I can tolerate separatism the further off it is. If the Parti Québecois weren’t pushing for a vote to remove Québec from Canada, I might not mind that Québec Solidaire’s proposed future includes a constitutional convention that would turn us from province to independent nation. But the Parti Québecois says it’s putting the matter to popular vote once it gets in office, and the PQ looks set to get in. Further, Trump. The world’s most powerful country is at the border and threatening trouble. Further, really, Putin. Everyone knows he’s trying to split the West and here’s a split. Whatever he’s doing or not doing, this is the kind of thing Putin favors. So, Québec Solidaire’s got a strike against it.
My third time voting as a Canadian. One city election, one federal, now one provincial. A gym, tables about, two volunteers at each. It would be a kick to vote left-wing, a way to go native when I never leave my apartment. I don’t especially like the Liberals, I’m not sure anyone does, and this year they had another corruption scandal. Further, I know two people who like Québec Solidaire and I think they’re both smart. Also, they’re native citizens and they pay attention, and I’m the sort of immigrant whose head is back in the old country, following the news that’s on hand back there. I’m American and a New Yorker, and events up here aren’t big time. They affect me, but that’s different.
Marie-Eve and Adrien always know what’s-what, and Québec Solidaire wants a multiracial, multicultural, everyone’s-equal kind of Québec nation, not just any Québec nation. Even so, what with one thing and another, I want my vote this year to be on the side of federalism. True, the Parti Conservateur du Québec backs federalism, but look at that name; I don’t vote conservative. Coalition Avenir Québec doesn’t say leave Canada, but it doesn’t seem to like being in it. Anyway, the public has a grudge against the party because it’s been running things the past eight years.
I fill in the oval that I’m left with. I just voted Liberal.
I’m like the guy who always orders chow mein and he’s ordering it this time too but first he has to look at the menu and ponder. I voted Liberal last spring in the federal, when it was Carney vs. Trump, and in US elections I always vote Democrat, which is a Liberal equivalent. No Liberals for city office, so I suppose I found a modest reform party. Now the pattern continues. The iron grip of historical duty compels a certain grayness in one’s choices.
Back at the little table with the nice Québecois lady and the pleasant South Asian man, I drop my ballot in the big cardboard box; there’s a slot in the lid. History has intervened, really. The PQ wanting a referendum—it’s 30 years since the last one; polls say nobody’s looking for another. Except the people who run the party that’s about to get into power. A fluke factor, I have to call that.
Even with Trump, I might’ve voted for Québec Solidaire so they could qualify for a bit more government money. But an independence vote, forget it.
My district—no, riding—goes for the Liberals anyway. So there’s that.
Québec, whatever your future is, I voted.