How about taking a leaf out of Quebec’s book?
Work in Progress
By Ivan Morgan
Recently several people have asked me: “What’s wrong with us?”
Their question is really frustration with the apparent indifference of voters with the state of politics in this province. Nothing seems to rile anyone to action, even though things appear to be going from bad to worse.
Voter apathy is not as much of a problem in Quebec. I know many here are not happy with Quebec: they are taking advantage of us with our power on the Churchill River and don’t recognize that Labrador is actually part of our province. Many don’t like them.
Truth be told, we would be a lot better off if we acted more like them.
You wouldn’t think I’d be a fan of Quebec, but you’d be wrong. I really admire the Quebecois political culture and would love to see our political culture be more like theirs.
Of course we are different. We have a different history, a different make up, a different background. We’ve only been part of Canada for 77 years. Quebec has been part of Canada from the get-go.
I like how they do politics. Just look at Quebec’s recent provincial election. Going in, the governing party, the Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ), a sort of Quebec-first but not separatist party, held 79 of the 127 seats in their legislature (National Assembly) – a clear majority.
On election night they lost every seat. Every single one. They were wiped off the map. From government to non-existence. From total power to total nobodies. How cool is that! They were replaced by a true separatist party, the Parti Quebecois, which won 59 seats, up from three seats before the election. They will form a minority government. Talk about a political rollercoaster. That’s some voter response.
We need more of that here.
In Quebec, the voter gets all manner of parties to choose from. There are 20. Here we have three, sort of (the NDP try but do not do well fielding good candidates anywhere but downtown St. John’s.) Quebec voters have lots of choices. Newfoundland voters have little or no choice as the two parties are for the most part indistinguishable from each other. (Don’t agree? Write a letter to the editor.) Regular readers will remember what my mother always called them the innies and the outies.
What can we do here? Throw out the current government in favour of a government we just threw out? Unlike Quebec we have no real choices. Nothing new to support.
In France the populace is always protesting. Recently, students protested in the streets in their tens of thousands over the state of their schools, the lack of housing and funding. Why? A cornerstone of French education is the language of rights, citizenship and collective power. Kids are taught about the roots of their revolution, and what the state owes their citizens.
It’s woven into French education. It’s a core subject in Quebec. It’s not in ours. It shows.
We don’t have the same political culture. Fishermen can raise a ruckus from time to time, as can public servants, but for the most part we all stay quiet.
We do have history. Just under one hundred years ago we had the Colonial Building riots. An angry mob rioted outside the legislature and chased the Prime Minister through the streets. To be fair, our ancestors were sorely tried. Few alive today can really appreciate the hardships they faced at the start of the Great Depression, although we might share an understanding about inept government.
What would happen if we took to the streets to protest like they did in 1932? What would it achieve? In the 1930s we decided to give up democracy in favour of some managers. That’s our legacy. Is that where we are? Would appointed managers be better than what we have now?
If we were more like the Quebecois we would understand we do have rights, we do have control over our destiny, and we can have the province we want. We just need to know how to fight for it.
The irony is, if we were more like the Quebecois we would be better able to stand up to them.
Ivan Morgan can be reached at ivan.morgan@gmail.com