Why the PQ is losing Quebec’s election
2014/04/06 2 Comments
Great piece by Paul Wells. Of course, polls are polls and we will see what will happen Monday evening:
The PQ has always been the party of hope when it was winning. (I know, anglophones never felt it that way, but the René Lévesque was a pure product of the Quiet Revolution, when Quebec left behind insularity and finger-pointing and tried to do great things in the world. Those of us who are too young to remember those days directly can get a taste of that spirit reading Rick Salutin’s classic play Les Canadiens (written “with an assist by Ken Dryden”), whose climax is set at the Forum on the night of Nov. 15, 1976; as the bewildered Habs play a winning game, they notice the crowd cheering at odd moments and realize the Forum’s scoreboard is showing election results as Lévesque’s PQ is elected to government for the first time. Salutin has said it’s a moment when Quebecers found new heroes. Whose hero is Pauline Marois?
While the PQ’s self-destructive campaign is the story of this election, I think too much commentary overlooks the contribution Philippe Couillard is making to his own success. And yet he’s making no secret of things. The biggest word on the side of his bus is ENSEMBLE, together. His ads are upbeat and explicitly inclusive in message:
About Andrew
Multicultural Meanderings 
That is an outstanding piece. There is the negativity of playing identity politics which can sour after awhile but there is also a moment, I think, when it’s taken to a point where people’s sense of fairness and justice kick in. I believe I saw in another article that support for the charter falls when people are told that folks might lose their jobs because of it. Or in anti-immigrant movements where suddenly families are being separated and that turns out to be a bridge too far. There are the principles and then there are the consequences. I see this in my own life as an immigrant where many of the people around me generally support the FN here in France but back away when they see that it impacts people in their church, their neighborhood or even their daughter-in-law. 🙂
Good points. The incoherence of the PQ position on the Charter, where they were forced to admit the need to invoke the “notwithstanding clause” and then admit that people would be let go further undermined support. Especially when this meant that this include people in healthcare and education which everyone relies upon (e.g., ncreasing the shortage of doctors and nurses).