Québec solidaire claims to be a different party and claims to want to modernize. However, certain comments from the male spokesperson, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, send signals worthy of the oldest of politicians. He did not spare intellectual shortcuts by asserting, within the framework of his party’s National Council, that the PQ was transforming the beautiful country project of Quebecers into a referendum on immigration, and he did not fail in passing put your opponents in the same basket. This exploitation of the immigration debate for partisan purposes is dangerously similar to the populist tactics of the far right. It seeks to polarize by distorting reality or inventing a parallel world. The fact that GND seems to be doing this without even realizing it is worrying to say the least. This is the last thing politics needs right now, and it is far from modern and different.
Having an immigration policy is essential. This is a delicate issue, certainly, but unavoidable. We can respectfully debate the influence of such a policy on other important issues, such as language or the housing crisis, and disagree. However, reducing an opponent’s words by concocting a false amalgam is a dangerous insult to intelligence. In doing so, GND denies the very validity of the debate. The position of the PQ is not extreme, and the fact of thus belittling the project of a party making moderate remarks because its posture bothers us, is to feed the flame of the extreme right and is likely to fuel popular discontent. It is ill-advised to pave the way for the populist right on important issues because we refuse to honestly address them. Stigma is a perilous avenue. We would expect more from QS, we would expect better. We would expect more lucidity and pragmatism. The CAQ often delights in a policy of formulas and shortcuts. We can only be saddened to see that QS does not participate in cleaning up the debates. Claiming to embody political renewal is one thing, presenting the necessary grandeur is another.
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