Parti Québécois | A new generation at the helm

Despite a historic defeat on October 3, the Parti Québécois (PQ) is entering the upcoming parliamentary session with renewed confidence. The most recent Léger poll places the party second in terms of voting intentions. While the PQ, which has often been associated with baby boomers, is permanently in charge, the leadership is now assumed by Generations X and Y. This renewed team is more than ever convinced that by embracing their cause – independence – they will continue this growth. How will they do it?

Pride regained

The Press met with members of the Parti Québécois national executive council at the party headquarters in Montreal. They x-rayed the last political fall, then laid their cards on the table regarding their hopes and plans for the coming months.

Your party only managed to elect three deputies to Parliament. Despite this setback, the PQ seems to have for the first time in a long time a wind blowing from the right side. How do you explain that ?

Jocelyn Caron: What we have done since the refoundation of the party, in 2019, is that we have taken note of the improvements that we had to make. We refounded the party, we made our ways of campaigning more pleasant and we adopted a simple, clear statement of principle that assumes who we are without beating around the bush. We are sovereignists. This is our fundamental idea. This is what unites us.

Catherine Gentilcore: Me, I come from a family that is not at all militant. I had never campaigned for the PQ. But when I saw this new gang appear in the party, then the election of Paul St-Pierre Plamondon as leader, I said to myself if I am not getting involved now, when will I do it ? All the prejudices that we can have in relation to the PQ, that it is an aging party, I had them. But it is quite the opposite. It’s a party [intergénérationnel]dynamic, people who have convictions.

Jerry Beaudoin: We put our activists at the center of the action. I think those who join us feel an outstretched hand. That we’re not here to have the power [à tout prix] nor to play petty political games.

We are really here to work on the project of Quebec independence. Paul St-Pierre Plamondon brings this to light.

Nando Pastorino: At the beginning of the election campaign, Paul said that we would be the Cinderella team. There we have the proof. We are second. We started last and we are second! It is nevertheless a consecration.

Jocelyn Caron: To understand why we think things are going well, we have to see where we started from. However, there have been times in recent years when it was not easy. But we always had faith in the party that people would pay attention to our ideas after COVID.

Catherine Gentilcore: This is what we hoped for from the bottom of our hearts and it is happening. For us, there is a victory in this.

Jocelyn Caron: I give an example: the abolition of the oath to the king. One of the arguments we were told was that René Lévesque had done it. Jacques Parizeau had done it. Why didn’t we do it? Our answer was simple: because that’s what we think. In the end, all the architecture of the lie that was around this oath crumbled when we refused to play in this game.

After dark years, where the party had to review all its ways of doing things, how do you define, in 2023, what a PQ is?

Jean-Sebastien Marchand: A Parti Québécois activist is someone resolutely independentist and who gravitates around something like social democracy. No matter your origin, your region, your way of thinking, if you believe in that, you have your place.

Nando Pastorino: I think there are a lot of PQ members who ignore each other.

Catherine Gentilcore: One of the reasons why I wanted to get involved is that I met people from various walks of life in the private sector and I realized that there were PQ members everywhere. You end up recognizing yourself and talking, but we all said that out of the corner of our mouths.

I am a sovereigntist, but don’t say it too loudly. At one point, I was doing this too and I got sick of it. I decided to lead by example by telling myself that it is not true that I am going to hide. I hope to influence and encourage people my age to take it up again.

Jocelyn Caron: A year or two ago, with all that was being said in society about our party, it already happened to me to be laughed at. There, there is no longer anyone who laughs at me. Paul St-Pierre Plamondon has restored pride to the PQ. We can build. We will have surpluses. It means that we are going to develop things. We are no longer in defensive mode, we are in offensive mode.

Jean-Sebastien Marchand: We were starting from really far. From 9 to 10% in voting intentions last summer, we ended the campaign with 15%. Right now, we’re measured at 18% in the latest Léger poll. [publié en décembre].

