Québec solidaire is out to increase its slice of electoral pie.
Polls suggest left-of-centre sovereignist party could take 10 per cent of the provincial vote
At first glance, it could be mistaken for a poster advertising a local bakery.
Scattered amid the hundreds of election signs that now dot Montreal’s streets is one that features neither a candidate’s face or a candidate’s name. Instead, the image is of a cherry pie being sliced up and partitioned out. The French slogan, running along the top and bottom, reads: “For the love of a fair Quebec, I’ll vote with my head.”
To anyone who has studied campaign advertising in Quebec in recent years, it likely comes as no surprise that the party behind the message is Québec solidaire. In the eight years since its formation, the left-of-centre sovereignist organ- ization has eschewed traditional marketing techniques in favour of strong visuals and easy-to-digest catchphrases. In 2012, it reduced its campaign slogan to a single word: Debout.
With its updated 2014 message — that every Quebecer should benefit equally from whatever prosperity may come — QS is once again hoping to increase its own piece of the electoral pie.
While support for the party has traditionally been limited to a smattering of ridings in Montreal, QS’s aspirations now stretch well beyond the island. Its current platform, which includes promises to create 160,000 jobs, favour new forms of energy generation and invest $400 million to hire more medical professionals, is designed to appeal to voters both within and beyond Que- bec’s major urban centres.
Wooing undecided voters, especially those living in rural areas, often requires more money and manpower than a small, relatively young, organization can produce. But Quebec’s ‘little party that could’ may have been handed an unexpected boost in this election as a result of the PQ’s decision to recruit media mogul Pierre Karl Péladeau.
While Péladeau brings business acumen and a strong commitment to sovereignty to the table, he also carries the baggage of years spent locking horns with Quebec’s labour movement. QS co-spokesperson Françoise David wasted no time last week responding to the 52-year-old businessman’s leap into the political arena, holding a news conference just hours after he announced his intention to run in Saint-Jérôme. She called the move “odious.”
According to QS candidate and co-spokesperson Andres Fontecilla, the PQ campaign has been floundering ever since, and has now “hit a ceiling.”
“They had wanted to court the (Coalition Avenir Québec) vote, but the Caqistes are going toward the Liberals,” Fontecilla told The Gazette. “At the same time, they want to court progressive vote ... but they’re putting forward right-leaning policies. It’s a contradictory message.”
As the campaign enters its third week, there are clear signs that PQ Leader Pauline Marois and her advisers are worried. On Monday, the PQ issued a lengthy release accusing Québec solidaire of dragging the debate over the proposed charter down to the level of “insults and vicious attacks.” Last week, they accused Mercier MNA Amir Khadir — who has never shied away from making controversial statements — of comparing Péladeau to an Iranian dictator.
PQ ministers Jean-François Lisée and Bernard Drainville, meanwhile, have gone after the leftist party during interviews and on their personal blogs. On Tuesday, Lisée published a mock ‘conversation’ between QS and a random sovereignist voter — who quickly learns that David’s party is really out to divide the sovereignist vote and “help the Liberals win.”
It remains to be seen how any of the political mudslinging will play out at the ballot box on April 7. But QS’s growth — both in terms of representation in the National Assembly and party membership — has been steady since 2006. Following a standout performance in the 2012 leaders’ debate, David was elected with 46 per cent of the vote in Gouin and joined Khadir in Quebec City. Social justice activist Manon Massé came second in Sainte-Marie–SaintJacques, losing to Parti Québécois candidate Daniel Breton by fewer than 3,000 votes.
It wasn’t the five to 10 seats that Khadir had boldly predicted his party would snatch up, but it was a marked improvement over QS’s 2008 showing. This time around, the party is fielding 125 candidates across Quebec (half of whom are women) and has hopes of winning Saint-Marie–Saint-Jacques and Hochelaga-Maisonneuve.
The most recent polls show QS retaining its two existing seats and securing around 10 per cent of the overall vote, up from 8 per cent when the campaign started.