We must recognize Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois for the courage to name things.
With its current ideological straitjacket and structure, Québec solidaire is condemned to stall.
QS should therefore become a more pragmatic “government party”.
The problem is that it won’t be enough.
Everywhere in our Western democracies, the left is at a crossroads. She must reinvent herself.
Disaffection
In the midst of a cost of living crisis, in a society where 25% of the population cannot live and where 40% are renters, QS should have the wind in its sails!
Isn’t the left party the champion of the fight against inequalities and poverty? Did he not sound the alarm about the housing crisis long before it monopolized the headlines?
But no. QS is at its lowest in voting intentions for two years.
The message is not getting through.
And for this, we must not blame the orange taxes, GND or its close guard.
Breakup
It’s the left’s all-to-the-state speech that has hit a wall.
If all-out interventionism solved the problems, our society would have been spared such a hard landing in the aftermath of the pandemic.
But no.
Worse, QS, like the other left-wing parties, advocates investing even more in health, education, public transport and climate change.
However, the current government is doing just that, reinvesting in these key sectors. So much so that Quebec is left with a historic deficit of $11 billion.
QS activists will argue that we must do more and better.
Maybe.
But when 75% of voters believe they are not getting value for their money given the state of public services, it is the very credibility of the welfare state that is threatened.
Before hoping to convince the electorate to give more powers to the state, we will have to start by ensuring that it stops being dysfunctional.
