Quebec election historic but victory messy

Political importance overshadowed by easy gun tragedy stories.

by Stephen Block

If democracy is a messy business, the Quebec election Tuesday was particularly messy. Three reasons made this day historic:

• –the election of a PQ government, albeit a minority government;
• – the election of the first female Premier of Quebec; and
• – the tragic shooting of a technician at the PQ reception hall celebrating the victory.

Although the violent incident threatened to overshadow what was otherwise very big news, the national Canadian media still managed to include a bit of the fear, trepidation, and panic that accompanied an earlier PQ victory. In 1976, when Rene Lévesques was first swept to power, panic ensued. The best advice given was that we should all “take a valium”.

Indeed the “rest of Canada” has an odd recent legacy when dealing with “democracy”. The mainstream press’s hysterical reaction to the earlier PQ victory was perhaps matched only by its reaction to the election of the “socialist” Bob Rae’s government in Ontario in 1990. Before Rae could even begin his mandate, The Globe and Mail was announcing the demise of the Ontario economy.

CBC Newsworld ran an edition of Business World, (notably then owned by Conrad Black and ironically on September 11th, 1990) that represented Rae as the leader of slackers whose boring style of government only won the election because brighter lights ran out of ideas. The same perhaps could more reasonably be said of the outcome of this Quebec election.

Indeed, in spite of Marois’ apparent lack of popularity, her very unpopular call for another referendum, her unloved personality, and the obviousness of a sexist bias in the coverage of the PQ leader, she still managed to eke out a victory.

Jean Charest, on the other hand, ran an exceptionally disingenuous campaign, against post-secondary students who refused to accept what they believed to be a betrayal of an important part of Quebec’s social contract: affordable education. Foolishly and nearly sadistically, Charest persisted in his attempt to scapegoat an otherwise powerless constituency — ironically, turning them into the force that ultimately brought him and his government down.

Then there is the Coalition pour l’avenir du Quebec, one of several  newly emerging political parties on the scene, which ran on a two-dimensional pro-business/anti-corruption platform. CAQ benefitted from the fact that, in an era where so many politicians use their ascent to public office as an opportunity to outsource the Crown jewels — the public’s property and its services –  to “private contractors”, it becomes very difficult to discern where “contracting out” ends and corruption begins.

If such confusion were not a deliberate ploy to subvert the public interest, it certainly had the same effect. This, more than anything else, became the lasting legacy of the Charest  era.

Amidst all of this, ardent Francophone Pauline Marois gave a dignified assurance to Anglos fearful of her election. Her English in fact seemed nearly impeccable. She announced a series of popular measures – one to do with taxing the mining industry – that most Quebec citizens will likely receive as long overdue.

And then, amid the mayhem and apparent insanity that befell her acceptance speech, she managed to appear poised and leader-like.

The PQ’s election will bring a sharp change in Quebec social policies. In fact the singularly most significantly and noteworthy aspect of Charest’s governing legacy is its holding back the tide on so many fronts of social progress. Charest was, after all, a federal Tory, and his position on so many matters continued to reflect that fact throughout his term in office.

But perhaps the messiest part of the Quebec election, (and it’s not unusual) is that probably a plurality if not a majority of Quebeckers would have preferred to vote “none of the above” – but perhaps not quite enough to vote for the other parties that also fielded candidates.

One small party seemed to make a breakthrough of sorts.  Quebec Solidaire won seven percent of the vote, a substantial portion, even doing well in some staunch Anglo ridings.  This is a party whom one could legitimately accuse of being left-wing and separatist.

Yet it was the party that most often highlighted Quebec’s corrupt business practices; it stood steadfastly with the students; its platform on the environment is quite excellent and well thought out; its co-leader Francoise David enjoys many noteworthy  liaisons within the progressive Anglo community.

Democracy’s a messy thing. Or so we are told so often by the mainstream press. Yet on a day when it truly was messy, unpredictable and a little out of control, the press responded limply, at best. Perhaps the CTV anchor's seemingly permanently-furrowed brow could, for once, be forgiven. But wouldn’t it have been nice if on this occasion the mainstream media could actually, in turn, have understood the purpose of this election and then respected  its result?

For the rest of Canada, Jean Charest may stand for “stable government” of some sort.  This position evokes  Prime Minster Lester Pearson’s 1963 call for stable government, to which John Diefenbaker retorted that the Liberals went into the stable years ago and are yet to emerge from it. Perhaps Dief’s historical comment best explains the results of last Tuesday’s very messy election in Quebec.

© Copyright 2012 Stephen Block, All rights Reserved. Written For: StraightGoods.ca