Has the PQ set a political trap for the CAQ and has the CAQ already taken the bait? When they have appeared in the news media François Legault, the leader of the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ), and several prominent CAQ National Assembly members seemed very proud that the governing minority political party, the Parti Québécois (PQ) have adopted some of the aspects of their main platform issues like the possible elimination of school boards, and the banning of religious clothing for civil servants, including teachers. They don’t seem to suspect at all, or at least they aren’t letting on that they do, that this move might actually have been a cleaver political ploy to eliminate a competitor by drawing some of the CAQ’s core electorate to the PQ for the next election; the timing of which the PQ will attempt to determine based upon how successful they feel they are in this feat of voter swiping. The CAQ members seem to think, or at least that’s how they came across, as though the PQ has embraced parts of their programs because they’re such winning issues; that their programs are just so great the PQ had to steal them. But let’s consider separately each of the 2 main CAQ issues the PQ have decided to use, the school boards and the religious ‘symbols’. The PQ’s threat of eliminating school boards when there was a disagreement between the minority government and the boards was quite clever as it served 2 functions: it was a way to blackmail in sorts the school boards, and it partially took away a core issue from a political opponent. Having pointed this out doesn’t mean that I approve of this kind of political behaviour, because I don’t. The reality is the PQ seized the opportunity to justify actions it had already taken. The government’s focus on the school boards and the taxes they collect didn’t occur as part of a greater concern for students, and/or increasing the quality of education. No, instead the origin of the PQ conflict with the school boards was the party’s obsession with balancing their government’s budget at all costs, and be damned who and how it might affect Quebecers. When it comes to the question of the school boards, both the PQ and the CAQ came across as being more concerned about using school boards as a tactic, as a winning electoral issue, rather than concern with the primary and secondary education of Quebec children. Both are focusing on the financing and the organization of the education system and not the system itself, and how it can be improved. Shouldn’t it be the other way around? Doesn’t it make sense to first find out what the needs are, how the system can be improved, maybe using other countries as an example, and then determining how much it will cost and where to get the finances? The CAQ’s main reason for eliminating school boards seems to be because of the low voter turnout at board elections, and the wasted money spent on holding these elections (coalitionavenirquebec.org/commissions-scolaires-une-structure-a-repenser). But can’t the same argument be made for all elections for Quebecers at all levels, be they municipal, provincial and federal when compared to the voter turnout rates of other countries? Based on this CAQ logic, all these elections too are a waste of money and increasing so with the lower and almost constantly declining voter turnout of Quebecers. The CAQ also says it wants greater autonomy for schools but doesn’t explain what kind of autonomy and how this is supposed to be achieved with the elimination of school boards. This raises so many unanswered questions: Do they want school principals to replace the boards as administrators? If so, who will hire and supervise the principles? Who will make sure that all schools are providing the same quality of education to all Quebec students? Etc. If the CAQ plans in their ‘rethinking of the structure’ (“une structure à repenser”) to have municipalities replace school boards as administrators of primary and secondary schools like in the Scandinavian countries, this would mean a significant change in the number of administrative bodies from being currently in 10s (around 70 school boards) to 100s (around 1400 municipalities)(ibid). While these countries don’t have school boards at the local level, they do have ‘departments of education’ in the city hall and/or an office or offices in the municipality. This means that in these countries there are hundreds more, but much small bureaucracies for administrating educational services than there are in Quebec. In addition, in these countries educational policy is determined by the central government, the municipalities partially finance education through municipal taxes, but are primarily responsible for administering schools. If the CAQ’s main goal in their ‘rethinking’ is to eliminate bureaucracies and increase local decision-making, then it seems these countries are not very good examples because adopting their administrative structure for schools would do the exact opposite. The second issue the PQ absconded from the CAQ was aspects of what has come to be known as the ‘Charter of Quebec Values’ but which has been re-christened with a ridiculously long name, which will not be used in this essay (CBC, 2013). The CAQ’s proposed ‘charter of secularism’ might be less “radical” than the PQ’s, only limiting the ban on religious symbols to people in positions of authority including teachers and principals, but it isn’t enough so that it makes a big difference to most of the opponents