If one could describe the Quebec Elections with one word, it would likely be disillusionment. Many voters agree that Premier Couillard has been doing a lousy job, but many within that camp will vote for him anyway due to fear of separatism and/or the exacerbation of ethnic and language tensions that would likely come from a Parti Québécois or Coalition Avenir du Québec government. Québec Solidaire is an appealing option for others, but their sovereigntist stance is a big turnoff for those of us tired of hearing it.

One could always vote for a smaller political party. It’s a risky move, not only because these parties are less likely to get seats in the National Assembly, but also because it takes votes and influence away from a major party which you might actually agree with on a few things. One could even argue that it’s throwing your vote away.

That said, it’s a free country, and knowledge is power so I’m going to give you a crash course on some of the smaller parties running in this election. There are lots of them, so for the purposes of this article, I will be talking about the three that are campaigning just as hard as the larger parties: the Quebec Conservatives, the Quebec NDP, the provincial Green Party. Plus I’ve included the Bloc Pot, as we are on the eve of marijuana legalization.

As per the previous article, I plan to focus on their positions on health care, the economy/education/employment, culture, and the environment.

Health Care

The Green Party of Quebec is distinct from the Federal party of the same name and identifies itself as Leftist Federalist. Their healthcare platform focuses on prevention. Here are some highlights of their plan:

  • Institute a province-wide campaign to reduce meat consumption given its effects on health
  • Encourage doctors and pharmacists to suggest physical activity and healthy eating instead of medication – a plan that has its merits but runs the risk of alienating and harming people with conditions that require regular medication
  • Reduce ER overcrowding by boosting walk-in clinics and hiring more staff for them
  • Faster access to psychiatric services and follow-ups and increased access to mental health services for First Nations

The Conservative Party of Quebec is also distinct from the federal party of a similar name and claims as its core value “the fundamental rights and freedoms of the individual against the encroachments of the all-powerful State”. Here are some of their proposals for our struggling health care system:

  • Pay hospitals per treatment as per an activity-based funding model – with revenue depending on how many patients they attract
  • Allow doctors to work in the private sector provided they work a minimum of thirty five hours a week in the public healthcare system
  • Encourage new forms of hospital management and ownership including hospitals belonging to non-profit cooperatives or for-profit businesses
  • Establish a public ranking of hospitals to be published annually with performance indicators including clinical outcomes, quality of care and hospital services
  • Allow hospitals to sign contracts with their physicians to establish doctors fees and working conditions

The Bloc Pot is the political party calling for a sensible and comprehensive province wide drug policy. Here’s their stance on health:

  • Encourage research on the positive effects of medical marijuana and it’s legitimate medical uses
  • Recognize patients’ right to obtain cannabis to treat their illnesses even illegally

The NDPQ is another party separate from its federal counterpart, but like the Federal NDP, they are a social democratic party. Their healthcare platform is one of the most comprehensive, and includes:

  • Giving the CLSCs the means to be primary healthcare providers with their own programs developed to address the particular needs of their communities
  • Establish maximum wait times for receiving treatments for medical problems according to available scientific research
  • Make sure that medical services are available 24/7 in urban areas
  • Create multi-disciplinary teams to address chronic illnesses
  • Create a new hospital to serve the Nunavut and James Bay areas

Education, Employment, and the Economy

Green Party:

  • Free public education from preschool to university including school supplies for elementary and secondary school students
  • Guaranteed minimum income of $1200/month with a six-hundred-dollar exemption for people who want to work part time
  • Create a new CEGEP focused on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math with a requirement that fifty percent of its students be women
  • Increase the minimum wage to fifteen dollars an hour with laws forbidding employers from cutting benefits to finance the increase in wages

Quebec Conservative Party:

  • Gradually reduce payroll taxes to make the rates competitive with the rest of Canada
  • Create a public education funding method based on school vouchers worth the same amount of money per child that would allow parents to choose a public or private school in their district or a neighboring one
  • De-regulate tuition fees for all universities except the University of Quebec and any universities belonging to the reseau of the University of Quebec
  • Restrict welfare accessibility to a maximum period of five years
  • Eliminate “closed shop” provisions of the Labour Code that force employers to only hire unionized employees

NDPQ:

  • Invest four-hundred million dollars over five years to collective organizations and co-ops
    Create public companies charged with the planning and development of large infrastructure projects
  • Rewrite and merge the Quebec Labour Code, the Act Respecting Labour Standards, and the Act
  • Respecting Retraite in Quebec following consultations between the government, unions, and employees
  • End public subsidies and tax credits to private schools in Quebec
  • Free tuition for all levels of education

