On March 5th, Quebec Premier Pauline Marois called a provincial election in hopes of gaining a majority government for her Parti Quebecois. But her campaign faltered, and the results of Monday’s election delivered a crushing defeat to the P-Q and gave Quebec’s Liberals a majority government. As WAMC’s Pat Bradley reports, the results are closely watched in the North Country.
There are 125 seats in the Quebec National Assembly. In Monday’s provincial elections, the Liberals captured 70, the Parti Quebecois 30, the CAQ or Coalition Avenir Quebec 22 and the Quebec Solidaire three. Liberal leader Philippe Couillard will become the next premier of Quebec.
SUNY Plattsburgh Director for the Center for the Study of Canada and the Institute on Quebec Studies Dr. Christopher Kirkey says several things led to the fall of the Parti Quebecois, including a good campaign by the Liberals and attempts by Parti Quebecois leader Pauline Marois to dodge the issue of sovereignty. “It’s fairly clear that while the P-Q envisioned a majority at the outset of the campaign, and focused on issues of their proposed Quebec Charter of Values and amendments to the Quebec French language charter, that fairly quickly the dominant theme of the campaign, in large measure due to some very good work by the victorious Liberal Party and the Coalition Avenir Quebec - the CAQ - they repositioned the focus of debate during the campaign to focus on issues related to sovereignty and the potential for a third referendum should the PQ be brought back to power. I think that really unsettled things.”
The Parti Quebecois defeat is being called one of the worst ever by that separatist party.
Retired Montreal Gazette business and economics columnist Jay Bryan says most observers found Marois’ strategy lacking. “Her campaign was based on two things. The Charter of Values is a law that would have discriminated against just about any religious group outside of Christians in being able to work in public service, and in Quebec the public service is very large. So if you were a Muslim or a Sikh or an observant Jew who wears a kippah on your head you would have lost your job. The other half of her strategy was simply not to say anything about forcing people into another referendum on Quebec succession from Canada. It was clear that she was going to head toward calling another referendum. But she didn’t want to be too clear about that because the polling shows that nobody wants another referendum.”
The Liberals will return to power after the Parti Quebecois held the provincial government for 19 months. Christopher Kirkey notes the business community is pleased there will be a Liberal majority government. “They’re very much engaged on the need to redefine and re-invest in Quebec and to bring in greater amounts of external private investments. There’s a clear awareness on Mr. Couillard’s part on what needs to be done in Quebec. And I think he’s not going to, as he has said in his acceptance speech, going to focus on issues of divisiveness, but rather on issues of unity.”
Again Jay Bryan. “The Liberals are seen as the party of stability and of focus on the economy. Mr. Couillard made that very clear right through his campaign. It was the economy and it was jobs that he was concerned about. I think that really resonated with Quebecers. Quebecers seem to be headed towards more bread-and-butter issues, and Couillard got ahead of that phenomenon and based his whole campaign on it.”
The date for the transition of power has yet to be announced but is expected soon.
