Péladeau hopes research institute will prove merits of separation.
MONTREAL • For more than four decades, the majority of Quebecers have remained unconvinced about the merits of independence, and Parti Québécois Leader Pierre Karl Péladeau thinks he knows what’s missing: research.
Péladeau is preparing to launch what he calls the Quebec Institute of Applied Research on Independence, fulfilling a promise from his 2015 leadership campaign. Its aim is to pump out studies proving the advantages of independence and expose how federalism drags the province down.
But even before its official launch, which Quebec City’s Le Soleil newspaper reported could come as early as next week, Péladeau’s research institute has hit choppy waters.
The Coalition Avenir Québec, led by one-time PQ finance minister François Legault, this week criticized Péladeau’s intention to kickstart the institute with a hefty personal donation and questioned whether the institute will respect Quebec electoral law. The leader of a rival separatist party, Option Nationale, warned that the institute must remain independent of the PQ, a challenge considering how closely the initiative is associated with Péladeau. And a researcher with a federalist think- tank observed that Péladeau is deluding himself if he thinks a few research papers will convert people to the sovereigntist cause.
Péladeau, the billionaire former chief executive of media giant Quebecor Inc., announced his plan for the institute last February. It was initially supposed to be up and running by the end of 2015, but it has been delayed.
Péladeau has said the institute’s researchers will answer, before the next provincial election in 2018, such questions as what currency an independent Quebec should use, how federal assets and debt should be divided and what sort of military an independent Quebec would have. Studies would show how Quebec suffers as part of the federation and identify actions that would lead to independence, he said in his leadership campaign literature.
“For decades, our political adversaries have told us that we are not rich enough to be independent, that we rely on the federal government and its transfer payments,” he said. “Our objective will be to prove the opposite. We, Quebecers, only need our talent, our energy and our land to take advantage of our expertise and to succeed in our country.”
Sol Zanetti, leader of the separatist Option Nationale, said he agrees that research on the benefits of sovereignty is lacking. In 2005, before he left the PQ, Legault prepared a mock budget for an independent Quebec, projecting it would run a surplus the very first year. PQ and Bloc Québécois adviser Stéphane Gobeil ( who this month jumped to the CAQ) published a book in 2012 examining federal and provincial taxation and spending. He calculated that Quebec would have an extra $ 2 billion to play with if it were independent.
Both Legault’s and Gobeil’s conclusions were challenged by federalists, but Zanetti said more research along those lines is needed. “It’s a good initiative, but it needs to be presented as a non-partisan project,” he said.
Benoît Charette, the CAQ’s critic for intergovernmental affairs, has no doubts that Péladeau’s institute will be an extension of the PQ. “It’s a body promised by Mr. Péladeau, that he intends to finance himself, and that, by his own admission, will have the mission of preparing the arguments of the party he leads going into the next election,” Charette said in a statement this week. He said donations to the institute should be limited to the $100 per voter allowed to political parties.
Éric Montpetit, a Université de Montréal professor of political science and researcher with the federalist think-tank The Federal Idea, welcomed the arrival of a research group with an opposing bias.
Montpetit said Péladeau is likely in for a disappointment if he thinks a research institute will tip the scales in favour of independence. “Support for sovereignty is not very high, and there are undoubtedly good reasons for that,” he said. “The probability of a researcher from this institute arriving with a great discovery that will lead everyone to change their minds overnight is very, very unlikely.”