Families looking beyond identity politics
Nicholas Ternynck, left, and his wife, Françoise Lemaitre and family from Pincourt discuss the issues that concern them during the provincial election campaign.
As April 7 draws closer, many young families in the Off-Island say they’re frustrated that the focus of the provincial election remains on identity politics and controversy over the proposed Charter of Values.
“When the Champlain Bridge falls down, then we’ll see how important it is what you’re wearing on your head,” Vaudreuil-Dorion resident Kim Rutkowski Shaap said.
For Rutkowski Shaap and her husband, Judah Shaap, finding a good school for their children and having access to health care are greater concerns.
“My issues are like most young families,” the mother of three and Montreal native said.
“I couldn’t care less when I go to a hospital who’s giving me medical attention, as long as they know what they’re doing,” she said.
Unable to find a spot in Vaudreuil, one of her children takes a bus every day to attend school in St-Lazare.
“When I moved here nine years ago, Vaudreuil was just being built up. They were looking for land for a new English elementary school, and that has yet to happen,” Rutkowski Shaap said.
She also recently spent four hours travelling with her three kids to and from Côte-des-Neiges for a regular checkup at their pediatrician.
She and her husband plan to move to St-Polycarpe, where they can afford a house with enough room for their growing family.
“We’re now going to be seven minutes from the Ontario border,” she said, adding that she would likely drive to Ontario to buy cheaper gas and food, as well as for emergency health care.
“(It’s) really sad, but I’ve taken my kids there twice in the past,” she said.
Still, as close as her family will soon be to Ontario, Rutkowski Shaap — who spent four years living in Toronto as a student — said she couldn’t imagine saying goodbye to Montreal.
“Nothing compares to Montreal. I was born and raised here, so maybe I’m just used to it, but there’s something about Montreal that you’re never going to find anywhere else,” she said.
For Nick Ternynck and his wife Françoise Lemaitre, that possibility is becoming increasingly real.
“My wife and I are, for the first time, considering leaving the province. The result of the election may not have a direct effect on that, but it might make the decision easier,” the Pincourt resident and native Quebecer said.
Ternynck, who works as a welder, said he had noticed a “huge decline” in work over the past year.
“It’s a bit of a trend across Canada, but especially in Quebec. There are not nearly enough jobs in the trades in Quebec,” he said.
Ternynck echoed many of the same concerns voiced by other families in the region.
“It’s not getting easier. Taxes are very high and health care is a problem. I’ve got a doctor because I’ve had the same one for 30 years, but my children and my wife can’t find a doctor,” he said.
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But the school system is struggling to keep up with the area’s rapid, continued growth, she said.
“Our schools are so packed,” she said. “It’s definitely something we’ve started looking at — what the different schools are and what the student-to-teacher ratio is.”
A long-promised regional hospital should also have been a larger issue in the local campaign, she said.
“It’s such a big issue for this area, and the fact that nobody’s talking about it — it seems like they’re addressing what’s best for the parties, and not what’s best for Quebecers,” Robichaud said.
Robichaud, who works as a veterinary nurse in Île-Perrot, added that she also would have liked to hear more about what provincial parties planned to do to improve job prospects in the region.
“We have a lot of clients who have lost their jobs. I’ve had more than one situation where an animal has been sick and people have had to make a difficult decision based on whether they can afford to buy groceries at the end of the week,” Robichaud said.
Political parties need to clearly answer one question, she said: “I would like to know what they think would improve Quebecers’ lives at the moment. What one thing could they do that would really improve Quebecers’ lives right now?”
“In the situation that we’re in right now, I find that the larger issues about identity — to me it’s not a priority, because there are more pressing things that need to be addressed,” she added.
For Rigaud resident Tina Brooks, the sovereignty question, which came into focus early in the election campaign, is distracting from issues that matter more to her.
“It’s always the question: ‘We have to block separatism.’ Nobody cares about education, or medicine or the fact that the economy here is crap compared to the rest of the country,” said Brooks, who owns a food packing company that employs four people full-time and 16 parttime.
Brooks, a bilingual Newfoundland émigré who has lived in Quebec for 30 years, said she voted for the Bloc Québécois in the last federal election and understood many of the arguments for sovereignty.
“As a Newfie, I can understand what it’s like to see Ottawa take control of your voice and speak for you,” she said.
Still, she said that she was concerned that the polarized debate over the values charter and sovereignty could push investment out of Quebec, leaving it more like the province she left three decades ago.