Premier Lucien Bouchard 2001 Notes

The first thing to realize about the manifesto A Clear-eyed Vision for Quebec that Lucien Bouchard and 11 other Quebec notables brought out last month, is that it isn't really revolutionary, except perhaps in one respect.

That one respect is its call for ideological tolerance. We should get rid of policy taboos, they say. All alternatives should be on the table. It shouldn't be the case, for instance, that within the government sector, only the tenured members of the Supreme Court talk about the possibility of private supply of health care. People who suggest different ways of doing things shouldn't immediately be pilloried.

That message is as important in the rest of the country as it is here. There are too many policy alternatives in Canada that dare not speak their name. More power to Bouchard for having said so. (Well, not exactly more power to him. We saw 10 years ago where that led. But do give him credit for saying what needs to be said.)

But apart from that, the manifesto really isn't very revolutionary. In one of their first paragraphs, the clear-eyed 12 say "We are ... convinced that it is not at all necessary to throw out our societal model to address the challenges" that now confront Quebec.

The 12 don't want to give up on "solidarity," or caring, as it's called in the rest of the country. But they dOWN to get rid of controls, monopolies and paralysis. Thus, they would free up tuition so our universities could upgrade themselves, but they would tie the repayment of student loans to income, so low-income Quebecers wouldn't have to repay. They would raise electricity rates so the benefits of Quebec's most important natural resource went to all Quebecers, not just big industrial electricity users, and they would use the resulting revenues to help finance, for instance, massive investments in education. That's hardly right wing.

The 12 don't actually say much about health care but presumably some among them would want to free up supply to let in all providers - public, private, non-profit, you name it - while still making sure through government regulation or finance that everyone had access to the system.

The idea we should use the market more to make sure public services are performed cheaply and efficiently but at the same time guarantee access by using the power of the public purse is now pretty standard in lots of jurisdictions. For anyone who thinks it's radical or revolutionary, there is a two-word answer: Tony Blair.

Flexible, responsive public services that are subjected to competition are the hallmark of his Third Way. New ideas do sometimes take a long time to seep through Canadian permafrost, but this one has been around for literally decades now.

The one other way in which the manifesto really is revolutionary is when it says: "Every person, group and leader must resist the first reflex, which is ubiquitous in Quebec today: protecting their interests and appealing to the government to intervene."

In Canada, too, they might have added. The mythology of Canadian politics is that big government is the tangible expression of our altruism. The reality is lots of people, not just those who get to expense their chewing gum, do very well out of it. A main reason the resistance to making government smaller and taxes lower is large numbers of people, not all of them deserving, would lose as a result. When the unions send their members into the street at the slightest provocation, is it really the public interest that motivates them?

The 12 evidently think pressure groups can be persuaded to give up their privileges for the greater good and that as a result difficult changes can be made with almost everyone on board.

If we can do that, then "Vive la Revolution!" But we should believe it when we see it.

Rocking the boat: Bouchard's manifesto bombshell shakes up Quebec's ship of state


PHILIP AUTHIER
The Gazette

October 23, 2005

Midway through what was shaping up as a lacklustre fight to the finish between two candidates, the Parti Quebecois leadership race this week took yet another new twist - ironically, thanks to its former leader, Lucien Bouchard.

Bouchard and company's manifesto, Pour un Quebec lucide, calling on Quebec to shake off its old ways or risk turning into a fossil, hit the PQ like a ton of bricks, leaving the movement not quite sure where to turn or what to say.

The bombshell came amid a leadership race in which there are nine candidates to succeed Bernard Landry, but with Andre Boisclair and Pauline Marois considered the front-runners.

Sovereignty, the PQ says, is supposed to solve all of Quebec's problems because it will give the province the tools it needs to grow. Bouchard's document begs to differ. Neither federalism or sovereignty is the answer because Quebec's problems run much deeper.

"These people are saying we have problems and the constitutional issue has nothing to do with it," said Jean-Herman Guay, a political scientist from the Universite de Sherbrooke. "Yet the PQ has been preaching this for 40 years. This document hurts the culture of the PQ fundamentally."

Dropped into the campaign on the same day as the fourth all-candidates debate on sovereignty Wednesday, one particular sentence of the manifesto - under the chapter headed, "Dreaming in technicolour," - caught Guay's eye.

"Some members of our group are in favour of sovereignty, other believe that Quebec's future will be better ensured within Canada," the document states.

