It’s not easy being in opposition, I know that. We often find ourselves in the wrong role, caught between a rock and a hard place and in danger of coming across as whiny. However, one must maintain a certain level of sense of responsibility and behave like someone who could find themselves in power.
What then should we think of the opposition parties whose elected officials are walking around the demonstration sites these weeks to encourage the strikers? They will say that they support the improvement of public services for which the employees on strike are calling for.
But there is a very fine line between encouraging the strikers and encouraging the strike. Is it decent for an opposition MP, while schools are closed and surgeries are postponed, to support the strike? I’m tempted to answer no. Even worse for a leader.
- Listen to the Dutrizac – Dumont meeting broadcast live every day at 7:05 a.m. via QUB radio :
Solidarity Quebec
I make an exception for Québec solidaire, a resolutely left-wing party that has never governed and is not about to get there. His pro-union leaning is known and announced.
The picket lines are a natural habitat for the Québec solidaire activist like eucalyptus forests for the koala. If one day a QS government came to negotiate with state employees, public sector unions would dream of a windfall.
But for the Liberals who have negotiated repeated agreements and who have always negotiated firmly, what can we say? Cleverly, they sent the popular MP Marwah Rizqy to meet the strikers. This seems to be well received.
But seriously, just a few years ago, the same unions were harping on about the carnage caused by the Liberal government in schools. Austerity! How can the Quebec Liberal Party play the political game to the point of going to the picket lines today and asking the government to loosen the purse strings? And do it without laughing.
Photo Agence QMI, Marcel Tremblay
The Parti Québécois
As for the Parti Québécois, the leader and the deputies were present enough to support the strikers. I even saw the new MP Pascal Paradis speaking at a Common Front demonstration. “Don’t give up. We are still with you!” Isn’t this directly encouraging the strike?
The MP could also have included in his speech that the last time such a strike occurred, his party ruled that after three weeks, schools should reopen. He could have explained that the founding leader of his party then passed one of the toughest special laws to force teachers back to work.
Strike is legal, but it should only be used as a last, but very last, resort. The opposition can encourage both sides to negotiate. She can publicly blame the government for its shortcomings or its blunders in the negotiation. The CAQ does not deserve congratulations for its strategy.
But encourage the strike? It’s no.