Robert Libman: Needed, a Quebec party to give voice to minorities

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Colin Standish is a young and determined constitutional lawyer. He founded the Task Force on Linguistic Policy last year to challenge Quebec’s new language legislation, Bill 96, and the Trudeau Liberals’ proposed changes to the Official Languages ​​Act.

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Last week, he announced the task force is exploring the possibility of creating a provincial political party for the October election, a prospect that has generated discussion.

Anglophones and members of other minority communities in Quebec have been feeling like political orphans for some time now. Many complain that their concerns are not adequately represented in the National Assembly and the Quebec Liberals take their votes for granted.

Standish’s announcement sparked media reports drawing parallels with the Equality Party, which won four seats in 1989 and finished second in several other ridings. Given my own involvement with Equality, reporters called me for comment. To be clear, I’m not a participant in this new initiative, nor do I plan to be, but still believe there are strong reasons to create a party to give voice to minority concerns.

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Despite similarities in context between now and 1989, however, there are important differences.

Then, it was the Bourassa Liberals who were the target of the community’s anger, after they had betrayed an important electoral commitment by invoking the notwithstanding clause to get around a Supreme Court judgment making bilingual commercial signs legal again. Three anglophone cabinet ministers resigned.

Now, minority communities’ anger is directed primarily at the CAQ government. The Liberals are the secondary villain for seemingly going along, to appeal to nationalist voters. Their own restrictive 27-point plan on francization and voting in favor of ridiculous “Bonjour-Hi” resolutions are examples. Though they have been trying in committee to water down some of Bill 96’s excesses, they voted to impose an obligation on all students at English CEGEPS to take three of their regular courses in French. It’s unclear where leader Dominique Anglade stands on that amendment, but she recently said, surprisingly, that they would not support Bill 96 in “its present form.” If the Liberals vote for Bill 96, antagonism toward them will intensify and they could lose seats to a new party.

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In 1989, there was intense debate about whether minorities are better-off working from within an established party that can potentially form a government versus fighting from the outside. I believe the answer is now obvious.

Minority communities are, let’s face it, minority communities. Within any province-wide party, their concerns will inevitably be watered down by political reality and nationalist discourse. A separate political entity is the surest way to articulate our concerns in the political arena. In the Equality Party, we had an invaluable soapbox on the floor of the National Assembly to regularly question the government, and challenge nationalist orthodoxy, without a muzzle. We would sometimes block “those” unanimous resolutions and were a daily reminder in the inner sanctum of French Quebec that our communities exist.

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Five years later, with a referendum on the horizon, voters gravitated back to the Liberals for fear of splitting the federalist vote to the perceived benefit of the Parti Québécois. Now, the political spectrum is much more diversified, with five parties represented in the National Assembly.

Standish suggested the potential new party would be targeting 125 ridings and portray itself as a party for all of Quebec. Regardless of how they package it, it will be seen as a minority party anyway. Why not accept that with pride and target for now a manageable number of strategic ridings.

I can personally attest to the fact that transforming a political vacuum into a political party that can win seats is a big undertaking. Realistic expectations are critical.

Robert Libman is an architect and building planning consultant who has served as Equality Party leader and MNA, as mayor of Côte-St-Luc and as a member of the Montreal executive committee. He was a Conservative candidate in the 2015 federal election. twitter.com/robertlibman