How do you plan to support the three PQ MPs in Parliament from the party headquarters in Montreal? What is your role for the next few months?

Jocelyn Caron: It is certain that we are going to create a unit here to do research, since the team [parlementaire à Québec] has fewer resources. We’re going to put a lot of emphasis on communications.

Veronique Lecours: Several former candidates, like me, who did not win their election, continue to feed their political page. People react. We will continue the work of circulating the party’s positions.

Jocelyn Caron: During the holidays, I bought the archives of a person who sold on the Internet full of historical documents of the Parti Québécois. There were more than 200. What I noticed is that we were once a content factory. The PQ had its own publishing house! I took the 1994 program and it’s 300 pages. Jacques Parizeau was a machine. So I’m not saying we’re gonna [lancer une maison d’édition], but we’re going to make it, content. And the contribution of the members is fundamental. We underestimate how they have super interesting expertise. When we tell them that we need their skills, they raise their hands.

Do you have the impression that the slate has now been paid for by the Parti Québécois with the population?

Jocelyn Caron: That’s an excellent question. People are less attached today to partisan preferences that define them beyond anything. There is a political offer in front of them and they choose according to what is there, now. In this context, I think a lot of the slate has been wiped clean. But you don’t have to erase everything either.

Catherine Gentilcore: People forgive, but don’t forget. It’s quite correct like that. On the other hand, we feel that there is a new strained ear. Before, people no longer saw the future with our party. There they see it.

Jocelyn Caron: Before the arrival of the new leader, it is true that we asked ourselves the question if we put the name of the party on the table. But the answer was no. We don’t have the right to completely sever ties with the past and the generations that left us an institution that changed Quebec.

Jean-Sebastien Marchand: Human beings compare. They will compare horizontally between the different parties, vertically between the party of today and that of another era. I say: watch us go. Choose on merit. Compare yourself and we are not afraid of that.

Statements have been abbreviated and condensed for brevity.

Interview with former Prime Minister Pauline Marois: “Activists can work miracles”

The former Prime Minister and former leader of the Parti Québécois (PQ), Pauline Marois, is convinced of this: “Activists can work miracles. She is counting on them and on the next generation who has taken over the leadership of the party to occupy the field in a “massive” way in the coming months, while Paul St-Pierre Plamondon and his two other fellow deputies will sit in the National Assembly.

In interview with The PressM^me Marois analyzed the recent evolution of the party she led from 2007 to 2014. The years following her defeat by the Liberals of Philippe Couillard were difficult for the PQ.

In 2014, when it lost power, the PQ had won the support of 25% of voters and 30 seats in Parliament. He then lost the title of official opposition in 2018, under the leadership of Jean-François Lisée, garnering 17% support and only 10 seats. In the last ballot, on October 3, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon only elected three MNAs, including himself, and obtained 14.6% popular support. Even if the tumble has continued, this score in 2022 is higher in terms of votes than that of the Liberals, who form the official opposition with 21 elected.

“Pretty well distributed despite everything. In this sense, the ordeal is a bit behind us. That doesn’t mean she’s completely behind us, but it’s back in the right direction, ”said M^me Marois.

“Paul St-Pierre Plamondon remained consistent from start to finish. He kept the same message, which was about the country. Basically, he returned to the base, on what we had built as a party in the early 1970s, ”she added.

A new start

The former premier, who refuses to play “father-in-law” (a nod to the old expression that called “mothers-in-law” the former PQ leaders who spoke about their party’s orientations, even if they no longer led it), affirms that the PQ has turned the page by welcoming new militants, whose presence makes a generational transition between those who created the party and those who embody the future.

According to her, the issue of sovereignty is always promising, because young people are always in search of ideals.

“There is no greater ideal for a people than to choose its freedom. I believe that young people want to believe in something bigger than them. It made them want to be active. We still got 15% of the vote, when we left with 5%. It’s fascinating,” concluded Mr.^me Marois.