longer be able to count on the nationalism of the Coalition avenir Québec to increase its support. The fight against the monarchy presents an interesting and challenging opportunity. Will he be able to grab it?