Paul St-Pierre Plamondon? ” Not able. Really not, ”says Micheline Bergeron bluntly.
At a table in a Tim Hortons on boulevard Talbot, in Chicoutimi, this longtime activist for the Parti Québécois (PQ) empties her heart. This year, for the first time in her life, she turns her nose up at René Lévesque’s party, in which she no longer recognizes herself, even though she supported him voluntarily for years in Saguenay.
“You see that he [le chef péquiste Paul St-Pierre Plamondon] has no experience in politics. He has a way of acting: he is ‘I’, ‘me’, ‘me’”, emphasizes this local resident, her eyes turned towards her friend Lise St-Gelais, on the other side of the table.
“I found that the region here, which is really a PQ region, he looks at it in a contemptuous way”, continues Mme Bergeron.
The PQ has an almost hegemonic historical status in the three ridings of Saguenay. It was Minister Marc-André Bédard who represented Chicoutimi from 1973. Then his son, Stéphane, for 17 consecutive years. Before 2018 and the breakthrough of the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ), the PQ had held the seat of Chicoutimi in the National Assembly for almost half a century.
Dubuc saw PQ MPs Hubert Desbiens, Gérard-Raymond Morin and Jacques Côté pass at the turn of the century. Jonquière, former Prime Minister Lucien Bouchard, then MP Sylvain Gaudreault. When the National Assembly was dissolved in August, Mr. Gaudreault was the only die-hard Parti Québécois to hold a seat in this region in Parliament. More broadly, four of the five ridings of Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean were colored powder blue. of the CAQ.
Powder blue wave?
Well, here it is. This year, the polls do not bode well for the PQ, yet the natural choice of many people in the region at one time. According to a sounding carried out in early September in Saguenay, the caquiste Yannick Gagnon threatens to take the riding of Jonquière hands down. As for the minister responsible for the Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean region and candidate in Chicoutimi, Andrée Laforest, she would win with nearly 60% of the vote.
Norma Nickols used to vote for Sylvain Gaudreault in her riding of Jonquière. This year, she will place her trust in the CAQ.
“We can’t stabilize better than that,” she says, sitting on a bench in Place Centre-Ville de Jonquière. When they start over with new ones, that’s where the promises don’t hold. » Mme Nickols would have voted for Mr. Gaudreault again, but her departure from politics – announced in March – convinced her to change sides.
It is the political employee of the Bloc Québécois Caroline Dubé, formerly a social worker, who is trying to keep Jonquière for the PQ this year. The party, she says, is well established in the region, despite the departure of its predecessor.
“People are still very present, very loyal to the Parti Québécois,” says Ms.me Dubé, who still does not spit on the support given to his campaign by the presence of Mr. Gaudreault. Despite his imminent departure, the incumbent has decided to campaign with the PQ by October 3.
“He was doing a great job. That he goes away is something, observes Colette Dassylva, approached by The duty in Arvida, in the riding of Jonquière. He’s a good person, then it’s a shame. It’s a loss. »
“With the rest of the gang »
Caquiste candidate Yannick Gagnon wants to take advantage of Mr. Gaudreault’s departure to confirm his party’s dominance in the region. “We missed the train in 2018, but the train still came to deliver great projects. Then there, in 2022, they offer us to board,” illustrates Mr. Gagnon in an interview with The duty.
“This time, I feel that the world wants to be with the rest of the gang “, he adds.
In 1995, the ridings of Jonquière, Dubuc and Chicoutimi had respectively voted 71%, 70% and 69% for the Yes option. More than 25 years later, “independence, we talk a lot about it” in the region, maintains Mme Dubé, in a café in Arvida, east of Jonquière. “But I find it sad, it’s always on the tip of the lips,” she agrees.
“I don’t feel it. […] People are elsewhere, ”replies the CAQ candidate Mr. Gagnon.
In an interview alongside PQ candidate Dubé, Sylvain Gaudreault makes a plea for political diversity. He hopes for a PQ “counterweight” in the region from October 4. “I think there’s going to be a strategic effect where people in the region are going to say to themselves: ‘It takes a certain balance,’ he says. Five deputies who say nothing on the government side… we will get away with it. »
Seated at Tim Hortons, Micheline Bergeron, she will not be convinced. “There is no one suitable. After years of blue voting, she will rescind her vote on October 3. “It’s the end of the PQ,” she said, a pout on her face.