The interim leader of the PLQ, Marc Tanguay, said he wanted to work daily to “simplify the message on issues that are very complex”. According to him, a deficient pedagogy partly explains the disastrous performance of his party in the election of October 3rd.
Admittedly, the ins and outs of the ECO project have remained quite mysterious for ordinary mortals, but the problem was rather that the message had been constantly changing since the arrival of Dominique Anglade. By dint of seeing it zigzag from left to right, from nationalism to multiculturalism, it ended up mixing up and dissatisfying everyone.
In the case of the notwithstanding clause, it must be recognized that Mr. Tanguay did not dither. The PLQ is unambiguously in the camp of Justin Trudeau and believes with him that the preventive use of this provision, in particular to protect the laws on secularism and language from legal challenges, must be prohibited, regardless of the results.
It is both sad and fascinating to see the party that was the great architect of the Quiet Revolution and the emancipation of Quebec society now become the accomplice of those who are trying to melt it into the Canadian magma.
There was a time, not so long ago, when there was at least a debate on this issue within the PLQ. Periodically, a more nationalist wing emerged, with the most militant even choosing to leave the party, whether in the 1960s, when René Lévesque slammed the door to found the MSA and later the PQ, or, in the 1990s, when Jean Allaire and Mario Dumont founded the ADQ. It is now absolute silence.
It is as if, since the failure of the Charlottetown agreement (1992), the QLP had given up to gradually become again the branch of the federal parent company that it had been during the first century of the federation.
From one constitutional policy to another, its demands have become more timid. Being Quebecois has become a slightly different way of being Canadian. By joining in the business of neutralizing the notwithstanding clause, the Liberals are giving up the ultimate means of asserting this difference within Canada.
This alignment with the policy of nation-building pursued by Ottawa could always be understood as long as the unity of the country was threatened, but the weakening of the sovereignty movement could have given the PLQ the opportunity to return to its former positions. Instead, he let the CAQ occupy all the ground of autonomy.
The Liberals may have come to the conclusion that the hope of a reform of federalism to the satisfaction of Quebec is illusory and that it is better to leave François Legault in the lurch. Or return to its former ideal.
For the time being, they are no less disconnected from the French-speaking majority and owe their survival and official opposition status essentially to the non-French-speaking electorate.
The imminence of the by-election in Saint-Henri–Sainte-Anne, of which only 53% of the population is of French mother tongue, is not likely to encourage the PLQ to worry about Quebec identity.
A defeat in this liberal fortress left vacant by the departure of Dominique Anglade, who won by 2,736 votes in the October 3 election, would be a real disaster, which would send a very bad signal to those whom we would like to convince to run for leadership. Already, we do not rush to the gate.
The problem is that the election in Saint-Henri–Sainte-Anne is just as important for Québec solidaire, which needs a victory to get back on track after the disappointing results of last October and whose candidate, Guillaume Cliche -Rivard, who finished second, is already in the campaign.
Adding a deputy on the island of Montreal would in no way lessen the difficulties that QS is experiencing in the regions, but “one more is always the fun », as Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois said. It would also reinforce QS’s claim to be the replacement for the Legault government.
Since the three other parties were not really in the race, Marc Tanguay set the tone for the Liberal campaign by accusing QS of having “a double discourse on the defense of rights and freedoms”.
The reproach makes us smile insofar as it is precisely what many Anglophones have reproached the PLQ for in recent years. The message he will send to the voters of Saint-Henri–Sainte-Anne will perhaps be clearer, but he should keep in mind that it will be heard throughout Quebec.