Bérubé confident PQ will rise from the ashes before 2022
The Parti Québécois intends to form the next provincial government in 2022. “Anything is possible,” says interim PQ leader Pascal Bérubé. The party suffered a historic defeat in 2018 at the hands of the Coalition Avenir Québec, which put an end to decades of alternating between PQ and Quebec Liberal Party governments. The PQ dropped from 30 seats and more than a million votes in 2014 to 10 seats and roughly 700,000 votes. In an end-of-year interview with Presse Canadienne, Bérubé referred to examples to support his hopes, such as the Ontario New Democratic Party, which made the jump from second opposition status in 1990 to the formation of a majority government led by Bob Rae with 74 seats. The PQ is now the second opposition party. A more recent example would be the CAQ, which was the second opposition party until this year’s campaign and now has a majority government with 75 seats. The PQ will be at a crossroads in 2019 when it will decide on its leadership and next convention, starting yet another reconstruction phase for the party. “We have esprit de corps,” Bérubé said of his small team, now concentrated in eastern Quebec. “We understand the situation. People are lucid, positive.” Bérubé said he and his team remain convinced the platform they put forward during this year’s election campaign is “solid” and contains good measures that they will continue to promote. Did the idea of postponing a possible referendum to a second term of a PQ government contribute to the party’s collapse, and will it remain in the party’s future plans? Bérubé said he sees all decisions through to their end, but added that “the context has changed” and the party will “need to ask itself important questions about many things.” Several ideas have circulated for the revival of the PQ, including a name change. But as interim leader, Bérubé has chosen not to comment on any of them. “Otherwise, it will not end,” he said. From the 2018 campaign, he said, he took away that CAQ Leader François Legault had put forward promises for consumers and users, while the PQ was all about the collective and citizens. “It’s attractive, offering people more money in their pockets,” Bérubé said, “but we consider it more responsible to first offer services to those who don’t have access to any.” He said he understands the CAQ is enjoying its honeymoon phase right now, but knows it will end sooner or later. Which issue will bring it to an end? “Relations with the federal government,” he answered. “(Legault) will realize that the ambitions he has for Quebec will be considerably limited by our status as a province. Us, we know it.” Quebec independence is therefore even more relevant today, Bérubé added, though he recognizes it isn’t the “easy way.” And the party doesn’t plan on giving way to Québec solidaire, either. “We want to create achievable expectations.”