A new party challenges for power, but what is the CAQ?

that a party!?

Canadian history is riddled with the rise and fall of political parties. Be it not forgotten that Sir John A. Macdonald, currently undergoing an image makeover, was the leader of the Liberal-conservative Party, and became the first prime minister of Canada as such. That party was really the Conservative Party dressed up with some Liberal accessories, and not to be confused with the Clear Grit party which was the forebear of the current Liberal Party in tandem with the Rouges of Quebec.

Also let it not be forgotten that in recent history two political parties that are now either defunct or on their last legs served as Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition in Ottawa. That would be the regional faction tag-team of then-bloc Québecois leader Lucien Bouchard, and then-reform Party leader Preston Manning.

Other political mutations are happening before our very eyes. Short months ago, former federal Conservative minister Jason Kenney created the United Conservative Party out of the remnants of the once mighty Alberta Progressive Conservative Party and the Wild Rose Party.

Then there is the inimitable Mad Max Bernier and his drive to create a new conservative party, a real conservative party in his own supply-management-ending, multiculturalism-reducing image.

Quebec, of course, is no stranger to political metamorphosis. Was it not just 11 years ago that Mario Dumont came within four seats of becoming premier of Quebec at the tender age of 37. Dumont’s Action Démocratique du Québec (ADQ) was forged in the crucible of the Meech Lake eruption, when he, as Quebec Liberal youth president, bolted the party and rallied other disaffected federalists and sovereignists.

Which brings this little history reverie to the current political mutation, the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ), which, if you believe the polls, is for the first time in a position to take power since it swallowed the ADQ and anointed former Parti Quebecois (PQ) minister Francois Legault leader.

Some commentators are suggesting that, since the “national question” is not a pertinent ballot issue for the first time in 50 years, the election will be about Premier Philippe Couillard, and whether he deserves a four-year extension of his leadership contract.

Quebec voters know generally what the QLP is all about. In the modern era, except for Robert Bourassa’s flirtation with a more autonomous status for Quebec, the Liberals have been the unequivocally federalist party on the provincial scene. You might even argue that Couillard is more unabashedly federalist than the man he succeeded, Jean Charest, who emerged scarred from the Meech inferno, yet went on to lead the federal Progressive Conservatives for a spell.

Now the CAQ has replaced the PQ as the usual potential alternative to the Liberals (again, if you believe the polls), which may suggest the current election is more about the true nature of the new party and its veteran leader. What is the CAQ, after all?there’s been so much bed-hopping among the Liberals and CAQ (and from the PQ to the CAQ) in the past few years, it’s sometimes hard to pin down which party stands for what. But, now that the election spotlight is shifting somewhat from the sins or successes of the Liberals to the policies and competence of the CAQ, certain cleavages may emerge.

Is the CAQ the inheritor of the traditional true bleu lineage as was the PQ and before that the Union Nationale? Legault’s stance on big government, immigration, education, religious symbols, for example, would put him and the CAQ in that category.

As for the “national question,” there is still this in the party platform: “The CAQ is a modern nationalist party whose objective is to ensure the development and prosperity of the Québec nation within Canada, while proudly defending its language, values and culture. It will work to achieve greater autonomy for Québec and, eventually, full constitutional recognition as a nation.”

Legault asserts: “We’ll request some additional powers from the federal government but there’s no time frame. But never, never will a CAQ government hold a referendum on the sovereignty of Quebec. So that’s quite clear.”

Clear or not, this long election campaign will give voters plenty of time to figure out what kind of party the CAQ is and whether it is “maintenant” ready to govern.