Never in 50 years have the distortions of our electoral system appeared so clearly as with the re-election of the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ).
Posted at 1:05 a.m.
Prime Minister François Legault easily won a second term, with 89 deputies. He thus finds himself with 71% of the 125 seats in the National Assembly, even if only 41% of voters voted for him. This is a large gap of 30 points. A gap worthy of the greatest contortionists that gives serious aches to our democracy.
In fact, we had not seen such a distortion in Quebec since 1973. That year, Robert Bourassa’s Liberals won 93% of the seats with 55% of the votes, a difference of 38 points.
If today the electoral map is so far from the intentions of the population, it is because François Legault refused to reform our voting system, despite his promise of 2018. His resounding victory, he owes it to the division of the opposition which emerged weakened from the vote, even if it obtained the majority of votes.
All of this is unhealthy.
But it is surely not the Liberal Party of Quebec (PLQ) who will complain about it, he who also benefits from the distortions. The concentration of his support on the island of Montreal allows him to keep his title of official opposition, with 23 deputies, even if he only attracted 14% of the votes.
Québec solidaire (QS) and the Parti Québécois (PQ) remain far behind, even if they obtained more votes than the Liberals (15% of the vote each). This is completely incongruous, especially in the case of the PQ which won only three deputies. At least its chef Paul St-Pierre Plamondon will make his debut at the Salon bleu.
The same cannot be said of Éric Duhaime, who does not have a single MP, despite 13% of the votes in favor of the Conservative Party of Quebec (PCQ).
Faced with all these distortions, the Prime Minister will have to listen and be open to the opposition. It is a question of respect for the population.
And that’s what Lucien Bouchard did after the 1998 elections, which gave a particularly twisted result. The PQ had won, with 60% of the seats. But the Liberals had obtained more votes (44% against 43%), while the Democratic Action of Quebec (ADQ) had only elected one deputy, Mario Dumont, despite 12% of the vote.
Faced with this victory, which was not quite a victory, Lucien Bouchard had put aside his dream of sovereignty to respect the popular will. The idea of a third referendum went to waste.
If he wants to be the premier of all Quebecers, as he promised in his victory speech, François Legault must reach out to young people for whom the fight against climate change is essential. Reach out to Montreal, where the CAQ has only one MNA, in order to bridge the gap that separates the metropolis from the regions.
In short, reach out to other parties.
This must go through a reform of the voting system, as The Press has already pleaded for it, but also by a reform of the Standing Orders of the National Assembly.
The question will arise in the coming days. With five parties, the bar is too high to achieve the status of parliamentary group which requires at least 12 deputies or 20% of the votes.
However, it is this status that determines the research budgets and the speaking time that allow the deputies to cross swords with the government. It is also this status that allows the party to appoint a parliamentary leader to develop the strategy to be adopted during the debates and ensure that the rights of its deputies are respected.
From one election to another, the small parties manage to negotiate these advantages, even if they do not have the required level. But the negotiations were sometimes arduous. In 2003, the return to parliament had even been delayed by a day, because the government refused to grant status to Mario Dumont’s Action Démocratique du Québec (ADQ), which had obtained only 18% of the vote and four deputies.
It’s time to put an end to pay-per-view deals by changing these outdated regulations for good. The opposition must have free rein to do its job well. A strong and effective opposition is an insurance policy for the health of our democracy.