On May 11, 2012, Bernard Drainville was the star of an interpellation that has remained memorable in the annals of the National Assembly.
The theme of the debate with the Minister responsible for Canadian Intergovernmental Affairs and the Canadian Francophonie in the Couillard government, Alain Paquet, was “The majority Conservative government: one year later, the consequences for Quebec”, but the member for Marie- Victorin had taken the opportunity to deliver a masterful plea on the benefits that independence would bring to Quebec.
Mr. Paquet, who boasted somewhat, had stung him by declaring that he had never heard the PQ explain clearly what it would do, if Quebec were a sovereign state, that it could not do with its actual status.
It took him badly. “What would it change, independence? We’re going to go, “immediately replied Mr. Drainville. The flurry of examples came out like a machine gun. Ten years later, his performance, which can be seen on YouTube, remains impressive. Obviously, it came from the heart and reflected an almost evangelical faith in sovereignty.
Now that they are going to welcome him into their ranks, lovers of Canada within the CAQ who have not had the opportunity to see him at work would do well to watch these ten minutes to find out what stick with their future colleague. This will also make them measure the credibility of his adherence to the virtues of autonomy within the federation.
Several of the examples chosen by Mr. Drainville were drawn from current events at the time, when his new majority finally allowed the Harper government to give its full measure. It was about the destruction of the firearms registry, Bill C-10 on young offenders, a possible Canadian withdrawal from the Kyoto protocol, federal funding for the Lower Churchill hydroelectric project or the celebration of the War of 1812.
Other examples were less tied to economic conditions and remain very relevant. Thus, “we would not need to fight to be less and less of a minority in a Parliament which is controlled by a nation other than ours”.
“If we were independent, the money that we are currently sending to the auto sector, that we are sending to the oil sector in Alberta, in Saskatchewan, we would keep it at home, then we would develop renewable energies in Quebec with this money, we would finance an industrial strategy to protect our manufacturing sector, we would protect our jobs in the factory, our workers,” Mr. Drainville also said.
“If we were independent, we wouldn’t have to hear the craziness that we are currently hearing in Ottawa, there, to relaunch the debate on abortion […]. If we were independent, we wouldn’t have to fight for French-speaking judges, we wouldn’t have to fight for a French-speaking Auditor General, we wouldn’t have to put up with multiculturalism, which marginalizes Quebec culture…”
The member for Marie-Victorin had many grievances against the Couillard government, which he accused of being on its knees before Ottawa and of being incapable of stopping even a little the “regular bulldozing” to which Quebec was subjected.
Listening to him again ten years later, one cannot help noticing that what he reproached the PLQ for is exactly what the PQ reproaches the CAQ for today. Paul St-Pierre Plamondon or Pascal Bérubé could take up his philippic word for word.
Let us judge: “When all you have for a means of response, when your only strategy for responding, is to write letters, which, more often than not, are not even followed by a acknowledgment of receipt, when all you have to fight back is to go to court because you are unable to make your voice heard politically, I apologize, but this is an admission of weakness is proof and a demonstration that you no longer have a balance of power. »
In the mouth of the future CAQ candidate in Lévis, the “pride” was not in this perpetual solicitation, but in the fight for independence. “Yes, we are proud of this battle that we are waging because it is a battle for pride, for dignity, to make Quebec a stronger, more proud nation, then we will not let go, that one. »
Would Saint Bernard be able to look Quebecers in the eye and tell them that he no longer believes in it?