Bloc Pot:

  • Promote industrial production of hemp and hemp-based products
  • Judicial non-intervention for responsible marijuana users to eliminate employment and travel barriers

Environment

NDPQ:

  • Reduce greenhouse gas emissions by fifty percent in the transport sector by 2030
  • Prioritize areas of intervention that reduce the production of greenhouse gases such as industrial livestock production, electrification of transportation methods, and better waste management
  • Investing government funds in research projects such as developing clean energies, cleaner industrial practices, and agricultural methods with less environmental impact
  • Ban the building or expansion of any natural gas pipelines on Quebec territory
  • Work with municipalities to develop cleaner waste management strategies

Green Party:

  • Reduce greenhouse gas emissions by fifty percent by 2030
  • Construct a network of high speed electric trains to connect Gatineau, Laval, Montreal, Trois-Riveres, Quebec City, Sherbrooke, Saguenay, Matane, and Drummondville with low cost fares, thus reducing the need for cars to travel throughout Quebec
  • Discouraging the purchase and use of large vehicles such as vans and SUVs by making them more expensive and more difficult to register
  • Require car-free zones in the downtown core of Quebec’s 30 largest cities
  • Nationalize the logging industry and create Forests Quebec to run it

The Bloc Pot:

N/A – their platform revolves around better drug policies and therefore does not address environmental issues

Quebec Conservative Party:

  • Lift existing moratoriums on the exploration of minerals, gas, and oil resources in Quebec while using methods that minimize their effect on the environment
  • Make it easier for Quebec farmers to find new uses for their agricultural waste
  • Science-based environmental policies
  • End the QST on the sale of used consumer goods including automobiles to encourage their re-use
  • Abolish the refunds on bottles and cans to encourage Quebeckers to put them in the recycling bin – a move that would hurt many urban poor who collect and return cans to supplement their incomes

Language, Culture, and Environment

I have once again saved this topic for last because it is here that we hear terms like racism, Islamophobia, and xenophobia get thrown around. What makes the smaller parties unique is that they all call for cultural changes, but not the changes one would expect to hear about during Quebec election season.

The Bloc Pot’s focus is on responsible drug strategies and proposes judicial non-intervention for cannabis users. Their goal is to be able to open discussion on cannabis without fear of repression. Their strategy has nothing to do with language or ethnicity but rather is about eliminating the cultural stigma associated with marijuana that can limit employment, travel, and research.

The Green Party’s cultural stance appears to be about righting past wrongs. Their platform includes the implementation of the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to integrate the topics of colonialism and residential schools into Quebec’s high school history curriculum. They also seek to include historical information on genocide and the contributions of women and ethnic minorities in Quebec history classes. As for language, the Green Party supports existing language laws.

The Quebec Conservatives are the most right-wing of any of the parties discussed in this article. Their platform includes “welcoming policy” for immigrants to Quebec in which learning French, as well as Quebec history and traditions will be considered essential, though the primary factor in deciding eligibility will be their economic integration according to the needs of Quebec’s workforce. Their stance is strongly in favor of a secular state, but rather than a distinct charter of values, the Conservatives want the Canadian and Quebec Charters of Rights to be their guide. Though they call for reasonable accommodation conducted with “patience, education, and empathy” their platform also says that “there is no reason for us to encourage radical fundamentalism”, language that is generally associated with Islamophobia.

The NDPQ does not address the issue of culture directly among their platforms, limiting said platforms to the topics of agriculture, First Nations, the economy, education, the environment, health, and the LGBTQ++ community. Their policy with regards to LGBTQ++ community does call for a cultural change, but not with regards to ethnicity, religion, or language. Their platform involves fighting homophobia and transphobia and the stigma associated with HIV. They want to ban conversion therapy in Quebec, encourage the establishment of gay-straight alliances in schools, and publicly recognize sexual diversity. They also want to eliminate barriers to assisted procreation methods such as artificial insemination and In-Vitro Fertilization as well as surrogacy to allow LGBTQ++ to have children if they want them.

Election day is October 1. You have a say. Go vote.

The late August heat may have you sweating like summer, but there is one sign that fall is just around the corner: election posters are everywhere. With the 2018 Quebec Election campaign in full swing, it’s time for another FTB Election Poll!

Just like the real election, it’s one vote per person, unlike the real election, you can change your vote as many times as you like right up until Thursday, September 27th at 11:59pm.

