Quebec election: PQ debacle returns Liberals to power

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8 SOCIALIST ACTION MAY 2014 The Quebec election of April 7 delivered a majority Liberal government and a se­ vere rebuke to the Parti Quebecois (PQ). The PQ vote declined to 25 per cent, the lowest since 1970, while the Liberal vote rose to 41 per cent giving them a com­ fortable majority in the first-past-the-post system. The vote for the right-wing populist Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ) declined to 21 per cent despite the reve­ lation of the widespread corruption that characterized the PQ, and especially the Liberals during their years in power. The small left-wing party, Quebec Solidaire (QS), modestly increased its vote from 6 to 7.5 per cent, electing a third member to the National Assembly, from east-end Montreal.

The PQ invested heavily in ethnic na­ tionalism. Its proposed Charter of Que­ bec values would have banned the wear­ ing of conspicuous “religious” clothing or symbols in the public service, targeting mainly Muslim women wearing the hijab. In cultivating islamophobia, the PQ was trying to undercut the CAQ which in its previous life as the Action Démocratique du Québec (ADQ) had demonstrated the potential for anti-immigrant demagogy in the election of 2008.

The surprise recruitment of multi-millionaire media mogul Pierre Karl Pe­ ladeau as a star candidate was intended to cement the PQ’s good standing with the Quebec bourgeoisie. Peladeau is no­ torious for breaking union resistance to concessions in his media empire.

These polarising maneuvres failed to gain traction. Instead the PQ was placed on the defensive on the perennial ques­ tion of independence. The Liberals al­ ways play on the fear of “separatism,” falsely attributing to the PQ a firmness of purpose on this question, which it has entirely lacked since the referendum defeat of 1995. Marois’ evasiveness on a future referendum only played into Lib­ eral fear-mongering and disoriented the sovereignist side of the electorate.

It is tempting to pin the PQ’s disastrous showing on an inept campaign. But any misteps expressed contradictions that have been undermining the party for some time. Nominally for a sovereign Quebec, the PQ has no perspective on how to advance that cause. It is commit­ ted to defending the profit-making pre­ rogatives of Quebec and international capital, and the social decay and environ­ mental destruction that follows. Thus, it demoralises its working-class and popu­ lar base. But because it is associated with the project of rupture with the Canadian state it cannot win the confidence of the big bourgeoisie.

The PQ did nothing to earn its narrow 2012 election victory, which was the fruit of a mass revolt led by the province’s young people in the spring and summer of that year. Once elected, Marois turned her back on the students and their sup­ (Above) Parti Quebecois candidate Pierre Karl Peladeau.

porters. The government retreated on every front: increasing university tuition, abandoning its promise to rescind the supplementary health tax, raising daycare fees and ordering another round of cuts to welfare, education, and healthcare budgets.

In the wake of the Lac Megantic train disaster, the PQ administration declared an interest in exploiting oil and gas re­ serves in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It pur­ sued with enthusiasm a free-trade agree­ ment with the European Union. In sum, it was a nuanced version of the policies of its Liberal predecessor.

There was rejoicing from the usual quarters whenever the Parti Quebecois goes down to defeat. For the corporate media in English-speaking Canada, as for the federal Conservative and Lib­ eral Parties and unfortunately, the New Democratic Party leadership, there is no greater menace than Quebec “separat­ ism.” Normally an obsessive partisan, Tory Prime Minister Stephen Harper pronounced himself satisfied with the Quebec Liberal victory.

Quebec Solidaire was the only party to clearly differentiate itself from the neo­ liberal discourse of the three right-wing parties. It proposed raising corporate taxes and directing public funds to social housing, the CLSC’s (community health centres), and public transport. With this program of limited reforms, QS moved into the territory vacated by the PQ af­ ter its first years in office. Especially un­ der current leader, Francoise David, the party avoids class references in favour of “consensual” politics and a “values” dis­ course.

QS remains attentive to the mass movement even if takes no initiatives to organize protests, especially in an election campaign. For example, there was a modest QS contingent in the antiausterity march of April 3, convened by the left-wing student union ASSÉ. It mo­ bilized over 10,000 in the streets of Mon­ treal. In theory, the party recognizes the politics of the ballot box and the politics of the street in equal measure. In prac­ tice, electoral considerations dominate. Party leaders were hoping for a minority government, in which an enhanced QS delegation could play the role of power broker. The party’s performance, though a modest improvement, was from this perspective, disappointing.

Quebec has a tradition of extra-parlia­ mentary politics, periodically erupting into mass protests. Absent a politically re-armed and militant working class ex­ pressed through its unions, the impact of these often impressive mobilisations is bound to be limited. Quebec’s union leaders have allowed the movement’s radical and combative traditions to with­ er, immersed as they are in a framework (continued on page 9, in “Hypocrisy reigns between Canada and Ukraine!”)

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News and views from SA Canada By BARRY WEISLEDER Working-class and progressive voters should back the labour-based New Democratic Party in a pivot­ al provincial election set for June 12. It is the only mass workers’ party in the race. Thus it is subject to demands from its progressive class base, unlike the website: http://socialistaction.ca