Musings About Quebec, Social Democracy & Canadian Unity

A fortnight ago, the voters of Quebec elected a minority Parti Quebecois (PQ) government. Almost immediately, I heard statements and came across media comments saying that the Quebecois have to be put in their place, that they cannot accept money from the rest of Canada while talking about leaving Confederation. In essence, these people are saying that the Quebecois cannot have it both ways.

But is this simple perspective really at the core of the relationship between Quebec and the rest of Canada?

Most Canadians know that Quebec is the most progressive province in Canada. By this, I am referring to their social and economic policies. Even the recently ousted Liberal premier, Jean Charest, would not touch Quebec’s subsidized daycare policy – and Charest was a former minister in the Conservative cabinet of Brian Mulroney!

Quebec was not always so progressive, of course. In fact, during the long reign of Premier Maurice Duplessis' Union Nationale government that ended in 1960, a strong argument could be made that Quebec was the most conservative of provinces (Newfoundland notwithstanding).

After Duplessis died, Quebec’s fascinating Quiet Revolution led to the formation of the Parti Quebecois and the development of a secular social democratic state. As many people know, Rene Levesque left the cabinet of the Quebec Liberal government, and once in power, moved Quebec policy clearly to the left. (I recall once seeing a documentary clip of Levesque meeting in BC with that province’s NDP premier, Dave Barrett. In the clip, Barrett stated that Quebec does not need a provincial wing of the NDP because Levesque’s PQ supported a similar ideology. In Barrett’s opinion, why split the progressive vote?)

After Levesque left politics, political analysts had difficulty seeing a clear ideological path as new leaders took over the PQ and its brethren on the federal scene, the Bloq Quebecois (BQ). This was the period when former Mulroney cabinet minister Lucien Bouchard took up the separatist mantle. However, in recent years, under the leadership of Gilles Duceppe, the BQ clearly shared many of the same policies as the federal NDP.  The only issue that they strongly differed on was the matter of separatism. Similarly, the provincial PQ still to this day shares many progressive policies with the NDP.

This is important to note.

Since Levesque first came to power in back in 1976, Quebec has passed the most progressive legislation of all of the provinces, including the ones with NDP governments. Could this be a factor in the separatist movement? What about on the federal scene?

For almost 20 years, the BQ has received the most votes of any of the federal parties in Quebec. Especially under Duceppe’s leadership, the BQ championed a social democratic vision that also included support for the gun registry. Furthermore, Duceppe was a strong advocate for the rights of workers. These positions are clearly not aligned with Harper’s Conservatives. In fact, they are the complete antithesis.

The federal election in May 2011 saw most of the support for the BQ go to the NDP, the only social democratic party based outside of Quebec.

Media pundits immediately filled the airwaves with reasons for this massive switch in voter support. First, Quebecers had fallen for NDP leader, Jack Layton. Second, they had engaged in group-think, that many Quebecers did not even understand what the NDP stood for. Later, the media claimed this support was only fleeting, that with Layton’s unfortunate death, voters would go back to their traditional voting patterns.

But perhaps there is a reason that I have yet to hear mentioned in the mainstream media outside of Quebec. Perhaps the Quebec electorate was tiring of sending BQ MPs to Parliament – after all, they would never form government. Perhaps they wanted to send MPs who belonged to a federal party that shared the values and perspectives of the majority of Quebec’s citizens.

In other words, perhaps the election of so many NDP MPs in 2011 was Quebec’s way of saying, “Okay, if a federal government can be elected that embodies the values of the majority of Quebecers, then perhaps we will not be so quick to demand separation from the rest of Canada.”

Prior to the 2011 federal election, there was only one NDP MP in Quebec, Thomas Mulcair. Like Levesque before him, Mulcair was once a progressive cabinet minister in Quebec’s Liberal government. Unlike Levesque, however, Mulcair could not leave the provincial Liberals for the PQ for the simple reason that he is an avowed federalist, and not a separatist.

Jack Layton is sadly gone. Tom Mulcair is now the leader of the federal NDP. There are 58 NDP MPs in Quebec. We shall see if the support of the NDP remains strong in Quebec. I for one will not be surprised to see this support hold. After all, the values and type of civil society that Quebecers obviously want is more in line with the social democratic views of the NDP than it is say, with Harper’s coalition of Big Oil corporate power and the social conservatives in most rural ridings outside of Quebec.

As a case in point, simply reflect on the recent protests of the Quebec students in the face of tuition hikes, a level of resistance not seen among students in other provinces. (For an excellent perspective on what is happening in Quebec, see http://behindthenumbers.ca/?s=Quebec.)

I am not from Quebec. All I know is that if I had a chance to live in a nation that shared my humanistic and progressive values rather than one that promotes the antithesis of these values, then I would consider forming a new nation, as well. 

Here is what I would like to see an article in the mainstream media focus on: if the Quebec voters help elect the NDP to form Canada’s next government, would the separatist movement lose most of its momentum?

I will wager that it would. 

Much of contemporary Canada is simply too corporate and too socially conservative for the Quebec people to feel entirely comfortable. This distinction became especially apparent with the neoliberal corporate agenda that Mulroney, Chretien and Martin brought into Canada, but it does not necessarily mean it will always be like this. Progressives in Quebec and the rest of Canada share a similar vision for society. If they can get their party into power, Canadian unity will be much more easier to attain.