Politics sometimes takes paths that make us question the reasons for its decisions, wondering if they are based on determination or stubbornness. This is the case with the unanimous vote of the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) against the imposition of administrative sanctions on drivers whose blood alcohol level would be higher than 0.05 mg/ml. Currently, the sanction threshold in Quebec is 0.08.
A result which contradicts a recommendation from Public Health, and which ignores the fact that all Canadian provinces, with the exception of Quebec, impose administrative sanctions from 0.05 and that such a measure has allowed British Columbia to record a 52% drop in fatal accidents. This other unacceptable herd behavior, despite the undeniably very important aspect of the Liberal Party’s proposal, results from the fact that the CAQ deputies did not exercise their free opinion, preferring to stick slavishly to the party line.
Notwithstanding the argument of the Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Geneviève Guilbault, according to which the Government of Quebec has already taken numerous actions in recent decades to strengthen road safety, in particular the submission of an action plan last summer, the CAQ gave the impression of being the only one to “have the lead in the regiment” and the threshold between determination and stubbornness seems fragile to me.
Furthermore, I wonder if the CAQ’s decision is not linked to the fact that bar and restaurant owners see in the 0.05 a possible drop in their clientele and that the regions do not benefit from public transportation necessary to accommodate their customers, a part of these customers inevitably being part of the CAQ electorate.
To watch on video