The great processes of introspection of political parties – normally after a particularly cruel electoral defeat – seldom yield spectacular results. For the simple and good reason that parties cannot reinvent themselves without denying their history and disorienting their activists.
The Parti Québécois (PQ) has historically been the one that has most often resorted to these great updates. But rarely with very inspiring results.
Thus, after the defeat of 2003, an election that the PQ believed to win easily, Bernard Landry had launched the “season of ideas”.
“We will have to have the courage to question habits, reflexes, orientations that have long been ours,” said Mr. Landry. But at the end of the exercise, the PQ concluded that the best ideas were those it had always had.
The Quebec Liberal Party (PLQ) suffered an even more historic defeat last fall than that of the PQ in 2003. It is therefore not surprising that it is launching into its own questioning.
When he became leader of the PLQ, Jean Charest had asked Claude Ryan to define liberal values for him, which resulted in the publication of a small book, Liberal values and modern Quebecwhich still serves as a small catechism of liberalism with Quebec sauce.
But, in fact, the main principles determined by Mr. Ryan have been integrated into the very constitution of the PLQ and constitute its article 1. Which means that, like all things that end up in constitutions, it will be rather complicated to amend .
In any case, we do not see how the PLQ could turn its back on ideas such as “the primacy of the person, individual rights and the right of everyone to achieve their aspirations with respect for others”.
One of the problems of the PLQ is the fact that the Liberal brand is currently experiencing its worst days at the provincial level across Canada.
There is only one Liberal prime minister left, in Newfoundland and Labrador. The Liberals are the official opposition in Quebec and in the three other maritime provinces.
But west of Ottawa, the Liberal parties are in intensive care. In Ontario, they have only 8 MPs left out of 124. There are three left in Manitoba. And there are none left in Saskatchewan and Alberta.
As for British Columbia, the Liberal Party had long since become, in effect, the provincial Conservative party. But the Liberal brand is so bad that the party changed its name a few months ago and is now called BC United. A soccer team name…
All this to say that the current problems of the Quebec Liberals are not only due to the disaffection of French-speaking voters. All liberal parties are looking for a place and relevance.
In Ottawa, the federal Liberal Party has made a left turn that makes it quite comfortable in an alliance with the New Democrats. One thing is certain, it is no longer the party which comfortably occupied the center of political life and which was “the natural party of government”.
The situation of the PLQ is different. He has not recovered from having lost his best enemy. The troubles of the Parti Québécois have become, at the same time, a problem for the Liberals.
Gone are the days when it was enough for Jean Charest to utter the word “referendum” to ensure a victory for his party. This situation no longer exists and the PLQ has not succeeded – not yet, in any case – in positioning itself against the Coalition avenir Québec.
This is why the ambitions of the committee of 14 eminent members of the QLP chaired by former journalist André Pratte and MP Madwa-Nika Cadet can only remain modest. It’s limited, for the most part, to bringing back the lost red sheep.
“I think there are still a lot of people who share liberal ideas and values, but who, for one reason or another, decided to vote differently in the last election – or even not to vote,” said André Pratte at a press conference during the formation of the committee.
He added: “If the committee does its job as it should, and I am sure it will, people will rediscover liberal values in all their relevance today, in modernity, and they will come back at the party. »
In short, no in-depth revision of the values or the program. We hope that the Liberals will come home so that the PLQ will be ready for the day when, inevitably, Quebeckers will want to change government.
It’s modest as an objective, but to see the history of the major challenges to our political parties, it has the advantage of being realistic.