PQ pushes for alliance with Québec solidaire
Leftist parties bicker over timetable to co-ordinate efforts to oust Liberals
QUEBEC The Parti Québécois is upping the pressure on the left-wing Québec solidaire party to decide about formalizing a working relationship in time to fight the Liberals together in the next election.
But Québec solidaire said it is proceeding with its internal decision-making process and it’s not a PQ “ultimatum” which will speed things up.
And one of the candidates for male spokesperson for the party, Jean-François Lessard, snapped back that the PQ is making things worse for itself by pressuring QS.
In a letter to Québec solidaire released Friday, the PQ national executive committee warns the party it cannot mull over a possible relationship forever because the clock is ticking toward the election.
Delaying a decision to the fall of 2017 — one scenario being considered by QS — would pose “quasi-insurmountable” problems because it would be too close to the election campaign, the PQ said.
On top of that, the letter notes, there is increasing speculation Premier Philippe Couillard could be tempted to pull the trigger on an election sooner. Quebec’s fixed date election law says the next general election is Oct. 1, 2018, but there is a clause that could allow Couillard to override it.
The question of whether the PQ and QS should work together — the buzz word is convergence — is up for debate at a Québec solidaire policy convention taking place the weekend of May 20 in Montreal.
At a news conference Thursday, PQ Leader Jean-François Lisée said, one way or another, he would like QS to make up its mind at that convention.
“What worries me a lot is the temptation to put off the debate to November,” Lisée said. “For us, such a delay would signify a failure of the (negotiating) process because it won’t be possible to get things set up if we delay things to November.”
In its letter, the executive uses a mix of kid gloves and pressure. It opens saying the PQ recognizes the PQ and QS are two different parties and defend distinctly different ideas. A formal marriage is not on the table.
But it says it hears the call of citizens who feel the Liberal government has caused enough damage to Quebec’s social safety net and want to get rid of them. The objective of convergence is to avoid splitting the left-wing sovereignist vote as happened in the 2014 election.
The letter notes QS has three options on the table: rejecting all electoral pacts with the PQ; open negotiations; and delaying the decision to November.
The PQ and QS have been dancing around the question for months. As a goodwill gesture, the PQ decided to not run a candidate in the May 29 byelection in the riding of Gouin.
The decision paved the way for the election of QS star candidate, former student leader Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois.
Late Friday, QS secretary-general Gaétan Châteauneuf issued a statement saying the party ’s democratic decision-making process — which includes a lengthy consultation of the membership — is proceeding normally.
He notes some members want to delay until after the PQ’s September policy convention, where it will adopt its own policies. That way QS knows what it’s getting into.
“All the options on the table are valid,” he writes. “It is not an ultimatum from the outside that will derail our democratic process.”
Lessard asks Lisée to cool it because he’s doing more harm than good. “He (Lisée) is not helping,” Lessard said. “The internal discussions of QS do not have to respond to the standards dictated by the PQ. This meddling is even less justified given that the discussions were going well until Mr. Lisée spoke out.”