The upcoming Quebec provincial election will have Canada enter another period of uncertainty with the federal-provincial relationship of our country.
Quebec politics is perhaps unique to North America. Presently, four parties have representatives in the National Assembly. Further, since 2010, 15 other political parties have been authorized and registered by the Director General of Elections. This includes the Parti culinaire, which advocates the creation of a "gastronocracy" in which the food supply would be held politically sacrosanct, while farmers and food suppliers would be classified as society’s elite.
La Belle Province’s present government has the recognizable name of the Quebec Liberal Party and has been in power, this time, since 2003. It was founded in 1867, the founding year of our Canadian Confederation. While this party supports Quebec remaining in Canada, it dissociated itself from the federal Liberal Party in 1955 in order to pursue a more aggressive role for autonomy of Quebec within the Canadian federation. Its political philosophy is neoliberalist, supporting privatization of the economy, deregulation, free trade and reductions in government spending. It is also socially liberal in retaining an active role of government economically and socially in issues such as health care, education and poverty. The Liberals hold 71 of the 125 seats in the Assembly. It will lose the upcoming election.
The Parti Quebecois is currently the official opposition in the Assembly with 30 seats. Founded in 1968, it espouses sovereign powers from Canada while remaining associated with it – a sort of "soft Brexit" United Kingdom. Ideologically it is a social democratic movement that has evolved into the Nordic Model. It envisages a comprehensive welfare state with widespread private ownership, free markets and free trade. Representatives of labour and employers would set labour market policy and negotiate wages with government involved as mediator. The Pequistes will lose big time.
Quebec Solidaire was founded in 2006 to promote the autonomy and sovereignty of people who are born in Canada with parents of French descent. It asserts that the Quebecois people are a nation, distinct from the rest of Canada. It identifies with the Green movement, feminism and global justice. Its governance ideology, like the PQ, is democratic socialism mirroring that espoused by Britain’s Jeremy Corbyn and U.S.A.’s Bernie Sanders. Quebec Solidaire has three members and will retain its seats.
Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ) was founded in 2011. It is fiscally conservative, advocating free trade, deregulation of the economy, lower taxes and privatization. It seeks greater autonomy for Quebec within Canada. These are familiar tunes for Quebecers dating back to the years of Maurice Duplessis and the Union Nationale party, which governed Quebec for nearly a quarter century in the mid-1900s. It holds 21 seats and will form the next Quebec government.
Thus it will be, despite our Prime Minister’s best efforts to save the Quebec Liberal Party by dithering on the dairy industry’s supply management future within NAFTA. Besides that, Canadian-born Baron Black of Cross Harbour is a closet Quebecer and conservative and an admirer of the departed Premier Duplessis. Time to apply for Quebec citizenship Conrad?
Dr. Alan Murdock is a local pediatrician.
