There will be a by-election for Jean-Talon in Quebec on Monday. A game is always an opportunity to send messages. And there will be news!
According to some analysts, it would be a race between the CAQ and the PQ, but be careful: Québec Solidaire is moving forward in the Capitale-Nationale region and not everything is decided yet.
Workers, Students and News
Against the backdrop of failed negotiations in the public sector and the ever-present threat of a heavy-handed law designed to enforce the will of the employer, the solidarity groups are spreading a message of hope.
- Listen to the live broadcast of the Lisée Mulcair meeting with Richard Martineau daily at 8:50 a.m. above QUB radio :
The hope of the nurses who saw their professional code manipulating passing grades, leading to the failure of qualified graduates, without the CAQ government deigning to lift a finger.
The hope of the residents of Limoilou, who are being poisoned by levels of metal particles in the air well above standards, without their government taking action to protect them.
The hope of a new generation tired of sterile debates that go in circles and do not in any way reflect their values and priorities. This generation is widespread in this equestrian sport where Laval University is located. The real question is whether they will vote on Monday.
Right turn of the PQ
The PQ made a good move by recruiting a lawyer with NGO experience as a candidate for the partial election.
- Listen to the live broadcast of the Lisée Mulcair meeting with Richard Martineau daily at 8:50 a.m. above QUB radio :
The problem for his credibility is that when asked if he still believed systemic racism was a real problem, he claimed he never believed it. Yet it was a core principle of one of the organizations on whose board he served.
The candidate tried to argue that this did not necessarily mean that he adhered to this fundamental principle of the organization he helped lead. We come back for the principles.
At the same time, the PQ returned to the intolerance that had unfortunately characterized the leadership race to succeed Pauline Marois.
When the PSPP deplored the “radical left ideologies imposed on them on issues such as gender identity,” the masks fell.
This was a return to the right for the PQ, well understood and without embarrassment showing itself, regardless of the image of its leader.
Strategic coordination
Sometimes voters feel obliged to make strategic decisions. When they know it’s a futile effort for their party, they decide to either vote for the party that’s closest to what they want and has a chance, or to block the party they like least.
This is not ideal because we would like to always be able to vote for our first choice, but it is a political reality.
Jean-Talon has long been a liberal stronghold. My former colleague in the National Assembly, Margaret Delisle, returned to the service to encourage and support the Liberal candidate, who I find to be both qualified and interesting. The problem is that the Liberal Party, still without a leader, is currently hopeless – much to its chagrin.
On Monday we should find out which of the two right-wing nationalist parties, the CAQ or the PQ, will win in Jean-Talon.
But it is the voters who will have the final say, and the message they send will go far beyond Sillery and Sainte-Foy.