{"id":334191,"date":"2021-09-03T06:49:05","date_gmt":"2021-09-03T03:49:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/federal-election-2021-meanwhile-in-quebec-a-parallel-election\/"},"modified":"2021-09-03T06:49:05","modified_gmt":"2021-09-03T03:49:05","slug":"federal-election-2021-meanwhile-in-quebec-a-parallel-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/federal-election-2021-meanwhile-in-quebec-a-parallel-election\/","title":{"rendered":"#Federal election 2021: Meanwhile, in Quebec, a parallel election"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Federal election 2021: Meanwhile, in Quebec, a parallel election<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n If the federal election turns on a question of who is best to lead the country into an uncertain future, the first debate of the campaign put a fine point on the idea that, for Quebec, no leadership is good leadership.<\/span><\/p>\n

For two hours in the TVA studios in Montreal, the four party leaders with representation in Quebec sparred about who was best-placed to, in effect, send the most money while doing the least in Quebec.<\/span><\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s asymmetrical federalism isn\u2019t new. But there hasn\u2019t been an election like this in decades, if ever, and it was on full display on Thursday evening. The two likely contenders for Prime Minister bent over backwards to pitch themselves as better partners of Premier Francois Legault than the Bloc Quebecois.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bloc leader Yves-Fran\u00e7ois Blanchet arrived with a set of demands: More money for childcare and more money for health care, in particular. But less interference with how Quebec spends that money. More Bloc, Blanchet promised, would mean more wins for Quebec.<\/span><\/p>\n

Plenty of those challenges were levelled directly at Justin Trudeau, his main competitor in the province and the one who he was promising to shake the coins from. But their squabbling largely took place in a narrow bit of real estate: Trudeau wouldn\u2019t commit to hiking health-care transfers, instead promising to make a series<\/a> of one-time payments to Quebec and the other provinces, but he was quick to tout the $6 billion no-strings-attached cheque he promised the province to expand access to childcare.<\/span><\/p>\n

At one point, the two sparred over whether, as Blanchet proposed, the Prime Minister ought to be more concerned with capp<\/a>ing oil production\u2014bad news<\/a> for Alberta\u2014or whether, as Trudeau suggested, he ought to be capping carbon emissions.<\/span><\/p>\n

And hanging on the margins of the debate between the two was Conservative leader Erin O\u2019Toole and NDP leader Jagmeet Singh. Two men capable in french, but not proficient enough to fire off facts and arguments like Trudeau and Blanchet.<\/span><\/p>\n

O\u2019Toole, for his part, tried to out-Bloc the Bloc. Health-care transfers? You bet. More authority for immigration? Sure thing. Banning religious symbols? Fine with me. O\u2019Toole, who continues to struggle in Quebec even as he rises in the polls elsewhere, made a compelling pitch to Bloc voters: \u201cI agree with him,\u201d O\u2019Toole said of Blanchet at one point. \u201cThe difference is that I\u2019m the only one who can be the Prime Minister.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Singh spent most of the debate calmly appealing to the progressive electors who fled his party in droves over recent years, mostly flocking to the Liberals or Bloc. In so doing, he often sounded like the only leader who wanted to govern the whole country: Not merely as an equal partner to Premier Francois Legault. A national fight against climate change, a national vaccine passport, a national effort to eliminate for-profit health care. Perhaps it\u2019s the freedom of a leader with a sole MP in the province, but Singh seemed disinterested in building new walls around Quebec\u2019s growing self-governance.<\/span><\/p>\n

The trend towards Quebec\u2019s increasing autonomy has been in the works for decades, and has only accelerated since the election of nationalist-populist Legault. But in the midst of a particularly competitive election, one where Quebec could be the difference between a Liberal or Conservative government, some of the wedges are becoming particularly concerning.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the apex of the debate, Blanchet laid into the Prime Minister, demanding to know why federal money was being put up to finance a court challenge to Quebec\u2019s Law 21\u2014an odious law which bars many religious minorities from certain government jobs.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cQuebecers are not racist!\u201d he hectored the Liberal leader.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trudeau\u2019s metered retort, that the money came from an independent program and that his government had not yet decided whether it would join a challenge against the law, was largely shouted down by the Bloc leader.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trudeau\u2019s position on the bill hasn\u2019t changed much since the last election, just two years ago. But it\u2019s O\u2019Toole\u2019s Conservatives that have suddenly found new appreciation for the law. Where his predecessor, Andrew Scheer, <\/span>once talked about defending individual liberties<\/span><\/a>, O\u2019Toole has all but endorsed the bill.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the Tory platform, O\u2019Toole is pledging to \u201crespect the jurisdiction of the Qu\u00e9bec National Assembly by neither intervening in nor providing federal funding to support legal challenges to Law 21.\u201d And his newfound appreciation for the law was on high display Thursday evening.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOur country is divided\u2014and the best way to bring the country together is to respect provincial jurisdiction,\u201d O\u2019Toole answered when <\/span>Maclean\u2019s<\/span><\/i> asked about his newfound appreciation for discriminating against religious minorities.<\/span><\/p>\n

The growing political desire to talk about Quebec exclusively in foreign terms was equally apparent when the topic of systemic racism came up.\u00a0<\/span>Blanchet, again leading the charge, demanded Singh apologize to Quebec for tacitly accepting that it was a nation capable of systemic racism; and to Bloc MP Alain Therrien, for calling him \u201c<\/span>racist<\/span><\/a>\u201d last year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Singh declined to apologize, but noted that Quebecers themselves have been the victims of discrimination\u2014but stood fast in underscoring that people in the province, like <\/span>Joyce Echaquan<\/span><\/a>, have felt the effects of that systemic racism.<\/span><\/p>\n

After the debate, Blanchet doubled down. \u201cI acknowledged, as an anthropologist, that [systemic racism] exists,\u201d Blanchet said. \u201cBut it became a weapon\u2014in the hands of Mr. Trudeau and Mr. Singh, who are using it systematically against Quebec. Quebec has the right to refuse to use those words, because they are used politically against Quebecers.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Legault had set the stage for this kind of jousting.\u00a0<\/span>After years of a cordial relationship between Quebec and Ottawa, Trudeau\u2019s relationship with Legault took a turn last week, when the Quebec leader admonished Trudeau\u2019s refusal to boost health-care transfers to the provinces \u201cwithout condition.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s being proposed by these two parties,\u201d Legault said of the Liberals and the New Democrats, \u201cit\u2019s more tricks, more centralization and bureaucracy. It\u2019s not what we need.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But Legault had plenty of nice words for O\u2019Toole and his plan to double the annual increase in health transfers to the provinces: A massive downloading of federal funds.\u00a0<\/span>\u201cIt\u2019s exactly what we\u2019ve demanded,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Legault\u2019s comments were so blunt that it earned a rather clear headline in <\/span>La Presse<\/span><\/i>: \u201cLegault throws flowers at O\u2019Toole, the flowerpot at Trudeau and Singh.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The high-wire act of negotiating Canada\u2019s relationship with Quebec has always been a difficult one. With some exception, though, Quebec\u2019s unique status as a nation-within-a-nation has served both sides well.\u00a0<\/span>But with a ton of seats on the line, there appears to be a newfound desire to speed up that decentralization, particularly by Erin O\u2019Toole, without much appreciation of cost, efficacy or long-term effects.<\/span><\/p>\n

Maybe this election <\/span>was<\/span><\/i> a bad idea after all.<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n