CAQ unlikely to persuade anglos to stray

History suggests community will remain Liberals’ hostages, Robert Libman says.

Quebec’s English-speaking community has always felt uncomfortable about flirting outside of its long-standing relationship with the Quebec Liberal Party. Despite feelings of alienation or being taken for granted by the Liberals, we will very rarely stray.

Sensing our latest feelings of disaffection, emboldened by the perception that Health Minister Gaétan Barrette is picking on the MUHC and our health-care infrastructure, the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) has been winking at us and produced a seductive English video. Pundits have speculated that our community is now eyeing the CAQ and that their recent bump in the polls is an indication of this flirtation.

History has proven, however, that the consummation of this relationship is unlikely.

In 1974, Quebec anglophones were furious at Robert Bourassa and the Liberals for adopting Bill 22, the first law that made French the sole official language of Quebec.

Many voted for the Union National in 1976, splitting the vote, which indirectly helped the Parti Québécois win that historic election. Since then, in every provincial election for the next 40 years, fear of splitting the federalist vote has made it almost impossible for another party to supplant the Liberals as the choice for anglophone voters.

In 1989, I was involved in creating an alternative to the Liberal Party. The anger in the community was palpable after the Liberal government had invoked the constitutional notwithstanding clause to circumvent the Supreme Court ruling that banning English on commercial signs violated freedom of expression guarantees in the Charter of Rights.

The Equality Party ran in only 19 carefully selected Liberal strongholds where even if we captured every anglophone vote, the PQ still couldn’t win the riding. Despite this strategy, we had to constantly bang our heads against the

In this zero-sum game of Quebec nationalism, any overtures to the community during a campaign could backfire.

wall to try to explain that anglophones could vote with their conscience and wouldn’t be helping the PQ. And this was even after the most intense moment of betrayal by the Liberals, who had even promised in the previous election to again allow bilingual signs in Quebec.

In the end, we succeeded in electing four of us, finishing second in another five ridings.

But in the following election, after the failure of the Meech Lake Accord and with the prospect of another referendum looming, anglophones scurried back to the Liberal Party, again fearing the prospect of dividing the vote.

Today, with the likelihood of Quebec sovereignty dwindling, it seems as if many in the anglophone community, annoyed again with feelings of being taken for granted, are getting the itch.

I regularly hear from people about the need to start another political party, or speculation about whether the CAQ should be a consideration. However, most anglophones are ill at ease about CAQ Leader François Legault’s past as a PQ minister.

They also don’t know enough about the rest of the party or its platform to be comfortable about its nationalist underpinnings.

Furthermore, although they may be upset with the Liberals, the anger is not as seething as it was when we made a breakthrough in 1989.

It also remains to be seen in the heat of an election campaign whether the CAQ can remain true to anglo concerns.

In this zero-sum game of Quebec nationalism, any overtures to the community during a campaign could backfire on them.

We are concentrated in a limited number of Quebec ridings, while the soft nationalist vote is much more lucrative and spread out. Once the CAQ starts making nationalist noises during an election, anglos will scurry back to the Liberals or, more likely, just sit this one out.

Unfortunately though, a much lower voter turnout from our community won’t send a strong enough message to the Liberals about our feelings of discontent, leaving us perpetually caught as their political hostage.