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Talk of Quebec election flares up

Pundits ponder failure of meetings

By: Staff Writer

Posted: 05/31/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

Jacques Boissinot / The Canadian Press Jean Charest in the house on Wednesday: Is there a Plan B if talks fail? (CP)

MONTREAL -- With talks underway again in Quebec City between the student movement and the Quebec government over the university tuition increase, the chatter among pundits this week turned to what happens if the process should fail a second time.

Even if the mood was upbeat as the parties entered the building where the discussions are taking place, the idea of a summer election to break the impasse has roared back to life.

Rumours have been flying the government has a Plan B in its pocket that involves calling a snap election as early as this week for a vote on July 9.

The rumours put the opposition Parti Québécois and Coalition Avenir Québec on high alert again. The same thing happened this spring, the last time Premier Jean Charest saw a possible window before the student crisis forced him to close it.

"It's not me who decides the dates of elections, it's Jean Charest," junior transport minister Norman MacMillan told reporters in Quebec City. "But if the crisis (is not settled), I think it could be one of the solutions.

"If the students don't want to negotiate, what do we do? Are we just going to let this sit?"

One government offer to cut the proposed annual tuition fee increase by $35 was dismissed unanimously by students in talks Tuesday night, said two of the heads of students groups involved in the talks.

The government had already lowered the yearly increase, by offering to spread it out over seven years for an annual jump of $254, a move previously rejected by students.

Education Minister Michelle Courchesne's new proposal would have reduced the yearly hike to $219 over seven years.

The original increase, which kicked off the dispute in February, was for $325 a year over five years -- a move that would bring annual fees to about $3,800 in 2017.

PQ Leader Pauline Marois said it's up to the government to decide on election timing.

"But at some point the public has to decide, and surely the best means in a democracy is an election," she said.

No one apart from the pundits has mentioned a possible election date, and the idea of a summer vote is sure to turn off a lot of people.

The last time Quebecers were asked to vote provincially in summer was 1952, when an election was held on July 16.

There was a federal election on July 8, 1974, but that, too, is a long way back. Charest can wait until December 2013 before he has to call a vote and he has a lot of things to think about before he launches.

Charest's Liberal party has profited politically from the student crisis.

A CROP public opinion poll Saturday again showed the Liberals and PQ locked in a tie. The PQ has apparently failed to cash in on Quebecers' discontent, while the Liberals have.

That's because, despite the clanging of pots and pans in the streets of Montreal, Quebecers outside the cities -- where general elections are actually decided -- favour the government's hardline stance.

As one observer said this week, they want the government to show it is in charge of Quebec rather than a bunch of "entitled students," as a recent Maclean's magazine cover put it.

The Liberals might even profit from a summer election, because it likely would see low voter turnout, something that usually favours the incumbent.

-- Postmedia News, with files from CP

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 31, 2012 A9

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