A DEBATE IN ENGLISH
Monday’s debate is more than just a chance for anglophones to hear the leaders discuss the issues in English, as welcome as that is. No less important, it also offers an opportunity to focus the party leaders’ attention on issues of special concern to the English-speaking community.
Of course, many English-speaking Quebecers will be watching all three of the televised debates being held in the run-up to the Oct. 1 provincial election. They will not want to miss what the leaders have to say on things like the economy, the health-care system and education system. But as we saw in Thursday’s first faceoff, concerns specific to the English-speaking community tend to get short shrift when the focus is on the big picture.
The leaders of all four major parties have shown good will in agreeing to this debate. For their troubles, they are being ridiculously nattered at by Mouvement Québec français, for whom language is a zero-sum game.
Given that the Coalition Avenir Québec is currently leading in the polls, the debate will put a spotlight on Leader François Legault, whose messages in English and French have not always jibed. Among other things, he will have a chance to respond to concerns that his party’s plan to abolish elected school boards would infringe on the constitutional rights of the English-language minority.
For his part, Premier Philippe Couillard of the Liberals will no doubt trumpet his creation of a secretariat for relations with Englishspeaking Quebecers and the naming of a minister responsible, both welcome if belated moves, but at the same time, he will have to answer for things like Bill 10, the centralizing health sector administrative reform that side-swiped English-community institutions, and his tonedeaf support for the Bonjour-Hi motion.
Parti Québécois Leader Jean-François Lisée will presumably get a chance to explain his proposal to bring in a French exit exam for students at English CEGEPs; his proposal to send English-CEGEP students for a semester in the regions (a great idea if offered as an option; a disaster if compulsory); his plan to starve English CEGEPs of funding; and, not least, his plan to extend the language laws’ reach.
Manon Massé will get a chance to make Québec solidaire’s positions on language and English-community concerns better known.
The best way to make English debates a fixture of Quebec election campaigns would be to ensure this debate is widely watched; use it or lose it. It takes place Monday, Sept. 17 at 5:30 p.m. and can be seen at montrealgazette.com, as well as major local English-language broadcast outlets.