of the PQ’s Charter (Dougherty, 2013; La Presse canadienne, 2013). Overall, the costs of reaching a compromise with the PQ and banning religious symbols for some, but not all, public servants will outweigh the benefits. If they support the PQ’s Charter, the CAQ is unlikely to gain many of the votes from those who support it. Then again, they stand to lose the votes of its opponents, which may well include the business community. Because frankly, it doesn’t make much sense for the CAQ on the one hand to have a policy, which attempts to attract business investment into the province (the ‘Projet Saint-Laurent’) while on the other hand, having another policy that repels businesses and tourists away (their ‘charte de la laïcité’) by making the province an uncertain and uninviting place to invest in and to visit. This most likely means that if they cooperate with the PQ on the Charter, they may lose forever the support of some groups of voters, which will make getting a majority in the future highly unlikely. There are of course many other reasons but the main reason why it makes little sense to use France’s “laïcité” (secularism laws) as an example for Quebec, and to simply adopt arguments made by some French in favour of the banning of religious clothing and symbols is the historical different relationship the French and the Quebec states had with the church. The French state had an antagonistic relationship with the church whereas the church in Quebec protected not only the French language and culture in North America but also the provincial government, the state. Thus, a reason for there being a cross on the Quebec flag, and not on the French one, for it’s presence would have been unthinkable for the French revolutionaries. If the French model is so good why isn’t it being adopted wholesale by the PQ and the CAQ instead of their cherry picking only the aspects of the model that can be used to exclude non-Christian religions? To truly accept the French model, to copy them would be to remove all crosses, and all traces of religion (like prayers at council meetings, the taking of an oath with one’s hand on the Bible, all crucifixes displayed on every wall and including the Mount Royal Cross, etc.) from public institutions and spaces. This is unlikely to go down well with many voters, especially those in the region! This is why neither the PQ nor the CAQ have opted for the French model in its’ entirety because they are well aware of the close relationship many Quebecers still enjoy with the church, and the feelings they have for their Catholic faith. Some have alluded to the French laws having passed the ‘test’ of the courts but it’s because the French “laïcité” is consistent, equal treatment for all under the law; it doesn’t like the Quebec Charter give special provisions for keeping the core symbol of the Christian faith for whatever reason (like the respect for the “patrimoine québécois”) while banning those of other religions. It is a very big gabble indeed for the CAQ, one that may well determine the fate of the party, to reach some kind of compromise with the PQ and ban religious clothing/symbols even for only some public servants because even if it were to become law, it doesn’t mean that it will remain law. That will depend upon the courts! So the CAQ finds itself in a very difficult position, stuck between a rock and a hard place. It has to decide, weighing the risks of the law being deemed unconstitutional by the provincial and federal courts, between suffering the consequences of a backlash of Charter opponents, and especially accepting the permanent lose of some voter groups, if it backs the PQ Charter in the National Assembly with the possible benefits of their backing the PQ’s Charter, maybe a little more support in the regions. If the CAQ were to support the banning of religious clothing and symbols and/or the elimination school boards, in particular the English ones, they can probably forever kiss goodbye support from some groups of voters, in particular the majority of Anglo- and Allophone voters, and with them any future majority. So if the CAQ agrees to be the pawn in the PQ’s political chess game, good luck to them in the next election because they’ll need it. But hey what do I know? I’m probably wrong. After all, I was so, so wrong about the PQ (and ‘independentists’) not being a boogieman?! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- REFERENCES Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ). “Commissions scolaires : Une structure à repenser.” coalitionavenirquebec.org/commissions-scolaires-une-structure-a-repenser CBC News, Montreal. 2013. “Quebec government to unveil secular charter.” November 7th: cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-government-to-unveil-secular-charter-1.2417646 Cyr, Yanick. 2013. “La CAQ propose une charte de la laïcité.” Radio-Canada, August 26th: radio-canada.ca/nouvelles/societe/2013/08/26/003-caq-francois-legault-reaction-charte-valeurs-quebecoises.shtml Dougherty, Kevin. 2013. “CAQ’s François Legault calls PQ’s Charter of Quebec Values ‘too radical’.” The Montreal Gazette, August 26th: montrealgazette/life/Fran%C3%A7ois+Legault+calls+Charter+Quebec+Values+radical/8833853/story.html La Presse canadienne. 2013. “Laïcité - La CAQ s’estime moins «radicale» que le PQ.” Le Devoir, August 27th: ledevoir/politique/quebec/386074/la-caq-s-estime-moins-radicale-que-le-pq
Posted on: Thu, 07 Nov 2013 16:07:34 +0000
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