"Despite these different points of view, we are all certain that whatever choice Quebecers make, the challenges facing us remain the same."

Premier Jean Charest was the first to pounce, describing the document as a godsend for his struggling agenda to reform Quebec and fight the separatist's view that the Quebec model needs to be defended, not stripped down. Coming at mid-mandate, Charest said the manifesto is "music to his ears."

Union leaders complained that they are targeted, depicted as the principle obstacles to change.

Other analysts speculated on the timing of the manifesto from a man like Bouchard. One of the other 11 people who signed it is former PQ cabinet minister Joseph Facal, who also happens to be a staunch backer of leadership candidate Pauline Marois.

Guay described the manifesto as a gift to Charest if he actually makes use of the document and it certainly left the PQ - candidates and interim party leader Louise Harel included - flummoxed.

The PQ response was to dither. As one PQ MNA said privately Wednesday after a disastrous day in the National Assembly during which Charest won on every opposition question, the PQ should have "taken a mulligan," for the day and just not shown up for work.

Some elements of the document seem to have legs, too. A spot TVA poll Thursday showed 34 per cent of Quebecers agree hydro rates should be increased to pay down part of Quebec's debt compared to 54 per cent who are opposed.

Quebecers are split on the idea of unfreezing tuition. Forty-six per cent agree, 47 per disagree.

Sixty-five per cent agree with idea of increasing consumption taxes rather than income tax compared to 25 per cent who oppose the idea. Finally, 88 per cent of respondent support the idea of investing massively in education and training. The poll of 614 Quebecers was conducted by Leger Marketing.

So how does the document play into the campaign leading to the November leadership vote? It's still a bit unclear but the PQ does want to bury it.

The candidates in the race are all staunch defenders of the PQ's new political program, the most left-leaning document the party has drafted in its history. Among other things, it proposes to unravel recent Liberal decision like reducing the number of union accreditation unions as well as welfare reforms and cuts in business subsidies. There would be a toughening up of language laws too.

Adopted only last June, questioning a program which has the approval of thousands of PQ rank-and-file members would be a risky business for any of the candidates.

But in the inner workings of the PQ, there are political nuances between front-runner Andre Boisclair and second place Marois.

Trying to appeal to the centre of Quebec's political spectrum, Boisclair has already been tagged as too far to the right for the PQ's liking.

One school of thought is that the manifesto might help him because he is the only candidate who has said anything about the need to reduce the province's debt. (The standard PQ line is that sovereignty will make it disappear and even lead to record surpluses).

But don't count on Boisclair flogging the document. Most analysts agree his best option is to say nothing beyond banalities which is exactly what he did this week.

Marois has to be cautious, too. In a last-ditch effort to beat Boisclair, she has been building a left-wing coalition of fringe candidates who are against him and will certainly find the manifesto offensive.

On Wednesday, Marois got around the fact Facal signed it by saying she wants to build as wide a coalition as possible in her campaign, including elements of the left and right.

In that sense, she has a better "escape hatch," in the controversy than Boisclair, Guay said.

But Universite Laval political scientist Anne-Marie Gingras said even if the PQ candidates manage to bob around the document, it could come back to haunt them in the next election campaign.

"This does not exactly favour the PQ's vision or that of the candidates," Gingras said.

"Here we have their former leader, shifting to the centre right. It can certainly hurt them."

"A good political leader (opposing the PQ) can easily seize this thing and run with it," adds Guay.

"Quebecers are not people whOWN sovereignty for sovereignty's sake. They want it because the PQ says it will help Quebec for all sorts of other reasons.

"This comes and confounds all the logic of the PQ. Sovereignty (in this scenario) becomes a question of preference, not a response to the challenges of Quebec."

pauthier@thegazette.canwest.com

david.nicholson's

Lucien BOUCHARD Notes

WindowsOnWestmount.com
Salon Magazine vol 21

2006

Bouchard plan is hardly revolutionary

Rocking the boat: Bouchard's manifesto bombshell shakes up Quebec's ship of state

david nicholson says

see Yves Michaud

2001

April 2001

March 2001

david.nicholson's

WindowsOnWestmount.com Salon Magazine vol 21

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Lucien BOUCHARD Notes

2006

Bouchard plan is hardly revolutionary

Rocking the boat: Bouchard's manifesto bombshell shakes up Quebec's ship of state

david nicholson says

see Yves Michaud

2001

April 2001

March 2001

WindowsOnWestmount.com
Salon Magazine vol 21