Sovereignist squabbling opens door for QS star
QUEBEC It will go down in history as the byelection where the Parti Québécois didn’t show up — on purpose.
When voters in the Montreal riding of Gouin go to the polls Monday to pick a replacement for Québec solidaire MNA Françoise David, they will discover no PQ candidate on the ballot.
That’s because months ago the PQ, in its zeal to woo QS into an non-aggression pact enabling the two parties to perform well in the next general election, decided to sit out the vote as a gesture of good faith for negotiations between the two sovereignist parties.
But this week, as convergence talks between the two parties fell apart and a war of words ensued, the decision to abstain has in a way come back to haunt the PQ.
Since the likely result of the vote will be the election of QS star candidate Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, the PQ will have handed the riding to a man wreaking havoc in the PQ.
After Nadeau-Dubois, better known as one of the leaders of the red square student revolt of 2012, decided to enter politics, QS picked up 6,000 new members and cash donations started rolling in. The party is rising in the polls and now talking about becoming the leftwing alternative to the PQ.
One theory is that the PQ knew it didn’t stand a chance in the riding, but now the PQ faces the prospect of Nadeau-Dubois present daily in the legislature.
“We are taking nothing for granted,” a cautious Nadeau-Dubois, 27, said in an interview with the Montreal Gazette this week when asked about the campaign. “It’s a byelection and we are treating it as a real campaign.”
In this race Nadeau-Dubois is one of 13 candidates. QS describes the riding as ‘progressive,’ because it is made up largely of renters, students and 13,000 families.
The Liberal candidate is Jonathan Marleau, the Haitian-born president of the party’s youth wing who admits he, like Nadeau-Dubois, wore the red square in 2012.
The CAQ, which holds no ridings on the island, drafted Collège Montmorency philosophy teacher Benjamin Bélair as its candidate. He says he is campaigning to change people’s perception of the party. The Green Party candidate is Alex Tyrrell.
The stars seem aligned for a QS win but the ongoing spat in the sovereignist ranks has crept into the race. The scrap started last weekend when the QS policy convention rejected the PQ’s offer of a non-aggression pact in a bid to stop cancelling each other’s election chances out.
Then on Monday Radio-Canada revealed an agreement had been reached between pro-independence groups, the PQ, QS, Bloc Québécois and Option nationale, on a common approach to achieving sovereignty. At QS’s request, the agreement was kept secret.
But QS reneged on its signature after the party’s co-ordinating committee decided the deal was not satisfactory.
All hell broke loose with the president of the group negotiating the deal, former union leader Claudette Carbonneau, saying the climate has soured and the level of mistrust between the PQ and QS so high all bets are off on a deal.
At a news conference Friday, PQ leader Jean François Lisée said the PQ is “stupefied,” by what happened. He called on QS to tell the truth.
On streets of the riding, the incident seems to have only cranked up anti-PQ rancour in a riding where the party is not very popular to begin with.
“The PQ is nyet for me,” said Hayet, a Muslim woman. “That charter (of values) really hurt us.”
Down the street, Tamara Corriveau says she used to vote PQ but dropped the party when David arrived on the scene.
“He’s (Nadeau-Dubois) articulate, young, a person with a vision,” she says. “He’s my star.”
But not everyone is a fan of Nadeau-Dubois.
“When I go vote it will be to vote against him,” says Robert Poulin standing in front of the popular Moustache café on Beaubien Street. “He’s an empty shell.”