Quebec Election

This week the three party leaders debated on TV. I didn't see it but I read about it next morning. As usual, nobody had a "clear-cut win", but the party leader most people are talking about is Mario Dumont of the ADQ - Action Démocratique du Québec. He's very popular in the province, or should I say québecois nation?

It's often been said that history repeats itself. Well, sometimes no, sometimes yes, imperfectly, but I see in Dumont the spirit of Maurice Duplessis and his Union Nationale, which ruled Quebec from 1944 to 1960. I'm old enough to remember that. As a matter of fact, I was a Quebec resident in 1960 when I voted for Jean Lesage and his Liberals who ushered in the Quiet Revolution. I remember the cries of Scandale!! Scandale!! Duplessis was, like Dumont, an "autonomiste", an indistinct word. Autonomy without separation, meaning, I suppose, that by not separating, they would still be able to put the squeeze on Ottawa for money.

Duplessis squeezed pretty hard and he ran a tight ship. His cabinet members jumped when he said jump. On one occasion when his finance minister droned on at length, Maurice looked at him and said "Sit down, Lucien, that's enough". (It may have been another name, I forget.) He sat down. There are a number of such anecdotes in a book simply called "Duplessis" by none other than Conrad Black. It was published in 1979, is a good read if you take into account Black's social views. It's still listed on Amazon.ca. Black praises Duplessis for modernizing the province with rural electrification, roads and bridges, especially in ridings that voted the right way. The message was clear - you want your road paved, you know what to do.

Like Duplessis, Dumont, who shares the social views of Stephen Harper, appeals to the conservatism of rural and small town Quebec. Now that separation seems to have lost some of its appeal, it becomes a potent force.
I'll be watching on election night.