Advocate “national cohesion” without stirring up division

One year before the provincial elections, François Legault calls for “national cohesion”. According to the Prime Minister, the Culture and Citizenship course announced last weekend will serve this purpose in particular.

In this era of radicalization of debates, Mr. Legault is right to be concerned about social cohesion. And despite fears, it is possible that the new course actually promotes this unity by giving young people a better understanding of the thinking of others.

But in this pre-election year, we want to send a message to politicians, and in particular to the Prime Minister: Quebec is watching you.

National cohesion is also (and even above all) your responsibility. However, it happens too often that the political game leads politicians to stir up division rather than rallying.

In recent months, we have seen several examples of this unfortunate reflex. We think of Prime Minister François Legault who calls Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois a “woke” (after the latter compared him to Maurice Duplessis). Or the deplorable bickering over systemic racism that ignited the National Assembly on the very day we celebrated the anniversary of Joyce Echaquan’s death (an embarrassing episode for which François Legault finally apologized).

The politicization that surrounded the unveiling of the new Culture and Quebec Citizenship course stems from the same partisan logic. Well-known personalities, a polished video advertisement… Since when has a school course become a consumer product that must be sold to the population?

Experts responsible for creating the course program also told the To have to to have felt “instrumentalised” for partisan ends by the government, to the point of resigning. If there is one area that should not be politicized, it is education. And for a course that aims for cohesion, let’s say it got off to a bad start.

Exploiting the identity divide

We know that there is a major divide in Quebec on subjects such as the integration of newcomers and the form that the secularism of the state should take. According to the professors of politics Éric Bélanger (McGill) and Jean-François Godbout (University of Montreal), this division is even in the process of establishing itself as one of the three major ideological cleavages of Quebec society, in the same way as the left / right and sovereignist / federalist cleavages.

In preliminary work recently presented in a seminar, the researchers affirm that the presence of these three cleavages explains the fact that we now find four major political parties in Quebec, within a political system that is known to favor the emergence of two dominant formations.

That divisions exist in a society is not a problem in itself. National cohesion does not mean that everyone should think the same thing. It is also normal for political parties to position themselves in relation to the currents circulating within society.

Where it becomes problematic is when politicians exploit these divisions for political gain. Let them exacerbate them, crystallize them.

However, it is clear that in recent years, the identity question has been exploited as a divisive issue (what the English call a wedge issue). If we are not careful, the upcoming election year could lead to slippages.

Finally, let us note that there can be no real national cohesion without real reconciliation with the indigenous peoples. However, for the moment, the CAQ is not sending the signals expected by these communities. And it is slow to put into practice the concrete actions that would make a difference.

With the pandemic, the Legault government has shown that it can rally a large part of the Quebec population in difficult times. Let us now hope that the Prime Minister’s message of national cohesion is heard by all politicians – including those in his own party.

What do you think? Express your opinion