The Central Trade Unions of Quebec (CSQ) was slapped on the knuckles by the Chief Electoral Officer of Quebec (DGEQ) in connection with an advertising offensive called “I vote in colors” launched as part of the election campaign.
The DGEQ asked the union to remove a “comparative table of the commitments of the five main political parties” from its campaign website microsite.
“According to them, it’s not fair to the 22 other parties that exist in Quebec,” explains union vice-president Mario Beauchemin. “Because only the five parties that are represented in the National Assembly are mentioned.”
The advertising campaign, which is broadcast on television in particular, “aims to invite people to vote and get informed”, maintains the trade unionist.
Deeming this intervention “extremely excessive”, the CSQ is considering challenging it. “We find that a little odd because of the 22 parties that do not appear […]there are six which are without a candidate and ten which have ten candidates or less. […] The majority [d’entre eux] have very specific, very limited issues, such as the Food Party of Quebec or Party 51, which wants to annex Quebec to the United States. From the outset, it “would become very difficult to consult,” argues Mr. Beauchemin.
Thus, the intervention of the DGEQ has nothing to do with the fact that certain parties closer ideologically to the union could emerge as winners from the exercise.
Regulation of election expenses
For his part, the CEO refused to explain himself, because he does not “comment on a particular case in the public square”. However, he points out that third-party interventions in the election campaign can be problematic when an expense is incurred.
“The person who incurs or authorizes an election expense without being the official agent of a party or an authorized independent candidate is in violation of the law,” it is underlined.
In this case, the CSQ is presumed to have incurred costs by assigning personnel to the advertising campaign.
There was a time when the big centrals were very active in election campaigns in Quebec and openly supported the Parti Québécois. According to Mr. Beauchemin, this has not happened since the 1990s. “I think it goes back to Lucien Bouchard’s Socioeconomic Summit” in 1996, he says.
With 200,000 members distributed mainly in the education network, the CSQ is one of the largest labor organizations in Quebec.