What would a wedding or any other party be without a little fight over the cake? This is the pre-show offered thanks to the choice of Émile Bilodeau as the headliner of the National Day on the Plains of Abraham.
Little Robert defines the word nation as follows: “rather large human group which is characterized by the awareness of its unity and the desire to live in common”. Quebec meets these modest criteria. This does not prevent the humans who live there from feeling the need, to quote Jean Leloup, “to cut their throats at least once in a while”.
To manage this collective drive, two strategies exist. The first, curative, consists in uniting the people around unifying figures. The second, an experimental treatment, is to stage these tensions in the hope that something beautiful comes out of it.
The National Movement of Quebecers, which organizes the event, dared this option by appointing Émile Bilodeau. He is the embodiment of the mutinies between separatists. Embodiment as in: enthusiastic craftsman. An activist for Québec solidaire, he describes the leader of the Parti Québécois (PQ) as a “whiner” and wants him to disappear. “The PQ must die [sic] for him to go [sic] a sovereignist opposition”, he has already written.
So far, if you’re yawning, it’s okay.
On the local scale of the controversometer, we reach a score of 3.5 out of 10.
Because Bilodeau will not deliver the patriotic speech. This symbolic role was entrusted to the actress Léane Labrèche-Dor.
He only participates in the musical component. In the tradition of the genre, artists will share the stage for some new collaborations. The designers imagined a show around the guitar, with Bilodeau as the pivot between the scenes.
This is where the story gets really…how shall I put it? Which word is synonymous with both “complicated” and “unnecessary”?
On the sidelines of each national holiday on the Plains, a private ceremony is organized for the organizers and sponsors. The musical headliner says a few words there. Representatives of political parties are also invited to give a brief speech.
The spouse of the leader of the Parti Québécois is about to give birth. Méganne Perry Mélançon, national spokesperson and former MP for Gaspé, was therefore to represent the party.
She made the following calculation: drive 1400 kilometers to speak 90 seconds and share the stage with someone who insults his party, it’s not worth it.
She passed her turn. Nothing more. The PQ did not ask that Bilodeau be disinvited.
This is where we tear ourselves apart: to find out who will deliver a speech shorter than a pee break, behind the scenes in front of a confidential audience.
The case is nevertheless instructive, as it reveals the disunity of the separatists and the role of artists in the cause.
AT Everybody talks about it, Jacques Parizeau had this astonishing response. What does the independence cause need? “Artists,” he replied.
You don’t make a country to recover tax points. This gesture of rupture comes from the guts. To give Quebecers this desire for freedom, art is irreplaceable, judged the former prime minister.
One cannot at the same time reproach the artists for their political resignation and deplore their commitment. If only consensual figures were invited, there would be a lack of them for the approximately 600 national holiday shows. With such criteria, for example, Loco Locass would never have rapped on the Plains of Abraham. And what about former headliners like Paul Piché and Éric Lapointe, who have already campaigned with the PQ.
Still, the national holiday is not just any show. The organization asks musicians not to politicize it too much, in order to bring Quebecers together. When Bilodeau put his anti-Law 21 button in 2020, he did the opposite.
We don’t want dull and docile artists. A song is not an intervention in a parliamentary committee. But if irreverence is part of the art, some master it better than others.
Bilodeau seems better at picking his rivals. Still, contrary to appearances, everyone can have fun with this game.
Since his election as leader, Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon has not let a single criticism pass. His opponents say he is playing the victim. He replies that his party no longer accepts smearing. And one thing is certain, he is talking about him.
Mme Perry Mélançon insisted on publicizing on Facebook his refusal to speak for a few seconds in this private ceremony. An hour later, Mr. Bilodeau was already taunting her with this warning: “if you want to cancel me [sic]I suggest you go and see what the Republicans are doing in the USA”…
If the PQ is so upset, it is also because this summer dispute shows that it is losing the monopoly of artists – rising stars like Klô Pelgag rather sing for Québec solidaire.
During the last leaders’ debate, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon and Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois often defended similar positions, with equal aplomb. Voters began to dream: what if they joined forces? But six years after the rejection of the alliance attempt, this project seems more impossible than ever. Their militants hate each other, and that is reflected until the national holiday.