Four months after their electoral disappointment, the militants of Québec solidaire (QS) sought to understand, this weekend, what wall they hit.
During the National Council, at Ahuntsic College, there were more questions than answers. But at the very least, there was a clear statement. The wall has been located: it was in the regions.
From 2007 to 2018, the left-wing party made progress with each campaign. It stopped in 2022. QS lost 15,000 voters and half a percentage point of the popular vote.
Consolation, the solidarity elected one more deputy and for the first time, they finished in second place for the votes. It was, however, because of the crushing of the Liberals.
Despite its current miseries, the Liberal Party is trying to convince itself that the alternation of power will end up working in its favor again.
At QS, the diagnosis is different. One wonders if the party has simply reached a plateau, or if it has discovered its limit.
The future keeps its mysteries. But at the very least, we know where he will write for QS: in the suburbs and the regions.
In October, in 83% of rural ridings, the QS vote dropped by at least one percentage point. In urban areas, it is the opposite. An increase was observed in 90% of the constituencies.
This can be explained, among other things, by the fact that students live more in cities. And this is precisely the other reason for the blocking of QS. The party remains above all that of the young people.
According to the last Léger poll published before the election, the Solidaires dominated among 18-34 year olds. But among the 35-54 year olds, they were last, statistically tied with the PQ. And among those aged 55 and over, they were also last, this time tied with the Conservatives.
Difficult to accuse the parliamentary leader Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois. Those polled judged that he had had the best campaign after that of Paul St-Pierre Plamondon.
According to an internal party report, the platform was off-putting. A good example: the tax on net assets from one million dollars.
If income inequalities are less great in Quebec than in the rest of Canada, it is the opposite for working people. The wealth of the richest quintile is 508 times greater than that of the poorest quintile.
Still need to find the right measure. QS assured that only 6% of the population would be targeted by its new tax. However, it is obvious that a student has few assets. It would have been better to ask what percentage of Quebecers will reach this level when their house is paid for and their retirement plan is filled.
It’s hard to woo a couple in their sixties from the upper middle class when they’re called ultra-rich.
The measure seems to have been designed by theoreticians accustomed to juggling ideas and figures, and not by people with concrete experience in selling a project and implementing it.
PHOTO JOSIE DESMARAIS, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Québec solidaire co-spokesperson, Manon Massé
During the regional tour that is beginning, QS will no doubt be talking about other aspects of its platform, such as the end of the union monopoly of the Union des producteurs agricole (UPA). It’s more popular in Rosemont than in Saint-Hyacinthe…
QS changes. In recent years, the profile of its candidates has diversified. We suddenly see doctors, mayors and accountants appear.
Elements of the program – the long-term objectives – were not retained in the electoral platform. For example, in 2022, QS did not propose to defund the police. Also, since public transit is underfunded, we recommended reducing fares, not free ones. The nationalization of the mines was also set aside.
Each time, activists grumbled. But these decisions were voted on.
Another source of tension: parity. The solidarity caucus has seven men and four women. Sounds bad for a feminist party. But when the number of elected members is small, it takes little for the percentages to vary. If Émilise Lessard-Therrien had kept her seat in Rouyn-Noranda–Témiscamingue and if Catherine Dorion had run for another term, parity would have been achieved.
Unlike the Coalition avenir Québec, party members choose the candidates, and 70 of the 125 were women. On Saturday, a speaker called for “preventive” and “restorative” measures at the microphone, but it is difficult to anticipate the choice of voters or to reconsider the result of an election.
Proof of this precarious balance: the party adopted a vague resolution which authorizes the party to intervene to favor women, without saying how.
Despite everything, parity would be the easiest issue to settle for the next campaign. The heart of the challenge remains winning over regions and older voters.
The debate ahead is how far the party is willing to go to expand its electorate without losing its militant base. To advance his ideas beyond the sheets of paper.