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.”
There are two Quebecs. Unfortunately, this is becoming true, he explained in an interview with The Canadian Press, repeating the wording of a question asked to ask him to clarify his thoughts.
First of all, there is Montreal, a Quebec that is in the process of becoming a city that is at best bilingual, perhaps even multilingual, in a very passive way, and in which the history, the language, the values, the culture of a very generous one Society exists hosts are 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 give up a large part of who we are in favor of what should enrich it rather than integrate it,” he said.
This situation is dramatic […], very seriously, said Mr. Blanchet, who admitted that he was afraid. It must be a single culture, a single nation with all its diversity. This is Quebec. And we are trying to escape it.
Two Montreal?
For Jean-François Daoust, a professor of political science at the University of Sherbrooke who specializes in opinion polling and nationalism, it is obvious from an electoral perspective that Montreal stands out from the rest of Quebec.
At the same time, he considers this dichotomy to be simplistic because it at least exists […] two Montreals because the differences are huge. The east of the island has a discourse that is much more similar to the rest of Quebec than the west of the island, he says.
This can be explained in particular by socio-demographic differences. For example, language is one of the most important predictors of bloc choice.
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 you're more liberal, you're more likely to vote for a party that aligns with those values,” he said.
One of his colleagues at Laval University, Éric Montigny, puts it succinctly by saying that the bloc is not known for being a party with any particular moral right. It is a party that positions itself socially on the left.
The bloc is also not on the economic right, so a left- or center-left electorate in Montreal is not hostile territory. Not to mention that this training talks a lot about environmental issues that are very popular in the metropolis.
When it comes to thinking about multiculturalism and interculturalism, Professor Montigny believes that one of the challenges of a political leader is not to play the anthropologist or sociologist, but to bring people together through political discourse.
We won't give up on 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 federal seats. However, there is only one in the metropolis, more specifically in the very French-speaking area of 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.
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Mario Beaulieu is the only Bloc Québécois MP on the island of Montreal. (archive photo)
Photo: The Canadian Press / Ryan Remiorz
As he prepares to celebrate his fifth anniversary as leader on Wednesday, Mr Blanchet was pleased to have replaced a party that had been declared dead. He now wants to make it the voice of Quebec in Ottawa without nuance.
In fact, Justin Trudeau's troops have 35 MPs in the province, three more than the bloc, which, however, received more votes in the last federal election.
To become the first party in terms of the number of seats, gains must be made and possible losses offset by the Conservatives chasing bloc areas outside Montreal, explains Professor Montigny.
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.
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Former Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe was elected in Laurier-Sainte-Marie in Montreal. (archive photo)
Photo: The Canadian Press / Jacques Boissinot
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 Jean-François Daoust warns that the area in which the bloc can hope to make gains is shifting further and further east. It would certainly not expand further west than in the best years of this political formation, when it held up to seven constituencies at the end of general elections.
Historically, the Bloc Québécois also held, sometimes for short periods of time, certain ridings such as Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie, Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, Ahuntsic, Papineau, Anjou–Rivière-des-Prairies and Jeanne-Leber.