Vol. 76/No. 37      October 15, 2012

This is an important victory for working people and the hundreds of thousands of students and supporters who mobilized for months throughout Quebec against both measures, including the more than 4,000 who were arrested. At times well over 150,000 students boycotted classes across the province.

The bourgeois nationalist PQ did win a narrow victory in the Sept. 4 provincial election against the incumbent Liberal Party, but fell short of a majority.

Two other parties shared the rest of the vote: Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ), a new bourgeois party led by an ex-PQ minister that rejects Quebec sovereignty, and Québec Solidaire, a petty-bourgeois formation with a social democratic program.

With the election of a minority government, Quebec’s rulers face the prospect of a paralyzed legislature at a time of deepening economic crisis. They are not confident that the PQ will take the steps they are looking for to push back the social gains and rights working people have won in past battles, including against the national oppression of the French-speaking Quebecois majority.

This was expressed quite bluntly by the Globe and Mail, Canada’s national daily, in an editorial published a few days before the election.

“A Parti Quebecois victory would be very bad for both Quebec and the rest of Canada,” the Globe wrote. “The PQ’s financial projections are irresponsible, from keeping electricity rates, daycare fees and tuition low, to creating disincentives for entrepreneurship, to a big tax bite for the rich.”

Michel Dugré was the Communist League candidate in the Quebec election, running in the Laurier-Dorion electoral constituency in Montreal.  
 
 
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