By Licia Corbella, Calgary Herald - For those of us on the outside looking in, what’s most surprising about Quebec’s provincial election result Tuesday night isn’t just how well Jean Charest’s scandal-plagued Liberal Party did or that most Quebecers reject a separatist agenda. It’s that fully 31.94 per cent of Quebec voters have no problem supporting the bigoted and racist agenda of the winning Parti Quebecois.
Almost one-third of Quebecers voted for Pauline Marois’ PQ party, which not only seeks to make Quebec a country, but has policies that are so discriminatory towards religious and cultural minorities in Quebec, it’s shocking this is not a bigger issue in the province.
Before her victory speech was marred by a shooting Tuesday night that left one man dead and another seriously injured outside of the venue where she spoke, the 63-year-old premier-designate spoke out of both sides of her mouth. She said she “will be premier of all Quebecers,” but will proceed with toughening up Bill 101, which will punish small businesses that speak mostly English, and will deny the right of Quebecers to attend many post-secondary institutions in English. The devil that is Marois and her party is very much in the details of her election platform.
If she had won a majority government, she would have made it illegal for Quebec civil servants belonging to religious minorities to wear their religious garb in public. No hijabs for Muslim women, no yarmulkas for Jewish men and no turbans for Sikh males. Only Christians would be allowed to wear a crucifix, and the crucifix in the National Assembly would be allowed to remain, not because Marois is an observant Christian — she’s not, apparently — but because it is part of Quebec’s culture and history.
As repugnant as those policies are, Peter Stockland, a Montreal resident and executive director of the Centre for Cultural Renewal, urges non-Quebecers to study the numbers more closely. Yes, it’s disturbing that so many Quebecers found it acceptable to vote for such xenophobic policies, but Charest’s unpopular Liberals — after almost 10 years in power — lost the election by less than one percentage point — garnering 31.2 per cent of the popular vote, and the Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ), which has only existed since November, pulled in 27 per cent of the vote.
“So, the majority of Quebecers reject those bigoted policies,” explains Stockland, and even some of those who voted PQ did so because they want a referendum on sovereignty to be held or because they support the muscular protection of the French language within Quebec and not because they want to deny religious minorities their constitutional rights.
Nevertheless, when you consider how severely Alberta’s Wildrose Party was punished in April’s provincial election because of some bigoted comments against homosexuals by two individual candidates, it’s truly astonishing that what should have been the biggest issue in the Quebec election was virtually ignored within la belle province.
But there is still much good news from Tuesday night’s election results for those of us absolutely fed up with the so-called “Quebec debate.”
Marois has admitted she cannot proceed with a referendum on sovereignty with the “mandate” she has been given.
But she’s not giving up. In her victory speech, Marois asked Quebec’s “friends and neighbours in Canada to listen to me carefully. As a nation, we want to make the decisions about the things that are important for us. We want a country. And we will have it.”
Speaking out of both sides of her mouth, Marois says on the one hand, Quebecers want to make their own decisions, but on the other, if the federal government ignores her government, it will help create the winning conditions for a referendum next time.
It’s pretty schizophrenic — leave us alone, but if you do leave us alone, then we’ll leave.
That’s why the carefully crafted congratulatory statement made by Prime Minister Stephen Harper strikes exactly the right tone.
“We do not believe that Quebecers wish to revisit the old constitutional battles of the past,” said Harper. “Our government will remain focused on jobs, economic growth and sound management of the economy.”
The numbers would indicate that he is right and now that the federal Conservatives have proven they don’t need Quebec to win elections, treating Quebec like every other province is the best way to proceed.
On Wednesday, during her first news conference following her win, Marois declared “we are not a violent society,” in reference to the tragic shooting on election night. And, for the most part, Marois is correct. Quebec is a mostly peaceful society. However, this is the woman who supported for months the often violent and destructive demonstrations by marauding students in the streets of Montreal. It was just another example of her speaking out of both sides of her mouth.
A few months of this kind of discordant talk will likely mean that by the time her minority government inevitably falls in probably one year or so, no one will believe a word she says and the most racist party in recent Canadian history will die along with her leadership.
How do you say good riddance in French?
Licia Corbella is a columnist and editorial page editor. lcorbella@calgaryherald.com