Quebecers are not happy with the provincial political scene. Surprising mid-June by-election results show Quebecers are looking for change. Enter Mario Dumont and the Action Démocratique du Québec (ADQ).

Dumont and his party have used voters’ discontent as a springboard to launch themselves centre stage, presenting the ADQ as the party of new ideas and solutions. But are the ideas really new, and what exactly are the solutions?

According to a June 1 Léger Marketing/Le Devoir poll, 83 per cent of Quebecers could not name even one aspect of the ADQ’s platform. A casual glance at the party’s plans, though, reveals the so-called new material is actually an old script, directing Quebec politics hard to the right.

The Platform

The ADQ would allow the participation of the private sector in Quebec’s health care system — Dumont doesn’t hide that he’s in favour of a two-tiered system. In education, plans include indexing tuition fees to the consumer price index. The party plans to generate wealth and prosperity in Quebec. (There is no mention of how they want to distribute it.) Their fiscal policy includes a flat tax and a minimum revenue program.

The key element in all this is the ADQ’s plan to deregulate and scale back government. They are committed to reducing state involvement in the economy and eliminating state complications in the creation of jobs. It is, in fact, the entire concept of state intervention that the ADQ is calling into question.

While the ADQ has clear ideas about how Quebec should be governed, it remains ambiguous or silent on other points, most notably on constitutional and international issues.

Old at Heart

Critics contend that the “new idea” card the ADQ has been playing is misleading: these ideas are far from new. According to Guy Lachapelle, political scientist at Concordia University, “Mario Dumont is young, but his ideas are not. They are based on the political conservatism of Mike Harris.”

Added to this notion of change is the idea that the ADQ represents people 18 to 35 who have been more or less ignored by the Parti Québécois and the Liberal Party. But Lachapelle questions whether youth really support the ADQ. “Despite appearances, there is not a youth majority behind Dumont.”

Jacques Jourdain, political scientist at the Université du Québec à Montréal, adds, “the youth that are supporting him follow the corporate model. They have specific values which are often very different than the values of most of the 18-35 age group that is the pillar of the anti-globalization movement.”

Eve Gauthier, a labour-rights advocate, is part of that generation. “I don’t identify with the ADQ, Mario Dumont uses the fact that he is 32 to impose a youthful image on his party, but we should not let ourselves be had.”

Frédéric Dubois, a twenty-something housing activist, echoes Gauthier’s opinions. “I don’t find any of the ADQ’s ideas appealing. They are simply old ideas that mirror the old Reform party. The ADQ is like a provincial version of the Alliance party for Quebecers.”

Speaking in Tongues

Jourdain says that Dumont’s populist rhetoric is aimed directly at the middle class. “People are tired about hearing about the constitution, so the ADQ does anything it can to not discuss it… but what does he plan to do about the housing crisis, illiteracy, the suicide rate or students with debts?” He deplores the fact that ADQ has taken the notion of social responsibility that came out of the Quiet Revolution and replaced it with values centred on individual over societal rights.

Lachapelle takes it one step further, arguing that the radical changes proposed by the ADQ threaten to destroy the very foundations of Quebec society. “Mario Dumont’s program directly attacks the Quiet Revolution’s legacy by calling into question the social-democratic model.” He worries that these policies would threaten social peace and accentuate inequality.

In an early-June interview in Le Devoir, Mario Dumont said that he would not change his platform to avoid political clashes. It remains to be seen whether the head of the ADQ will have the courage to stick to his convictions, and whether Quebecers will follow him if he does.