B Q Crisis

Québec Solidaire: An ally of the ruling elite

Through its response to the crisis in the Québec sovereignty movement and to Canada’s imperialist intervention in Libya, as well as by the close links that it maintains with the big business Parti Québécois (PQ), Québec Solidaire, has demonstrated that its ambition is to secure a place in Quebec’s and Canada’s bourgeois political establishment.

Quebec’s rightwing tabloid press paints Québec Solidaire (QS) as a “radical,” “leftist,” even “communist” organisation. But Amir Khadir, the co-leader of the QS and its sole legislator in the Quebec National Assembly, has demonstrated in numerous official statements on the crisis engulfing the Bloc Québécois (BQ) and the Parti Québécois (PQ) that the QS is a party that does not question, let alone challenge, the established order.

Last May, in the federal elections that brought to power a Conservative majority government, the BQ, sister party of the PQ at the federal level, suffered an historic electoral defeat, with its parliamentary caucus reduced from 47 to just 4. In a protest vote, driven by a long and bitter experience with alternating PQ and Liberal provincial governments, the Quebec electorate turned to a party essentially unknown in the province, the ostensibly social-democratic NDP (New Democratic Party).

During the election campaign, QS called for a vote against the Conservative Party of Prime Minister Stephen Harper. In other words, the bourgeois electoral opponents of the Conservatives, that is to say the BQ, NDP, and the Liberals, were (in the political judgement of QS) all viable choices for Quebec workers.

This position harkened back to the support that QS and the Quebec trade unions gave to the aspiring governmental coalition formed by the Liberals Party and NDP with the support of the Bloc Québécois in late 2008. This coalition, aborted by the constitutional coup carried out by the Harper government in December 2008, was to be led by the Liberal Party but was dependent on the support of the Bloc parliamentarians. The coalition agreement committed a Liberal-NDP government to implementing a right-wing programme, including the continuation of the war in Afghanistan and the imposition of further massive tax cuts for big business.

SATURDAY'S NEWS IN BRIEF | Lakeland Radio

SATURDAY’S NEWS IN BRIEF

Posted: August 13, 2011

B&Q OPENS IN KENDAL

B&Q officially opens in Kendal today, after the chain took over the former Focus store, which shut down as a result of the economic crisis a few weeks ago.

Local MP Tim Farron’s performing the opening ceremony.

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RESCUERS RECOGNISED

Members of various local rescue teams are getting together in Ambleside today, to demonstrate why their services are so vital.

Charity fundraisers and volunteers from several local emergency service organisations will be taking part in the second annual Emergency Day at Hayes Garden World.

Fire crews, Ambulance crews, Mountain Rescue team members and the Police will all be taking part.

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