We are in the election campaign and I am walking around the Bas-Saint-Laurent. People talk to me a little about the countryside, a lot about the weather, about their dreams, about their children. This first text is inspired by them. But also an evening experienced last Friday in Rimouski, with at least 150 people who came to hear Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois.
Posted yesterday at 10:00 a.m.
I had decided to go and smell the era proposed by Québec solidaire (QS), I wanted to get an idea for myself. I was spoiled! I rediscovered this unparalleled pleasure of vibrating with people to a word of hope. I heard their many questions and the clear and pedagogical answers of the national co-spokesperson.
I lived through it, from citizens’ assemblies, throughout my feminist and political commitments! I know the difficulty of answering real questions. What do you say to a 15-year-old girl horrified by the feminicides that add up in Quebec? Gabriel spoke of the many inequalities that still plague women. We felt not only sincerity, but also a keen knowledge of the issue.
This assembly carries with it the best of Quebec: the ability to dialogue, to debate without getting into a fight. A young woman read a short text denouncing the fact that QS does not position itself for degrowth. Calmly and kindly, the QS spokesperson replied that this debate was perfectly legitimate and that the members of QS had democratically voted in another direction. And the evening continued. Relaxed.
Good lords, could it be that the tiresome, aggressive, harassers, though deeply disturbing, are a minority we talk about too much?
Obviously, we must collectively denounce hate speech and behavior and demand that police forces protect threatened public figures. But let’s remember this: most Quebecers want to experience a peaceful campaign, get informed, discuss and ultimately vote.
I believe this crucial election. Why ? Because the challenges facing Quebec society are enormous. I am thinking, of course, of inflation, of growing inequalities, of the housing crisis, of the rotting problems in health, social services, education. I am thinking of urban sprawl and the dezoning of agricultural land. To the culture that ate a whole lot during the pandemic. About the labor shortage I hear about everywhere I go.
Faced with these major challenges, opposing visions collide. Of course, we can put all the necessary nuances. But fundamentally, we have to ask ourselves which should prevail: the sense of the common good, of social and economic equality, of the fight against injustice or else a big “patching” of phony solutions to problems that attack people every day.
For example, what do we do in the face of an increasingly unequal education system? How do we react to racism and discrimination? To the decline of the French language which must nevertheless constitute our social cement?
Are we worried about a return to the 1970s when young mothers were desperate for a place in daycare so they could work? Finally, what do we have to say to young Quebecers who are terribly worried about the survival of our planet?
Back from Rimouski, I learned about Québec solidaire’s action plan on climate change. As I write these lines, QS’s political opponents have yet to react, but I can imagine what they will say, because they are so predictable: a shoveling of clouds, too ambitious in too little time, etc
OK but what do they propose in the face of the disaster announced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)? Faced with the misfortunes that marked the summer of 2022, terrible floods, overwhelming droughts, major fires in several countries? It’s true, Quebec was rather spared this time. But we don’t live under a glass globe.
We know that shoreline erosion is already affecting several regions of Quebec. We can no longer ignore the loss of biodiversity in Quebec territory. Scientists predict that we could run out of water. In Quebec !!!
So what do we do ? We push back the deadline, we tell ourselves that this subject is not electorally profitable and we put forward measuring spoons to clear our conscience? Either we have the political courage to proclaim that the fight against climate change is a priority. That’s what QS does with, my faith, a lot of quite credible proposals. I even think that they are extraordinarily realistic.
It would just take a little political courage to implement them. Read this plan. Yes, it is engaging for Quebec society. But we have seen others, haven’t we? Didn’t our fight for the survival and the development of a nation require a collective commitment at all times?
The time has come to fight together so that we can look our grandchildren in the eye and say to them, “We did everything so that you can live a normal life on a normal planet. »