At the end of this campaign, there are no more illusions: after a little over a month, François Legault reveals himself and assumes himself as a federalist without complexes.
Posted yesterday at 3:00 p.m.
The label of nationalist rubbed off in the wash and the hopes that he would return to his first allegiances in the face of a crisis or in the face of the impasse into which Canada perpetually plunges us have vanished. Worse, all the sovereignists he has added to his team have had to give up defining themselves as such. We can no longer say that the CAQ is a coalition of sovereignists and federalists from the moment when the former must conceal their true nature, their deep convictions. The “Coalition” avenir Québec, as in certain paintings by Magritte, is no more than the representation of an object that does not exist in reality.
Everyone agrees that the head of the CAQ did not lead a good campaign, not to mention the false and inconsiderate remarks of his Minister of Immigration, who weighed down his last week even more.
Jean Boulet is so discredited that we do not see how he could be a minister in a future government. Why would he show more judgment in another ministry? Unless, even worse, he said the bottom of his mind?
Meanwhile, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon is completing an excellent campaign. And yet, the leader of the PQ started from afar. After responding tirelessly, for more than a year, to questions about the possible death of his party or its relevance, PSPP has been able to embody hope and lead an authentic and original campaign. And yet, because of our electoral system, there is a risk, a real one, that the Parti Québécois will not be represented as it should be in the National Assembly.
This is also one more reason to vote for the Parti Québécois: the CAQ does not need 100 deputies in the House, nor to take the keys of parliament. Our democracy would suffer, as would parliamentary work, especially that in committee. Moreover, when we study the projections of seats, the distortion between the percentage of votes that could be obtained and the number of MPs expected becomes indecent.
In Joliette, Rosemont, Marie-Victorin, Camille-Laurin, Bonaventure, Gaspé, Matane-Matapédia, the Îles-de-la-Madeleine and other ridings, the Parti Québécois is competitive. It could cause surprise, if indeed a real rallying takes place by Monday.
What should also inspire us, and perhaps in particular us, of the baby-boomer generation, who have fought these battles since the Quiet Revolution, until the 1976 election and then during the two referendums, is the fact that the torch has been successfully passed on to another generation.
To these numerous, dynamic and determined young people, we cannot offer disinterest, renunciation. We must vote to preserve the future, that of the independence project and to ensure the sustainability of our culture.
What would be left of us if we no longer sang, wrote no more novels, poems, essays, plays, films, series in French? If we did not consume any more?
In this regard, it is worth dwelling for a moment on lesser-known aspects of the PQ program, in particular the launch of a major project, long overdue, to improve “the skills of Quebecers in written French, in reading and communication. This will lead to the development of a national strategy to fight illiteracy “accompanied by the implementation of measures and incentives to improve the quality of French for Quebecers, young people and adults”. And Paul St-Pierre Plamondon added: “We must write and read French better, communicate better in French, at all levels. »
Finally ! A party leader who dares to affirm loud and clear, against the dominant discourse, that “increased importance will be given to the quality of the language in all school work, by reserving a compulsory part in the final grade for spelling and the quality of the written language”. If I quote this part of the platform in the text, it is because I consider it fundamental. The demand for the quality of French is necessary not only so as not to massacre such a “beautiful” language and because it is necessary to understand each other between the 200 million French speakers throughout the world, but also because lucrative jobs will henceforth require real mastery of it.
Moreover, PSPP understood that there is no contradiction between nationalism and internationalism, as René Lévesque demonstrated to us at the time. He knows that these two terms are complementary and that gaining our independence would be like a new impetus towards the world, towards others. He embodies this cardinal value, this nationalist as well as internationalist approach. It also proves that one can be a social democrat, that is to say, an interventionist and a redistributor on the economic and social levels and, particularly, with regard to the environment, this existential planetary issue, while defending our language, our culture, our own model of secularism, our memory and our history.