It was absolutely stunning to hear, on Monday, the new Liberal MNA for La Pinière say with passion, like her leader, that the Liberal Party of Quebec (PLQ) was an inclusive party, the party of all Quebecers, etc., etc. ., etc. This is reasoning completely disconnected from reality.
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
The PLQ is probably today the least representative party in Quebec (it is modestly said that it is almost confined to the island of Montreal; it is not true, it is confined to the English-speaking community). But reality doesn’t matter, partisanship rules the roost. And the PLQ is sinking.
Like when the Parti Québécois fought over the date of a future referendum or denounced I don’t know what action of the Lieutenant-Governor instead of talking about the challenges that citizens were facing every day. Ideological blindness. And people were deserting him.
Like when the Conservative Party offers “less authoritarianism, more democracy” or when it wants to reduce the size of the state without harming services. Hollow slogan and magical thinking.
Like when a member of Quebec solidaire (QS) says that “it takes a progressive opposition, ecologist, feminist, anti-racist, etc. “, the “real world”, as QS calls it, is not seduced by the “ists” nor by the demonization of the right, it is not anchored enough in reality.
On Monday, reality therefore prevailed over ideological discourse. Parenthesis: it is desirable for a party to have an ideology (system of general ideas constituting a body of philosophical and political doctrine at the base of individual or collective behavior), one must think big and dream, but one must not not ignore reality.
Listening to the CAQ
If, in all of Quebec, the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) has 41% support among people who vote, outside of Montreal its rate often rises to 50% or more of the vote. Obviously, there is something the CAQ does well. Other political currents would do well to try to understand its success. Start of explanation:
First, Quebec has had enough of contemptuous speeches about it. Quebec is a culturally strong, economically rich society, it is the most egalitarian in North America, etc. Yes, we have, like all nations, major flaws to correct, but we can tackle them by remaining proud of the rest, which is what the CAQ does.
Moreover, the CAQ did not suggest that people who wonder about immigration had a problem, it acknowledged their concern and put the debate on the table. Yes, there are irresponsible people like Minister Jean Boulet who convey xenophobic, if not racist, prejudices, which must be denounced and punished. But questions about immigration remain legitimate because yes, languages, cultures, nations can disappear.
While some Montrealers seem resigned to seeing French decline, other Quebecers resist and refuse to see their metropolis become an English-speaking city like a thousand others. For them, it goes without saying that the situation of French deserves to be tackled. The CAQ listened to them.
The Quebec nation has gone, in a few years, from one of the most religious nations to one of the least religious in the world. She is still marked by it. Quebecers, and especially Quebec women, know better than many others the benefits, but also the immense harm that religious institutions can do: prohibition of “preventing the family”, opposition to abortion, opposition to the right to vote of women, rejection of sexual minorities, censorship, obedience to the husband, rejection of part of science, etc. Quebecers see the return of religion to the public space and they are legitimately worried about it. The CAQ has listened and is taking action.
The CAQ also has its excesses, I would say mostly partisan.
Present the third link as a sustainable development project, it must be done! For a long time to deny the existence of the housing crisis, to subordinate the environment to the economy (forest, caribou, etc.), even the desire for pragmatism, erected into ideology, transforms its governmental action into piecemeal management, without a view overall. But its trademark is still the connection with reality, at least in people’s minds.
If mayors have systematically, poll after poll, a higher approval rating than politicians at other levels of government, it is because they are further from theory, closer to practice. Whether they are right, left or centre, they listen to people and give them answers. This is also what the CAQ did. One can criticize her actions, but she is clearly in tune with a large part of the population. All the other parties should take some inspiration from it, because obviously their ideology will not be enough for them.