The Ultimate Opposition to the Charest government Dog Breeds Information Guide and Reference

Popular opposition to the Charest government arose mere weeks after the Parti libéral du Québec, led by Jean Charest formed the government of Quebec, Canada, after the April 14, 2003 Quebec election. The opposition grew stronger in the autumn of 2003. It takes many forms, mainly those of great public protests of citizens or of labour union members, and a drastically falling approval rate.

Quebec is, politically, farther left than any other region in North America and despite the fact that Charest's policies would be considered moderate or even liberal in most other areas, the strength of unions and left-wing groups have created a perceived expectation of social democratic policies, which is a major contributor in the opposition.

Contents

1 Downfall

2 Reasons for criticism

3 Opponents

3.1 Organizations created for that purpose
3.2 Labor unions
3.3 Student unions
3.4 Political parties
3.5 Artists
3.6 Others

4 See also

Downfall

The approval rate of the Charest government fell sharply from the autumn of 2003 to the spring of 2004, when it reached its low point of 25% of popular approval. As of February 2005, the disapproval rate is 70%.

Reasons for criticism

Subcontracting

Health care: Health care and the reduction of waiting lists was said to be the "number one priority" of Charest and his eventual government, and Charest attacked Premier Bernard Landry the Parti Québécois (PQ) personally on his alledged failiure to treat the problem. Since the election, the newspaper Le Devoir has revealed that matters were actually worse, one year after Charest's Liberal Party (PLQ) gained power. Also, the PLQ has failed at striking an agreement for more money from the federal government for heathcare, thus also failing at solving the fiscal imbalance.

Municipal demergers

Privatization

Environment: The government defends its plan to build a natural gas power plant at Beauharnois , which would increase the pollution produced by Quebec, in contravention of the spirit of the Kyoto Accord. Greenpeace is one of the notable adversaries of this project. A new movement, the Coalition Québec-Vert Kyoto , was founded to fight against the development of such power plants in Québec. After a popular campaign that included the activism of famous Quebec chansonnier Paul Piché, the previous PQ government had formally stopped all projects to build small hydroelectric dams in order to not ruin small rivers. The new Charest government has since spoken of again considering building dams on small rivers, like the Magpie river in the Cote-Nord region. American environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. came to Quebec to speak against an eventual dam on Magpie, shortly after rafting on the river as a political statement.

Taxation: Large tax cuts was promised, and were opposed by unions who argued that they were not realistic and would lead to drastic cuts in government services. These tax cuts have not yet been implemented.

Public services

Economic interventionism

Democracy: A parliamentary procedure exists in Quebec called le bâillon (meaning "the gag", to muzzle). Enacted by the government, it forbids the Opposition to ask questions at the National Assembly of Quebec so that bills can be passed more quickly in special circumstances. While it is still legal and while the Parti Québécois has used it in the past, it was never done so for such a large number of such important bills as it was seen in December of 2003. Eight bills were passed, including the modification of subcontracting laws and raising fees charged to parents by daycare centres from $5 a day to $7 a day. Also, the last time the PQ used the procedure, criticism (mostly from the Liberals) partly led it to bring about an agreement to restrict the bâillon, but it could not be put into law before the 2003 election. While they are partly responsible for the agreement, the Liberals have forgone it once in power.

Responsibility: Shortly after election day, the new Minister of Finance Yves Séguin claimed to have discovered a hidden deficit in the planned Parti Québécois 2003-2004 budget (that was never adopted, since it was defeated). This fiscal analysis is controversial and contradicted by many. Since then, the cause of a vast array of broken promises have been attributed by Liberal ministers to what they call the "catastrophic administration of the previous government". This frequent practice has irritated a great part of the population, which has seen the custom as scapegoating. The social unrest and public protests have also been blamed by Charest, in a public letter, as the defence of "corporate interests" from the labour unions, blocking the necessary "modernization" of the provincial government that his government intends to engineer.

Mandate: Another recurring explanation, given to the parliamentary Opposition at the National Assembly, is that the PLQ was given a mandate in the 2003 election, and that the aspects of the Réingénérie ("re-engineering") were in the party's platform approved by the voters. Critics object that many controversial aspects of the government actions were not discussed during the campaign, and some were indeed not in the program, e.g., increasing day care fees and building a gas power plant.

Day care: Charest, having formally vowed not to raise the price of the "$5-a-day day care centres]], broke that promise at the end of 2003, raising it to $7 a day.

Electoral reform: Charest had promised a reform of the electoral system to introduce proportional representation during his first mandate. Since voting day, the government has now stated that such a reform would not be possible before the next election, angering smaller parties like the Union des forces progressistes and the Bloc pot.

Federal-provincial relations: The PLQ presented itself to voters as the best eventual government to solve the fiscal imbalance problem, because of its supposedly less confrontational approach and because of the fact that it is federalist and not sovereigntist. However, no substantial advancement have been made in the fiscal imbalance matter, despite the creation of the Council of the Federation . The Council itself was the target of criticism as a demonstration of submission to English Canada, as an implicit recognition of the absence of uniqueness for Quebec (see distinct society), and as undemocratic because it was not presented to voters before the election. Also, the government was criticized for letting the Minister of Canadian Heritage, Sheila Copps, speak for Quebec Minister of Culture Line Beauchamp at UNESCO. See also: Politics of Canada.

Poverty

Relations with aboriginal peoples

Gambling

Education: The government cut $103 million from its financial aid program for students, therefore raising students' average debt after leaving university to $20,000. It also proposed to decentralize parts of the education system, a move that was widely contested by teacher unions and student movements. Student unions declared a student strike on February 24, 2005. Is is currently ongoing. See 2005 Quebec student strike .

Opponents

Many personalities and organizations have displayed public opposition to politics of the Charest government, some structures having even being created specifically to protest that government. Some of the most prominent are enumerated below.