Soul searching among those remaining
Badly beaten, party looks to the future
LAC-BEAUPORT Pierre Arcand says his party is not into self-flagellation, but the Liberals are doing some serious soul-searching about their disastrous election performance.
Emerging from a two-day closed meeting of the much-reduced party caucus, which turned into an election post-mortem, Arcand, the interim party leader, ventured a few theories on why the party cranked out the worst electoral performance in its 150-year history.
Liberals have already admitted many of their traditional voters — including anglophones — didn’t bother voting Oct. 1, but now the party is digging deeper into why anglophones and a great mass of francophone voters snubbed the party.
Arcand — who revealed that the internal party criticism of their performance has been severe — said two things are clear so far.
First, the Liberals were late to latch on to the environmental climate-change theme so masterfully manipulated by Québec solidaire in the campaign.
To that end, on Thursday Arcand welcomed an idea pitched by the Liberal youth wing to make the environment and fighting climate change a fundamental value of the party.
Second, perception is everything in politics, and the Liberals had a hard time saying they represented renewal when so many party stalwarts were leaving the ship just before the election call, while at the same time other parties were naming new star candidates.
And the election results — only 29 Liberals were elected and most of them are from the island of Montreal — have created a new image problem for the party in the regions, Arcand said.
The Liberals now have to make more effort to ensure they represent the interests of all Quebecers.
But what about the perception the Liberals were too cozy to the rich, big business and lobby groups and far from the real concerns of people struggling to get by, a theme flogged daily by the winning Coalition Avenir Québec party, a reporter asked.
“In my mind you can never be too close to the people,” Arcand told reporters, conceding that almost 15 years in office will do that to a party.
“We must never take the population for granted.
“When you are in a government, you are stuck with a lot of things to do, and sometimes you have a tendency to forget what the people want.
“We understand the people want us to work for them and that it’s always good to have a sense of humility when things are happening. Don’t worry about that, we got the message Oct. 1.”
Arcand, however, said the Liberals are wrestling today with a shifting political landscape and a provincial vote that is now split among four parties.
The party in the 2014 campaign was aided by polarizing issues such as the old Parti Québécois charter of values and the arrival of Pierre Karl Péladeau in the campaign. Today things are different. “We need to adjust ourselves to this new reality that we face,” Arcand said.
But the Liberals, who will form the official opposition in the legislature when it resumes sitting Nov. 27, got a first break Wednesday in the form of a series of missteps and statements by new CAQ cabinet ministers that were later nuanced or flat-out corrected by Premier François Legault.
“It’s clearly a false start for the new government,” Arcand told reporters in the morning. “It looks like the government is having a hard time really knowing what they’re doing.
“Instead of talking about many subjects at the same time, I suggest they should look at one item and make sure it’s the official position of the government, not a position taken by one minister in the morning and another position by the premier in the afternoon,” he said.
There were three glaring examples of missed communications Wednesday, which was the first time the new cabinet met.
At a morning caucus, the new minister of natural resources, Jonatan Julien, said the government was ready to listen to promoters interested in drilling for oil on Anticosti Island. Legault later told reporters the government has “no interest” in heading down that path.
Immigration, Inclusion and Diversity Minister Simon Jolin Barrette said the CAQ government wants to ban bureaucrats from wearing the chador on the job and would put that in its law on religious symbols.
Legault said later it’s not a priority. Banning religious symbols for persons in authority, such as judges, police officers and teachers,is.
And after Legault announced he was immediately freezing the wages of the province’s medical specialists, the Féderation des médecins spécialistes (FMSQ) said they are not expecting any increases until 2023 anyway.
They said the money left to be distributed is destined for the management of services or direct services to citizens, a line Arcand made his own Thursday, adding citizens in the regions will suffer as a result.
It’s always good to have a sense of humility when things are happening. Don’t worry about that, we got the message.