Open letter to Prime Minister François Legault
You said, on Sunday September 4, in an interview as part of the special program Five leaders, one election, having abandoned your promise of electoral reform because, according to you: “Apart from a few intellectuals, Quebecers are not interested in changing the voting system. »
Let’s overlook the fact that this statement is particularly demagogic. Let’s also overlook the contempt you seem to display for “intellectuals” in general. Finally, let’s get over the fact that one should be wary of a Prime Minister who publicly discredits intellectuals, environmentalists and other scientific experts to justify his bad decisions…
However, what we will not get over is your assertion that Quebecers are not interested in the evolution of our democracy. Such remarks are contemptuous of all the people and organizations that have united to demand a different voting system for years. Moreover, poll after poll, we know that approximately 70% of the population is in favor of electoral reform. In addition, more than 80% want a change in political culture that would promote more collaboration in the National Assembly. What’s more, the participation rates in the last elections testify to a disengagement with regard to the current electoral system… and we will soon see for the current one, on October 3rd.
The people of Quebec, young people in particular, are calling for the establishment of a fairer, more mature and healthier democracy. It is not insignificant that for four years you have been governing in a “majority” manner with only 37% popular support! Many of us fear the election of repeated all-powerful majority governments more than the election of co-operative minority governments. We are thousands to be tired that our vote does not count. You are not guilty of this, the electoral system is. The very one you promised to change…
You knew at the time that our electoral system was broken, unfair and that it still fueled the ambient cynicism. You hoped then “that we work more together, so that there is not a government elected by a minority which makes decisions for a majority”. These are your own words.
What has changed since? The power. The insidious power. Like the others before you, you now imagine that you are the only one with a sufficiently enlightened vision to govern Quebec and that it would therefore be dangerous to share it. Popular support for electoral reform has not changed between 2018 and 2022. You have changed.
In a democracy, power belongs to the people, to the people as a whole. It is a dysfunction of our democracy to concentrate it in the hands of a single person, who, moreover, obtains the support of only a minority of the population.
Four years ago, you wanted to fight against cynicism, you proposed that the vote of each elector count, that the composition of the National Assembly reflect beliefs as they are actually expressed within Quebec society . Four years ago, you said you embodied change.
Four years later, power is exactly the same as it was: all-powerful, populist and arrogant.
Four years later, apart from your convictions, where is the change, Mr. Legault?