[R-G] NDP or Bloc? Quebec left debates election tactics

[Anthony Fenton]

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A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 140 ... September 26, 2008
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NDP or Bloc?  Quebec left debates election tactics
Richard Fidler

An interesting debate over federal election tactics has developed  
among socialists in Québec solidaire (QS), the new left pro- 
sovereignty party that confines its activity to contesting Quebec, but  
not federal, elections. For the first time since the 1980s, the  
federal NDP is being considered as a valid electoral option by some,  
while others advocate voting for the Bloc Québécois as the best means  
of forestalling the re-election of the Harper government. The debate  
also reflects an interest among some supporters of Quebec independence  
in the possibility of forging new ties with progressive-minded people  
in English Canada.

When the October 14 election was called, QS leaders Françoise David  
and Amir Khadir held a news conference in which they said the  
challenge was to defeat the Harper government – its re-election would  
be a "disaster", David said – but without indicating how opposition to  
Conservatives should be expressed in the election. The QS leaders  
focused their criticism of the Tory government on its cuts to spending  
on cultural activities and its moves to restrict women's right to  
abortion. There was no mention of Canada's war on Afghanistan, the  
environment or the threat to working people from the U.S. financial  
meltdown.

This position apparently did not sit well with many QS members. In a  
subsequent article, published in a number of newspapers, Khadir and  
David fleshed out their position, comparing Harper with George Bush,  
and citing among other things his opposition to Kyoto, his refusal to  
endorse the UN statement on aboriginal rights, and his "dragging  
Canadians into an interminable war in Afghanistan." They urged  
progressive Quebecers to vote "for an ecologist Quebec, a Quebec of  
justice and equality, a Quebec in which the arts flourish and a Quebec  
that is open to difference." Again, however, they did not indicate  
what form such a vote should take. The article did not mention the NDP.

Québec solidaire does not publish a newspaper, its website is confined  
to official statements, and there is no viable internal discussion  
bulletin either in print or on line. However, much of the subsequent  
debate has been published in the on-line journal Presse-toi-à-gauche  
(PTàG), which generally reflects views within Québec solidaire.

A "strategic vote"?
In its September 16 edition, Caroline Béliveau, in an article  
headlined "Vote against or vote for?" wrote: "It is strange that  
Québec solidaire advocates such an approach, as it simply contributes  
to slowing down the rise of emerging and progressive parties like the  
NDP and QS." The strategy of voting against, she said, amounts to  
"shooting ourselves in the foot. This is what has led the Bloc to  
parliament, and has now led us into an impasse." She said she would be  
voting for the NDP candidate in her riding.

In the same issue, Bernard Rioux, a leader of Gauche socialiste, one  
of the recognized "collectives" or organized tendencies in QS, argued  
that voting for the Bloc could result in the election of the Liberals,  
like the Tories a party of Big Business. Liberal governments, he said,  
had been the first to turn to neoliberal attacks on the welfare state,  
had imposed the Clarity Bill in violation of Quebec's right to  
national self-determination, had plunged Canada into the "criminal  
adventure" of the war in Afghanistan and initiated the massive  
increases in military spending. Furthermore, even holding the Tories  
to minority government status would be no victory. Liberals and Tories  
have voted together in Parliament on all important issues.

To vote for the Bloc, said Rioux, was to vote "for a nationalist and  
neoliberal alliance (PQ-Bloc) that has dominated the sovereigntist  
movement and led it into a complete dead end." A vote for the NDP, he  
said, would "underscore the need for unity of the social movements in  
opposition to conservative policies.... The NDP's discourse in this  
election is a sustained support for social mobilization against the  
policies identified with the Harper regime expressed in the call for  
withdrawal of the troops from Afghanistan, the denunciation of fiscal  
injustice, the desire to advance a policy of full employment, etc. The  
NDP defines itself as an ally of the movements on all these questions.  
That is why it must be supported."

However, this support could not be unconditional, Rioux explained. The  
NDP's "timid asymmetrical federalism, limited to a case by case  
policy, its lack of understanding of the aspirations expressed in the  
independentist struggle, demonstrate that the political left will have  
to replace this party on the federal scene in Quebec if a real  
political alliance against the federal state is to become possible."

Also in that issue of PTàG, Pascale Rioux-Oliver attacked the QS  
leaders' support of "strategic voting." It presents the Bloc and the  
Liberals as "defenders of the people, as the only serious alternative  
for persons on the left who seek... greater social justice," she  
wrote. "This habit of voting to block the most right-wing party  
benefits only the ever-lasting official opposition parties which, once  
they find themselves in power, govern the country with the same  
neoliberal policies."

The Bloc and the Liberals, in the last Parliament, had never combined,  
as they could have, to counter the Harper government's destructive  
policies, she noted. Where was this "opposition" when more and more  
soldiers were sent to Afghanistan; when military spending was  
multiplied; when the Tories blocked the anti-scab law, opened the way  
to further oil sands development, defied the Kyoto protocol on climate  
change?

A system of proportional representation – a long-standing campaign  
demand of Québec solidaire -- would add "a little democracy" to our  
society, said Rioux-Oliver. "But perhaps it is time to look a little  
further than the end of our nose and to begin to think about the  
repercussions the succession of all these 'strategic votes' will have  
over several years." What is needed, she said, is a party that  
reflects our convictions. That is "our best bet."

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