Québec solidaire persists and signs. It defines itself as a sovereignist party.
By expelling the PLQ from its stronghold, the one it had occupied for many moons in the county of Saint-Henri–Sainte-Anne, QS deployed its ambiguity – some would say its deceit – by recruiting all the federalist liberals, mostly English-speaking and allophones, who feel like orphans.
The PLQ, deserted by 96% of French-speaking voters, has little chance of regaining power, its political DNA, of which it was the repository for decades in Quebec.
In his chronicle of Duty last Saturday, Jean-François Lisée indicates that the elected deputy Guillaume Cliche-Rivard remained silent on the sovereignist option of QS throughout his campaign.
QS never displays the Quebec flag in its political activities, let’s not forget that.
At the end of the campaign, at the last press briefing, the choice of the lectern spoke volumes. Because the word “Quebec” had disappeared in favor of “Solidarity”. Only.
Silence the story
As for QS’s star MP, Ruba Ghazal, colorful and talented, she displays her vision of sovereignty without complex. But she repeats that she hates references to the Quebec nation that refer to the country and to history. Rather, she deciphers a reference to the only “true Quebecers”, the descendants of the settlers of New France.
So, Québec solidaire is instrumentalizing its sovereigntist leanings as a hook for what remains of nationalists in the party. A party officially represented by the ambitious and talented MP Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois.
But the political direction of QS remains in the hands of older ideologues, a Quebec version of the Politburo in communist countries. These discreet people, rather secretive, flee the media light and dream of an unquiet Quebec revolution, without a doubt.
We should talk more about the naivety of many QS activists. It would explain their tolerance and their attraction for “reasonable” accommodations and for a systemic guilt that is much more concrete than the systemic racism that we are called.