(Ottawa) Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet says he is “extremely concerned” as he notes that Montreal and the rest of Quebec are “driving away from each other.”
Posted at 10:08 am.
Michel Saba The Canadian Press
“There are two Quebecs. Unfortunately, it's coming true,” he said in an interview with The Canadian Press, repeating the wording of a question aimed at clarifying his thoughts.
First, there is Montreal, “a Quebec,” which is becoming “at best a bilingual, possibly multilingual, very passive city in which the history, the language, the values and the culture of the very generous host society are present.” marginalized.
“And there is a Quebec that looks at Montreal as if Montreal is becoming a foreign place. »
Montreal is already no longer the second largest French-speaking city in the world, he says. In the metropolis, “we renounce a large part of who we are in favor of what should enrich it,” rather than “integrating” it, he said.
The situation is “dramatic, […] “Very serious,” Mr. Blanchet said, confident he would cause “fear.” “It must be a single culture, a single nation with all its diversity. This is Quebec. And we are trying to escape it. »
Two Montreals?
For University of Sherbrooke political science professor Jean-François Daoust, who specializes in opinion polling and nationalism, it is “obvious” from an electoral perspective that Montreal stands out from the rest of Quebec.
In the same breath, he judges this dichotomy to be “simplistic” since there is “at least”. […] two Montreals” because the variations there are “enormous”. In the east of the island, he says, there is “a discourse” that is much more similar to that of the rest of Quebec than in the west.
This can be explained in particular by socio-demographic differences. Language, for example, is “one of the most important predictors” in block voting.
Still, Mr. Daoust reiterates that Montrealers as a whole are distinguished from the rest of Quebec by values and opinions that are supposedly more progressive or liberal. “If we are more liberal, we are more likely to vote for a party that aligns with those values,” he said.
However, his colleague at Laval University, Éric Montigny, points out that the bloc is not known for being a party of moral law. “It is a party that positions itself on the left socially.”
Likewise, it is not clearly on the economic right, so a left- or center-left electorate in Montreal does not represent an “enemy country,” not to mention that the party talks a lot about environmental issues that have wide appeal in the metropolis.
As far as reflections on multiculturalism and interculturalism are concerned, Professor Montigny judges that “one of the challenges of a political leader is not to play the anthropologist or sociologist, but to try to bring people together through political discourse.”
“We will not give up Montreal”
The Bloc leader rightly believes that his training needs to be done most in Montreal. “We will not give up Montreal,” he stressed.
The bloc currently holds 32 of Quebec's 78 seats. However, there is only one in the metropolis, the very French-speaking La Pointe-de-l'Île, which essentially overlaps with Pointe-aux-Trembles and Montréal-Est.
Of the island's 17 other federal districts, 16 are liberal and one – Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie – is New Democratic in nature.
As he prepares to celebrate his fifth anniversary as party leader on Wednesday, Mr. Blanchet rejoiced at bringing a party thought to be dead to life and said he now wants to make it the voice of Quebec in Ottawa “without nuance.”
This is because Justin Trudeau's troops have 35 MPs in the province, three more than the bloc, which still received more votes.
Becoming the first party in seats requires making gains and offsetting possible losses from the Conservatives hunting for bloc areas outside Montreal, Professor Montigny explained.
According to him, the bloc must therefore target constituencies where it had a history and a presence. “And that is the case on the island of Montreal: from the east of Montreal to the heart of Montreal,” he emphasizes.
Among previous breakthroughs, he counts that of former Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe, who was elected in Laurier-Sainte-Marie, a district made up of parts of Plateau-Mont-Royal. And even in cultural communities, Osvaldo Núñez, a candidate of Chilean origin, was elected in 1993 in Bourassa, which notably includes Montréal-Nord.
However, Professor Daoust warns that the area where the bloc can hope to make gains is “retreating further and further eastwards” and would “certainly not” be further west than in its best years, when it won up to seven constituencies General had elections.
Historically, the BQ has also held certain ridings, sometimes only for a short time, such as Rosemont–La-Petite-Patrie, Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, Ahuntsic, Papineau, Anjou–Rivière-des-Prairies or Jeanne-Leber.