Advance voting begins Sunday
Advance voting in the Quebec election starts Sunday and, for some reason, is also open Monday.
I’ll vote, because I always do, but I feel little enthusiasm about anything on offer. I’ve never heard a bad thing about our QS MNA, Andrés Fontecilla, so he’ll get my vote, but I never forget that, while I like QS’s social positions, they’re still a party dedicated to Quebec separation, an idea I’ll never buy, and which I’ve seen fruitlessly swallow up far too much effort and money over the decades.
Frivolous update: I must be getting old. GND is going gray.
Chris 22:29 on 2022-09-24 Permalink
Did you consider Parti Vert? Similar to QS but federalist.
mare 23:33 on 2022-09-24 Permalink
I’ve voted QS for all my voting career in Quebec, electing Françoise David and now GND. But QS’s support and vote for Bill 96 didn’t make me very happy. So I might, for the first time ever, vote for a candidate who won’t make it past the post. Or even spoil my ballot in protest.
vasi 01:43 on 2022-09-25 Permalink
The Quebec Green leader seems pro-Russia (vs Ukraine), which feels disqualifying to me. I guess I’ll probably vote for Fontecilla, though the Liberal candidate here seems strong too. Not sure whether any of the micro-parties are attractive this year.
walkerp 09:41 on 2022-09-25 Permalink
I think “dedicated to Quebec separation” is a bit of a stretch. They play lip service to it but it is nowhere to be heard during the campaign trail as any actual policy.
jeather 11:24 on 2022-09-25 Permalink
Like mare, I’m not particularly impressed with QS and their positions, I refuse to vote QLP (who I think will win in my riding, which is Anglade’s), so I was debating between Greens and Bloc Montreal (neither of whom have the slightest chance). I didn’t have much to distinguish them on, really. “Leader of the Greens is pro-Russia” is as good as any other reason, I guess.
I absolutely believe that Legault will act the exact same way if he wins 63 seats or 125.
dhomas 12:49 on 2022-09-25 Permalink
I have usually voted QS though they never really had a chance in my riding of Anjou-Louis-Riel. I’ve done so to show the incumbent parties that they have to shift some of their policies in order to win back my vote. To me, QS’ separatist position is a non-issue since they won’t form government.
However, in this election, Anjou-Louis-Riel looks likely to elect the CAQ (https://qc125.com/1004f.htm), so I’ll vote Liberal to try to keep them out. I hate that I need to vote strategically and I cannot vote for the party that most closely resembled my values. I truly dislike our FPTP system for this reason.
Chris 13:30 on 2022-09-25 Permalink
>I think “dedicated to Quebec separation” is a bit of a stretch.
Is it? It’s right there in their name!
Emily 14:52 on 2022-09-25 Permalink
Andrés Fontecilla subscribes to the idea that there is (or should be) one culture in Quebec, as opposed to multiculturalism. But other than that, he seems okay.
Kate 16:17 on 2022-09-25 Permalink
Ironic, considering he’s an immigrant himself from a different culture. I wonder whether he’s abandoned speaking Spanish completely.
jeather 16:28 on 2022-09-25 Permalink
“he wants just one culture in Quebec but is otherwise ok” feels like that I can excuse racism quote from Community.
DeWolf 17:07 on 2022-09-25 Permalink
Emily, I feel like that’s a pretty gross distortion of “interculturalism,” the made-in-Quebec version of multiculturalism espoused by QS (and the PQ in its more civic-minded incarnations) that is functionally the same as Canada’s policy.
Amir Khadir in 2018, explaining official QS policy: « Aujourd’hui, Québec solidaire prend des moyens concrets pour réussir la politique québécoise de l’interculturalisme. Entre l’isolation des communautés et la politique du ressentiment, nous choisissons la voie de l’inclusion. Elle seule est garante du ‘tronc commun québécois’ enrichi par d’autres cultures sans jamais perdre de vue ce qui le distingue, ce qui le caractérise. Je n’ai pas de peine à l’affirmer haut et fort. L’immigration, ce n’est pas un danger : c’est une force qui sert les intérêts du Québec tout entier. »
The “tronc commun québécois” doesn’t mean “only one culture.”
DeWolf 17:17 on 2022-09-25 Permalink
Speaking of the election, I voted early today and like Kate I’m going with QS, not because I’m a huge partisan but because I feel like they’re the only party with Quebec’s best interests at heart. I like Dominique Anglade but the PLQ has such a horrible record I don’t trust them for a minute to actually do anything good, even with a slightly more progressive leader than Charest, Couillard et al.
I’m honestly a bit mystified by anyone whose number one issue in this election is federalism, because there are so many more important issues to consider these days. I mean, you could vote for the Greens if you’re willing to look past its Putin apologist egomaniac of a leader, but why waste a vote on a party that is dysfunctional and will never have a voice in the National Assembly? If you’re going to vote for a random little party just go for something weird and entertaining like the Parti culinaire.
EmilyG 19:42 on 2022-09-25 Permalink
Yes, I meant interculturalism. Perhaps I over-simplified.
I’m quite familiar with interculturalism, having once worked in a job where it was promoted as very important.