While the winner of the real election gets to form government, the winner of our poll gets an official endorsement article written on behalf of Forget the Box readers.

We’ve included all the major parties and a few of the more interesting options among the 21 officially registered provincial parties. If there’s one you would like to add, please feel free to do so.

One more thing to consider: we’re not asking who you think will win the election or even who you will actually be voting for, but rather who you want to win. So while you may plan on voting strategically on the first of October, in this poll we encourage you to vote with your heart.

You can vote below or in the sidebar of any site page:

Who would you like to win the 2018 Quebec Election?
  • Conservative Party of Québec 20%, 9 votes
    9 votes 20%
    9 votes - 20% of all votes
  • Quebec Liberal Party (PLQ) 18%, 8 votes
    8 votes 18%
    8 votes - 18% of all votes
  • Québec Solidaire (QS) 16%, 7 votes
    7 votes 16%
    7 votes - 16% of all votes
  • Nouveau Parti Démocratique du Québec (NPDQ) 13%, 6 votes
    6 votes 13%
    6 votes - 13% of all votes
  • I Don't Live in Quebec 11%, 5 votes
    5 votes 11%
    5 votes - 11% of all votes
  • Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) 7%, 3 votes
    3 votes 7%
    3 votes - 7% of all votes
  • Green Party of Québec (PVQ) 4%, 2 votes
    2 votes 4%
    2 votes - 4% of all votes
  • None of the Above 2%, 1 vote
    1 vote 2%
    1 vote - 2% of all votes
  • Parti Québécois (PQ) 2%, 1 vote
    1 vote 2%
    1 vote - 2% of all votes
  • Parti Nul 2%, 1 vote
    1 vote 2%
    1 vote - 2% of all votes
  • Parti Marxiste-Léniniste du Québec 2%, 1 vote
    1 vote 2%
    1 vote - 2% of all votes
  • Parti Culinaire du Québec 2%, 1 vote
    1 vote 2%
    1 vote - 2% of all votes
  • Bloc Pot 0%, 0 votes
    0 votes
    0 votes - 0% of all votes
Total Votes: 45
Voters: 45
August 28, 2018 - October 2, 2018
Voting is closed

* Featured image by Tony Webster via WikiMedia Commons

Are you excited for the 2018 Quebec Election? With the voting just under seven months away, my answer is maybe, and that’s huge for me.

I’m a political junkie. I closely follow all political races with gusto: federal, municipal, American, European, fictional (Bartlet 2020). Well, almost all races.

Quebec provincial politics have always failed to deliver for me. Sure, I’ll vote, watch the results pour in and even write an op-ed or five, but something is lacking.

It’s not that nothing changes, it’s that change doesn’t even seem like a far-fetched possibility.

Two Parties, Same Pander

It’s not just that we’re in a two party system that has been around since the 70s, it’s not even that the Quebec Liberals (PLQ) and the Parti Québécois (PQ) only differ on a handful of issues. It’s that they’re not even trying to appear different anymore and people keep voting them in.

Sure, the PQ did sink below Official Opposition status when Andre Boisclair was leader, but that was only due to homophobia in their base. They haven’t forgot to pander to bigots since.

When the 2012 student protests forced “Charest Dehors!” (and into a law firm, guess the protesters weren’t able to find him a “job dans le nord” after all), Pauline Marois wasted no time turning her back on the reasons she got the Premier job in the first place and went all-in on Islamophobia. The Charter of Quebec Values didn’t get her a majority and cost her re-election, but that hasn’t stopped the PQ from banging the hard-right war drum.

They have dropped all pretense of being interested in progressive votes and their pander to bigots isn’t even limited to attacking Muslims anymore. They even went so far as to mock the practice of declaring that an event is taking place on unceded native land.

Now, though, the PLQ are trying desperately to pander to the same xenophobic base. Bill C-62, the law that forces bus drivers and librarians to refuse service to anyone covering their face, wasn’t a PQ invention, but rather that of the party that won government by campaigning against the PQ’s Charter.

Both main parties in our two-party system already had a similar right-leaning approach to the economy, the environment and other important issues. Now they seem in lockstep on xenophobia, too and pretty much only differ on the federalism/sovereignty divide.

So why do I think this election may actually result in some change? There are a few reasons.

