O’toole swings for the fences with message to Quebec
Tory platform ought to appeal to province
If the Conservatives’ pitch to Quebecers under Erin O’toole doesn’t catch the province’s fancy, the party’s next leader might just want to ignore the place entirely and see if that works any better. (La stratégie Costanza?) If politics were logical, which it is not, O’toole’s platform, cheerful personality and strong French ought to form the most compelling package modern Tories have ever offered the province. And his appeal to nationalists on Wednesday evening in Quebec City could only have been more intense had it been delivered on bended knee.
“I am pro-choice. I have always been pro-choice,” O’toole averred.
A Conservative government “will respect ... the right of women to choose for themselves. Full stop,” O’toole vowed — the final point in his 10-item “Contract with Quebecers,” which had been printed on a giant placard erected on stage.
“I also believe in climate change,” O’toole continued, boasting of a “realistic and ambitious plan” to fight it.
Then he really laid it on thick.
“All Quebec nationalists are welcome in the Conservative party. It is your home,” he said. “Join us at the decision-making table in Ottawa. It is your table. And we will achieve great things together.”
Your table. Your home. We’re having lobster. We lit candles.
All three major parties are pandering just as hard as they can to Quebecers nowadays, but the province is in a conservative mood.
If CAQ voters want a natural ally in Ottawa, O’toole’s platform ought to be particularly appealing.
The Contract with Quebecers promises more control over immigration and refugees, to extend Bill 101 to federally regulated businesses in Quebec, to work toward a single tax return for Quebecers without any Canada Revenue Agency jobs being lost in the province, unconditional and increased health and social-services transfers, and “all the tools” necessary to protect Quebec’s “built heritage” and architecture.
It promises never to intervene in court against the law banning teachers, police officers and some other civil servants from wearing religious symbols on the job.
And the platform makes clear that this list is by no means exhaustive. It proposes to “build on the previous Conservative government’s historic recognition of the Quebec Nation” with “new administrative agreements ... to promote decentralized federalism.”
(The only major divide between Quebec and the Conservatives’ Western base that O’toole hasn’t explicitly addressed is gun control. (A Léger poll for the Association for Canadian Studies conducted earlier this year suggests 75 per cent of Quebecers favour stricter gun control, versus 48 per cent of Albertans.) Unlike Andrew Scheer’s platform, O’toole’s doesn’t propose rolling back any existing measures — just to “focus ... on keeping firearms out of the hands of criminals” rather than “harassing hunters and sport shooters.” But that will be more than enough to attract attacks from his opponents.
O’toole’s pitch to Quebecers made a big enough splash that two Liberal cabinet ministers, Maryam Monsef and Carolyn Bennett, took to Twitter warning of the mortal threat his party poses to abortion rights.
Whether O’toole’s support for doctors’ and nurses’ “conscience rights” is compatible with his pro-choice vow will likely be a major topic of conversation in days to come — as it was at his Thursday news conference. Meanwhile, across the river in Gatineau, Bloc Leader Yvesfrançois Blanchet took aim at O’toole’s shortcomings unprompted — for the first time, according to a CBC reporter covering his campaign.
If O’toole is making an impression, however, he still has a tough row to hoe — perhaps most so on climate change, which 21 per cent of Quebecers list among their top three priority issues, according to an Ipsos poll for Global News released Thursday. That poll (albeit with a small sample size) suggests just five per cent of that 21 per cent view the Tories as the best able to address climate issues, versus the Liberals at 32 per cent.
The Conservatives have released an analysis suggesting their climate plan — which involves a lower carbon “levy” than the Liberals’, the proceeds of which would go into “savings accounts” for green-friendly purchases like bicycles — would meet Canada’s 2030 emissions targets. Even if it would, though, it’s obviously a political kludge designed to appeal to climate-change voters without alienating too many carbon-tax haters in the party base. Love it or hate it, the Liberals’ plan looks more ambitious.
If O’toole does manage to create a Blue Wave in Quebec, it would be great news. It’s good news whenever any party can form a national coalition, even if it results from naked pandering. The fact is, symmetrical federalism is dead and there’s no point mourning it. O’toole said Thursday he’s open to decentralizing discussions with all provinces, not just Quebec.
But there is collateral damage, and it looks particularly bad on Conservatives. I asked O’toole in Ottawa what he would say to a young Sikh or Muslim Quebecer who dreams of being a teacher or police officer, but would now have to forsake his turban or her hijab to do so.
“I would say to that person that you’re an important part of Canada,” he responded, stressing that he personally opposes Quebec’s restrictions on religious garb. “In fact, I want that person to join our party, to be part of our effort to rebuild the country.”
As I say, he’s taking some big swings.