EmilyG 19:44 on 2022-09-25 Permalink
I think I might’ve explained it a bit during a previous discussion on “interculturalism”, here on this blog:
https://mtlcityweblog.com/2019/08/06/young-libs-want-an-end-to-multiculturalism/
Kevin 20:13 on 2022-09-25 Permalink
At the polling booth today a bit more than half of voters were masked, as were 3 of the 20 or so employees.
The argument I have heard for voting Liberal is that the CAQ and Legault like to push buttons and they believe Legault is trying to create a crisis. We all know that the court battles over Bills 21/96 and more are going to be ugly, so why vote for parties that support that legislation?
As for QS, they have promised to sprnd half a billion promoting separation, which has convinced many people in my circle that they are just PQ:The Next Generation.
My vote, as is habitual, went to someone who is unlikely to win but dammit they are trying.
Kate 20:47 on 2022-09-25 Permalink
Kevin, in Villeray, where the advance poll is held in the Jarry Park tennis complex, fewer than 1 in 10 voters were masked, and none of the workers.
I tend to kid myself QS are only separatist in a nod to the old gods, but that clearly is not the case. If they ever looked close to winning, with that policy, I would not be voting for them.
DeWolf 21:40 on 2022-09-25 Permalink
I suspect the QS sovereignty position is a bit of realpolitik. Nearly every left-wing francophone I know is sovereigntist, but it’s pretty far down on their list of issues to deal with. The identitarians already have the PQ, they don’t need QS.
If push comes to shove I really don’t know if QS would actually devote its time and energy to a referendum. Maybe? But they’re not going to form government anytime soon, and we need a coherent left-wing opposition with all of the CAQ’s bullshit, as opposed to whatever it is the PLQ has been doing. So my voting for them is a bit of realpolitik in itself. Maybe if I lived in a Liberal riding I would feel differently.
Kevin 22:34 on 2022-09-25 Permalink
Per a tweet from a QS candidate: For the first time my mother is voting for separation
https://twitter.com/ShophikaVSarma/status/1574172307299319808?s=20&t=HnVjwPHuSpqlmGNZUHctzg
DeWolf 23:04 on 2022-09-25 Permalink
Ok…? If you’re so militantly opposed to separation, so be it. Vote Liberal.
Personally, I’m agnostic on the whole matter. I don’t particularly like Canada, but I’m not a Quebec nationalist either. I want a better, more equitable society and whoever can deliver that will get my vote.
walkerp 07:58 on 2022-09-26 Permalink
Quebec Solidaire has the opportunity to take the opposition, which is why you are also seeing a change in their strategy. Quebec separation is just not an issue anymore, so if you can get past that and believe in a more progressive society with priority on social services and the environment, to me they are the party that should be trying to put the CAQ in some check.
John B 09:05 on 2022-09-26 Permalink
> to me they are the party that should be trying to put the CAQ in some check.
This feels right.
Regarding sovereignty, I don’t understand why QS hasn’t learned from Legault and the CAQ. Their “innovation” was saying that they take no position on sovereignty, and both federalists and sovereignists are welcome. If QS did that they would be the place where all the lefties, federalist, sovereignist, or other, would be comfortable voting.
Despite its faults, I like Canada, and I think that if QS came to power they could do more good in the world by keeping Quebec in Canada, and dragging Canada, (perhaps kicking & screaming), into a more environmentally-responsible future. But even if I thought Quebec was better out of Canada, I would be worried that if QS came to power all the air in the room would be sucked up the sovereignty question and none of the other things – things that really need doing and are arguably more urgent than sovereignty – would get done.
Kate 11:52 on 2022-09-26 Permalink
The CAQ worked out a great trick: assume Quebec is already a separate nation and act accordingly and see how far they can go with defying the Canadian Bill of Rights before Ottawa kicks.
all the air in the room would be sucked up the sovereignty question
Good way to put it. That’s how it’s felt on and off for years here.
steph 13:54 on 2022-09-26 Permalink
QS has gotten bigger by merging with Option National, and in doing so has been forced to accpet some of the Option National positions – including sovereignty.
Joey 14:30 on 2022-09-26 Permalink
@Kate the CAQ is just continuing in the tradition of Robert “Federalisme Rentable” Bourassa… show me any federal-provincial power play and I’ll show you a unanimous resolution from the National Assembly condeming those Canadian bastards for . With no propsect of a referendum on the horizon, it seems a little silly (IMHO, of course) to make your choice based on degrees of nationalism, but I get that old habits die hard.
My two cents: I think we’ve entered an era where, unmistakeably, there is one issue that outweighs the rest. Not that systemic racism, the pandemic, minority rights, nationalism, attitudes to immigration, crime, healthcare, education, etc., are insignificant. And not that there aren’t legitimate policy differences among the party. But all of it pales in comparison to the utter disaster that awaits us if we don’t deal with climate change as anything less than a house-on-fire-and-being-flooded emergency. If we pull off saving the planet, we can argue about the rest ad infinitum. If we don’t, well, we’ll lose that luxury too. Overly simplistic? Probably! And yet….
Kate 21:36 on 2022-09-26 Permalink
I agree with you on that, Joey.