The new member of the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) in Marie-Victorin, Shirley Dorismond, entered the National Assembly on Tuesday. For opposition parties, the arrival of the 76th CAQ MP is a reminder of the dominance that a Quebec political party can use by exploiting the first-past-the-post system.
Opposition parties are particularly critical of the fact that the CAQ was committed, during the 2018 election campaign, to reform the voting system in the 2022 general election. The government of François Legault confirmed in April 2021 that it would not proceed. on that promise. .
Québec solidaire and the Parti Québécois believe that maintaining a first-past-the-post system, as we have known for a long time in Quebec, does not unreasonably benefit the CAQ.
We can have 40% of the votes, which gives us 80% of the seats in the National Assembly, which gives us 100% of the power explained Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, co-spokesperson for Québec solidaire.
” Is this normal? Anyone with a head on their shoulders says no. “
The government deliberately and calculatedly abandoned an electoral commitment to ensure total domination in Quebec. There are consequences to thatadded Pascal Bérubé, MP for the Parti Québécois for Matane-Matapédia.
The proposed reform provides for the establishment of a mixed voting system with regional compensation. In clear terms, it is something to reduce the gap between the number of votes obtained by such and such a party and the number of seats obtained by this party in the National Assembly.
If the reform sees the light of day, we will see the arrival of two categories of representatives: those elected according to the current mode, in 80 constituencies instead of 125, and 45 others elected from a list made. of each of the parties. . The former represents a constituency, as of today, while the latter is a region.
But in April 2021, the minister responsible for the file, Sonia LeBel, explained that elected officials had still not begun to study her piece of legislation, which contained at least 290 articles. So there is no time to study and adopt the bill before the elections scheduled for the fall of 2022.
“I don’t feel the appetite of Quebecers to change that”
François Legault responded to these criticisms by saying first that the CAQ fulfilled his election promise: We had agreed to table a bill, we table it as promised. But he added that the government wants to do extensive consultation of Quebecers, as it was a major changewhich would have been prevented by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Moreover, François Legault explained that he understood that changing the voting system was not a priority for Quebecers.
” No one is driving buses in Quebec to change the voting system. “
Instead, will the commitment be part of the second term if the CAQ was re -elected in the fall? I listen to Quebecers and what I hear from Quebecers has no appetite for ithe replied.
With information from Véronique Prince and Alex Boissonneault
Source: Radio-Canada