The PQ is Ready to Implode

Things aren’t looking good for the PQ:

  • They have only been in power for a brief time with a minority government in the past 15 years.
  • Their leader, Jean-François Lisée, is the guy who got the job only after the guy people actually knew quit after holding the position for less than a year.
  • Their attempt to form an alliance with smaller pro-sovereignty parties failed
  • Their federal ally the Bloc Québécois is in complete disarray
  • They are banking everything on getting the xenophobic vote. Not only did that fail them last election, but now the PLQ are targeting the same voters, as is the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ).

Put that all together and there is very real potential that the PQ will sink to third or maybe even fourth party status and never recover. Even if this means another Liberal government, ugh, with the CAQ in opposition, double ugh, it also means that the two party system we have had for over fourty years is done. One down, one to go.

QS Wants to Win

Québec Solidaire (QS) is entering a new phase in more ways than one. They have two new spokespeople: Sainte-Marie-Saint-Jacques MNA Manon Massé, who will run for Premier, and former student leader Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, who would be Vice-Premier in a QS administration.

The prospect of a QS administration, or rather the fact that they are talking about what that would look like, signals a new approach for the party that is far beyond a simple changing of the guard. They don’t just want to keep the three seats they have and maybe add a couple more, they want to win. Like really win. Form government win.

It’s a longshot and an extremely improbable one at that, but political shifts in Quebec happen en masse (think the NDP’s Orange Wave), so it’s not impossible. If the PQ was reduced to a handful of ridings with the CAQ picking up most of their far-right holdings, QS would still need almost all progressive sovereignists and enough progressive federalists to flip a few Liberal ridings to break for them to make it happen, but, again, this is Quebec.

Even if the perfect storm doesn’t happen for QS this election, their change in approach will at least win them more influence, especially in a minority government. It may land them opposition or third party status, which would be huge for them and even bigger for the future of Quebec politics.

While QS is the only left-leaning party currently represented in the National Assembly (with three seats), they’re not the only one hoping to make a dent in the Quebec political landscape by promoting progressive policies and values.

A Greener Political Left

The Quebec Green Party (PVQ) is the Quebec political outfit whose policies align closest with my own. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to vote for them last time as they weren’t fielding a candidate where I lived as well as in several other ridings.

Now, it looks like that is changing. Leader Alex Tyrrell hasn’t just been spending his time running personally in every by-election that popped up in order to ensure PVQ ideas are heard, he has been building a slate of candidates to give voters a Green option in as many parts of Quebec as possible.

So far, I’ve seen two people I know and respect throw their hats in the ring as PVQ candidates in what are undeniably Liberal strongholds. While these races will inevitably be uphill battles for the Green candidates, they could be where the PVQ breaks ground.

While ambiguous on the so-called national question in the past, under Tyrrell, the PVQ have declared themselves federalist. Voters who like almost all of QS’s policies and want to vote progressive but just can’t live with voting for a party that is sovereigntist may park their votes with the Greens and those voters can be found largely in Liberal ridings.

Well, It Worked for Jack

The Quebec Greens won’t be the only ones hoping to pick up some federalist lefty votes this October. There’s a new Quebec version of the NDP (NPDQ) running. And by new, I mean there was already a provincial NDP in Quebec up until a few decades ago and, long story short, the remnants of that party are currently part of QS.

Talk of a potential new Quebec party surfaced following the Orange Wave of 2011 when Jack Layton led the federal NDP to Official Opposition status for the first time in the party’s history thanks largely to a massive shift in Quebec votes. Initially, the Quebec wing of the federal party rejected the notion of a new NPDQ, but in 2014, they registered the name.

The NPDQ went public in 2016 and this past January elected Raphaël Fortin as leader. If they are thinking that the Orange Wave can be duplicated at the provincial level, they might be right, but if it happens this election, it likely won’t be with them.

Jack Layton having the perfect response to Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe’s bragging during a debate is what set the NDP Quebec landslide in motion in 2011. Fortin probably won’t get anywhere close to the debate stage.

A good chunk of people who vote NDP federally here vote QS provincially. So if there is any kind of leftist wave, it’s most likely to break for them.

If the NPDQ’s plans are more long term and involve becoming the progressive federalist alternative to the Liberals, then they better hope they get funding and support from the federal party. The Greens are going for the same voter base and have a significant headstart.

Might Be Exciting This Time

So when you consider the potential or, as I like to think of it, imminent implosion of the PQ and then factor in the strong push for leftist votes from three different parties, it looks like things may be changing in the Quebec political sphere. Throw in the recent election of Valérie Plante and Projet Montréal at the municipal level here in Montreal and it starts looking like we may be ready to scrap the status quo in Quebec City as well.

At least the 2018 Quebec Election may be exciting for a change.