Québec solidaire (QS) spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois is amused to see the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) distribute leaflets about its “orange tax”, but not to see it cast doubt on the legality of its operation “Change your address”.
“The CAQ literally inundates the Chief Electoral Officer of Quebec with complaints,” argues Mr. Nadeau-Dubois, during an editorial table organized by The duty Monday. “It creates confusion in the minds of young voters, knowing what they can do or not. I find that regrettable,” he added.
According to “GND”, the political party of François Legault seeks to “demobilize the youth vote”, especially in the ridings of Rimouski, in Bas-du-Fleuve, and Saint-François and Sherbrooke, in Estrie, where he could tip the balance.
Remember that QS has the support of 38% of voters aged 18 to 34, compared to 18% for the CAQ, according to a Léger poll released last Thursday.
Mr. Nadeau-Dubois continues to encourage young people to change their address so that they can vote “where [leur] home” during the school year and not where they go to eat “lasagna twice a year.
“If ever” the CAQ wins the October 3 vote, the “solidarity” would be “the best placed” in the National Assembly to derail the third road link project between Quebec and Lévis – “which is a bad project for Quebec and for Quebec”, according to the left-wing political formation -, but also to “ask the CAQ to render accounts” on the action taken by the government to face the climate crisis and solve the housing crisis, argues the former parliamentary leader of the second opposition group in the National Assembly. In the eyes of the 32-year-old politician, the official opposition led by the leader of the Quebec Liberal Party (PLQ), Dominique Anglade, “was not effective”.
If it collects the support of 38% of 18-34 year olds and 14% of 35-54 year olds, QS can only count on the support of barely 7% of voters aged 55 and over, still according to Léger’s latest sounding.
Mr. Nadeau-Dubois has given himself the “challenge” of winning the support of a growing number of older voters throughout the election campaign. “There is this perception that Québec solidaire is very much the party of young people,” explains the former figurehead of the student movement, 10 years after Maple Spring.
To improve older voters’ perception of him, QS notably proposed suspending payments to the Generations Fund, making “massive” investments in the fight against climate change, and improving the quality of life of seniors, including investing heavily in home care. “They are afraid of growing old in a CHSLD and ending up like what they saw during the pandemic”, underlines Mr. Nadeau-Dubois, openly courting “the generation which built Quebec”, to whom he promises to taste back to the “effervescence they knew”.
Program hard left, platform left
That said, he invites voters to forget the bits of QS’s political platform where it talks about “restricting[e] the carrying of firearms by public (police) and private (security agencies) agents”, of “nationalis[er] large companies in certain strategic sectors” such as natural resources and energy or even “aims[r]in the long term, the socialization of economic activities” to give full attention to the electoral platform.
The program allows Quebecers to learn more about QS’s “great social project”, while the platform is there to indicate “what we will do if we are elected”, repeats Mr. Nadeau-Dubois, while taking care to show his affection for a “mixed economy”. “A healthy economy is a mixed economy where there is a strong public sector which plays its role, the social economy sector which plays a role and a private sector which plays its role, which fulfills its responsibilities” , he argues during the exchanges bringing together a reporter, a columnist, as well as two editorialists from the team of To have to.
Tax measures
“GND” agrees that the “simple and quick measure” that would be the temporary suspension of the Quebec sales tax (QST) on products deemed essential, such as restaurant meals – whether at Valentine or Toqué! —, “is not perfect”, but maintains that she would benefit in time from telling Quebecers who are shaken by the rise in the cost of living.
The aspiring Prime Minister vigorously defends the increase in the tax rate by three levels, ie by 1.75 percentage points starting at $90,080; 2 percentage points above $112,655; and 4.25 percentage points above $200,000. “These are very real increases, but they don’t strike me as crazy,” he argues.
Mr. Nadeau-Dubois does not “apologize” either for proposing a tax on large fortunes, that is to say net assets exceeding $1 million. QS clarified that agricultural land would be exempt from any calculation. And what about the value of the milk quotas transferred from one generation of dairy farmers to another? It would be part of the tax calculation, confirms the candidate in Gouin. “We are in an election campaign, we are proposing our vision, we are making our commitments. If we are elected on October 3, we will continue to discuss with everyone in Quebec society to apply our proposals. There will be bills, there will be amendments. I mean, that’s how a democracy works,” he says, convinced of having opened “a debate that has long been taboo” in Quebec.
The revenue from these new taxes will be used to fight climate change and “make the shift to home care”. “It takes money! he says, judging that “we don’t hound politicians who don’t have enough ambition”.
Towards a convergence of separatists?
Even if there are “points of convergence” between the programs of QS and the Parti Québécois, Mr. Nadeau-Dubois believes that the convergence of separatist forces scattered left and right is not for tomorrow. “The passage of Jean-François Lisée at the head of the Parti Québécois has left traces, has left deep traces,” noted Mr. Nadeau-Dubois. Mr. Lisée has not led the party for nearly four years. “There are pages that are more difficult to turn than others,” replies the QS spokesperson.
In short, the convergence of independence forces, “it is neither in the platform nor in the program” of QS, specifies “GND”.