Friday, June 7, 2002
The rise of a third party in Quebec - THE COMMENTARY
By Joseph Planta
VANCOUVER -- A couple of weeks ago, there was a remarkable story out of Quebec regarding the growing support afforded to the third party there, the Action démocratique du Québec. Its leader Mario Dumont is favoured over Parti Quebecois Premier Bernard Landry and Liberal Opposition leader Jean Charest. Dumont is wildly popular in la belle province, and on personality alone, he’d probably have been premier already. He’s young -- 32 -- and has worked to garner a good portion of the middle ground.
I remember hearing about Dumont back in the late 1990s. Then, in his late 20s, he had won a seat in the National Assembly, and thus in the 1998 election got a spot on the all important leaders debate. Against Lucien Bouchard and Jean Charest, Dumont’s youth and brash ideas seemed to resonate for Quebeckers. There was much talk that the ADQ would make a breakthrough, yet the only seat the party claimed was Dumont’s own.
Last month however, the political tide in Quebec dealt the ADQ a stunning by-election win. Now with two ADQ members in the National Assembly, and four upcoming by-elections, Dumont believes great gains will be made on June 17th. Winning the by-election last April was a “stunning” event that surprised the ADQ, and the two main parties in Quebec. Both the PQ and the Liberals are considering Dumont a real threat, and they’re putting on an offensive that will try and put the ADQ back on the political fringe.
The PQ and the Liberal parties should be most worried about the ADQ. Dumont, already an 8-year veteran of the Assembly, has been able to get a younger generation of Quebeckers interested in politics. And what politics to subscribe to. The ADQ is neither separatist or federalist, and Dumont has called for a 10-year moratorium on constitutional matters. The ADQ’s fiscal platform is generally similar to that of the Klein Tories in Alberta. Dumont has called for a 20% flat tax, vouchers for education and daycare, and a greater involvement of the private sector in the delivery of healthcare.
Word out of Quebec City is that the Parti Quebecois is “perplexed” at the success of Dumont and the ADQ. Disenchanted Pequiste members have gone over to the ADQ because they are unhappy with Landry (and before that, Bouchard’s) unwillingness to act on calling a referendum. Also, Liberals are flocking to the ADQ because the party has gotten quite complacent, in its belief that federalists and other non-separatists would always vote Liberal. It seems not anymore.
Bernard Landry, the Pequiste Premier, and his party have reacted on the ADQ’s growing success. One cabinet minister -- Rita Dionne-Marsolais -- has gone on to be quoted that the ADQ caters to a “young generation that is very individualistic, that thinks only of itself.” Well, young Quebeckers most frustrated with the direction of the PQ and the reliance on old ideas by the Liberals (Charest’s proposed Meech Lake part III). Madame Dionne-Marsolais, should realise her party has done nothing to satisfy this constituency and it is Dumont who’s working to earn their trust. It is the PQ’s inability to keep the youth of Quebec amongst its ranks that sees their moving to the ADQ. Young Quebeckers realise they should take their destiny in their own hands. (Politicos in Ottawa have been watching. Stockwell Day and the Alliance tried to lure Dumont into working with them, and recently Joe Clark met with Dumont. Both realise that Dumont is a player on the political scene.) And the desperation has gone to the pathetic. One Pequiste has compared the ADQ to the Jean Marie Le Pen outfit, the National Front in France.
Quebecois politics is most interesting and the upcoming election -- probably in 2003 sometime -- will be something to watch. The PQ has lost much support (through its inaction on the sovereignty file and its amalgamation of municipalities) and is really hanging on to power. Charest fails to ignite the imagination of Quebeckers. It could be Dumont and even if he manages to make a good showing of it, Quebec will surely change and make its way into the 21st century. Third parties have never been hugely successful in Quebec. Usually, an upstart third party becomes one of the two eventually, as politics abhors a vacuum. The last was the Parti Quebecois.
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An archive of Joseph Planta's previous columns can be found by clicking HERE .