Taillefer not the Cure for what Ails the Liberals
You would think that the Quebec Liberal Party’s worst election defeat since 1976, in terms of its share of the seats in the National Assembly, would humble the chair of its campaign. You don’t know Alexandre Taillefer.
Since the Oct. 1 election, Landslide Taillefer has not only floated his name as a possible candidate to lead the party, but also offered his advice on how it can recover from the disaster over which he presided.
He even upstaged the Liberal MNAs who, unlike Taillefer, had the courage to run, by showing up at their swearing-in to suggest that the party re-connect with French-speaking voters by becoming more nationalist.
Specifically, he suggested that the Liberal party become a sort of Coalition Avenir Québec Lite, by accepting the so-called Bouchard-Taylor proposal restricting the wearing of religious symbols by some government employees.
How this would allow the Liberals to outbid the CAQ for nationalist votes is not clear, since the position on which the Coalition won a majority goes farther.
Taillefer is far from alone, even in the Liberal party, in ignoring Philippe Couillard’s plea, in his last and best speech as its leader, for the defence of minority rights.
But if the Liberals can’t be relied upon to stand up for minority rights in Quebec, who can be? And without an imminent threat of separation to defend against, if the Liberal name no longer stands for individual freedom, then what does it still stand for?
To see what can happen to a party that loses its identity, the Liberals need only look at the Parti Québécois. A wag joked that the PQ’s next leader should be Véronique Hivon, who as a minister sponsored the province’s end-of-life law, so at least the party can die with dignity.
If the Liberals can’t be relied upon to stand up for minority rights in Quebec, who can be?
There’s no question that the Liberal party needs to reconnect with francophones. But Quebec’s only truly diverse party faces a challenge its adversaries do not: to do so without turning its back on non-francophones. The latter kept the party alive in the election — for now — but the drop in turnout among them is a danger signal the Liberals can’t ignore.
To win back franco support, however, the Liberal party doesn’t need to become CAQ Lite. There’s still an opening in the electoral centre, where the votes are, for the moderately progressive party with a social conscience that appeals across cultural divisions that the Liberals once were.
They can lift a page from the playbook of their federal Liberal cousins, who historically have used the New Democratic Party on their left as a policy laboratory, and stolen its best ideas.
Québec solidaire has finally made the environment an issue in Quebec politics, but the Liberals are still closer to having the power to do something about it.
The Liberals need to stop confusing being the party of the economy with being the party of rich businessmen — such as Taillefer. They need to get closer to the people, francos and non-francos alike.
And for an example, they can look to one of their rookie MNAs.
The qualifications for office of Enrico Ciccone, a former NHL goon-turned-sports commentator, aren’t obvious. But he has the wisdom to know what he doesn’t know, and a heart.
In an interview with Kathryn Greenaway of the Montreal Gazette’s West Island edition, Ciccone said that, the day after he was parachuted into Marquette riding as the Liberal candidate, he toured the constituency.
In the impoverished eastern part of Montreal’s Lachine borough, he was shaken by what he saw. “I experienced a roller-coaster of emotions. I had stomach pains. I felt anguish.”
He found “food deserts” without neighbourhood grocery stores offering nutritious food, and gentrification pushing residents out of their homes, with no affordable housing to move to. And he determined to do something about it.
His empathy made him sound like a Solidaire. How often in recent years have you heard Liberals talk like that?