Opposition to the Charest government
Massive popular opposition to the Charest government, newly elected at the April 14, 2003 Quebec election, arose mere weeks after voting day, but more acutely from the autumn of 2003. It takes many forms, mainly those of great public protests of citizens or of labor union members and a drastically falling approval rate.
Downfall
The approval rate of the Jean Charest Liberal government of Quebec fell sharply from the autumn of 2003 to the spring of 2004, when it reached the bottom of 25 per cent of popular approval.
Claimed reasons for criticism
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- Subcontracting
- Healthcare: Healthcare and the reduction of waiting lists was said to be the number one priority of Charest and his eventual government, and Charest attacked Premier Bernard Landry (of the Parti Québécois or PQ) personally on his alledged failiure to treat the problem. Since the election, the newspaper Le Devoir has revealed that matters were actually worse, one year after Charest's Liberal Party of Quebec (PLQ) gained power. Also, the PLQ has failed at striking an agreement for more money from the federal government for heathcare, thus also failing at solving the fiscal imbalance.
- Municipal demergers
- Privatization
- Environment: The government defends the plan of building a natural gas power plant at Beauharnois, which would raise the pollution rate produced by Quebec, going against the Kyoto Accord. Greenpeace is one of the notable adversaries of this project. Additionally, after a popular campaign that included the activism of famous Quebec chansonnier Paul Piché, the previous PQ government had formally stopped all projects to build small hydroelectric dams in order to not ruin small rivers. The new Charest government has since spoken of again considering building dams on small rivers, like the Magpie river in the Cote-Nord region. American environmentalist and John F. Kennedy relative Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., came to Quebec and spoke against an eventual dam on Magpie, shortly after rafting on the river as a political statement.
- Income tax
- Public services
- State size and intervention
- Democracy: A parliamentary procedure exists in Quebec called le bâillon (meaning the gag, to muzzle). Enacted by the government, it forbids the Opposition to ask questions at the National Assembly of Quebec so law projects can be passed more quickly in special circumstances. While it is still legal and while the Parti Québécois has used it in the past, it was never done so for such a large number of such important law projects as it was seen in December of 2003. Eight law projects were passed, including the modification of subcontracting laws and the fee raise of the five dollar daycare centers to seven dollars. Also, the last time the PQ used the procedure, criticism (mostly from the Liberals) partly led it to bring about an agreement to restrict the bâillon, but it could not be put into law before the 2003 election. While they are partly responsible for the agreement, the Liberals forwent it once it power.
- Responsibility: Shortly after election day, the new Minister of Finance Yves Séguin claimed to have discovered a hidden deficit in the planned Parti Québécois 2003-2004 budget (that was never adopted, since it was defeated). This fiscal analysis is controversial and contradicted by many. Since then, the cause of a vast array of Liberal promise failiures have been attributed by Liberal ministers to the said catastrophic administration of the previous government. This frequent practice has irritated a great part of the population, which has seen the custom as scapegoating. The social unrest and public protests have also been blamed by Charest, in a public letter, as the defense of corporate interests from the labor unions, blocking the necessary modernization of the Quebec State his government intends to engineer.
- Mandate: Another recurring explanation, given to the parliamentary Opposition at the National Assembly of Quebec, is that the Liberal Party was given a mandate on April 14, 2003 and that the aspects of the Réingénérie were in the program submitted to the population. Critics object that many controversial aspects of the government actions were not discussed during the campaign, and some were indeed not in the program (like the price raise of daycare or the gas power plant).
- five dollar daycare centers, broke that promise at the end of 2003, raising it to seven dollars a day.
- Electoral reform: Charest had promised a reform of the electoral system to bring it to proportional representation during his first mandate. Since voting day, the government has now stated that such a reform would not be possible before the next election, angering especially smaller parties like the Union des forces progressistes and the Bloc pot.
- Federal-provincial relations: The PLQ presented itself to voters as the best eventual government to solve the fiscal imbalance problem, because of its supposedly less confrontational approach and because of the fact that it is federalist and not sovereigntist. However, no substantial advancement have been made in the fiscal imbalance matter, despite the creation of the Council of the federation. The Council itself was the target of criticism as a demonstration of submission to English Canada, as an implicit recognition of the absence of uniqueness for Quebec (see distinct society) and as undemocratic because never presented to voters before the election. Also, the government was criticized for letting the Minister of Canadian Heritage (Sheila Copps) speak for the Quebec Minister of Culture (Line Beauchamp) at the UNESCO.
- Poverty
- Relations with aboriginal peoples
- Gambling
- Education
Opponents
Many personalities and organizations have displayed public opposition to politics of the Charest government, some structures having even being created specifically to protest that government. Some of the most prominent are enumerated below.
Organizations created for that purpose
- Destituons Patapouf!
- J'ai jamais voté pour ça!
Labor unions
Political parties
Artists
- Loco Locass
- Les Vulgaires Machins
- Les Zapartistes
Others
See also
