A big local story this week has been Gilles Proulx lashing out at Québec solidaire on QUB radio, and QS determining to boycott the station – although I doubt many party members habitually listen to “radio poubelle” like that.
Proulx called QS MNAs bâtards, cochonneries, gangrène and menteurs and given over to putasserie, and on another occasion said “On devrait les achever une fois pour toutes, ces épais.”
Not surprisingly, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois has condemned these words and their tone, and the encouragement to violence.
Updated to add: Isabelle Hachey finds plenty of other incidents of Proulx using not only harsh words but rants proposing violence.
shawn 15:25 on 2023-03-25 Permalink
Right and the Liberals made their own statement and the QC and Liberals are supporting each other.
qatzelok 16:04 on 2023-03-25 Permalink
One unfortunate strategy that many political parties share… is their singular attachement to polling data and short-term victories, rather than any kind of real conviction about anything long term.
QS seem to be just as bad as the CAQ in this regard.
Kate 08:56 on 2023-03-26 Permalink
I don’t see signs of QS editing their principles to get closer to the mainstream.
shawn 09:05 on 2023-03-26 Permalink
And whether they are or not, not sure what that has to do with this.
qatzelok 11:15 on 2023-03-26 Permalink
Kate, I’m not sure if QS (or the CAQ) have any real principles other than getting elected by tapping into whatever is trending. QS from media-promoted leftist-branded trends, and CAQ from suburban reactionary trends.
Number-crunching and virtue-signalling are strategies, not a platform.
Tim S. 11:22 on 2023-03-26 Permalink
If their only interest was getting elected, then the obvious thing back in the 2000s would have been to join the PLQ or PQ. I have a lot of respect for people who set up alternate parties in the first-past-the-post system.
Also, keep in mind that what gets a political party media coverage often has more to do with the media than what that party actually cares about.
Kate 13:11 on 2023-03-26 Permalink
qatzelok, what would convince you of a party’s honest principles? Standing on ideas nobody supports in order to make sure they get no votes and thus stay pure?
Every party has to come to terms with bracing itself to face the knowledge that to forward its main purpose, it has to make common cause with ideas it either doesn’t care about or finds initially uncongenial. Projet Montréal has had to swallow increasing police numbers and funding so that it can continue with its main mission of making the city a more environmentally sound and comfortable place to live without getting cut off at the knees by a law‑and‑order groundswell. Québec solidaire has to genuflect to the old Quebec separatism idea to get wider support for its socialist ideals. A party like the CAQ, which brilliantly represents Quebec’s old Duplessiste heart, doesn’t really have to do anything – yet.