Today our friend Thomas Mulcair is in trouble. He is, by the way, the public face of the NDP in Quebec.

As revealed by a series of exchanges with his staff back when he was the Minister of environment in the Charest government, he successfully killed a grant application that Hydro Quebec was willing to give to environmental groups. Mulcair now argues that he did not want Hydro to intervene, but everyone knows that this was another one of his little power trips. Not that it will make a big difference at the polls. But in the political eyes of our society, he looks like what he is really.

Moreover, if we look at the broader picture, it’s worse than that. The Charest-led government elected in April 2003 came to power with a vengeance. They immediately tried to kill the highly popular daycare program (set in place by Pauline Marois). Thousands of people took to the streets and Charest pulled back. Then they tried to play with the anti-scab legislation, another legacy of the PQ era. Dockworkers paralyzed the harbor as tens of thousands of workers were moving towards a mini intifada. Charest pulled back. Later in 2005, the government dumped an additional $80 million of fee hikes on students. 350 000 students went on strike and finally won because they had public opinion on their side. Again, the Liberals accepted defeat.

During all these humiliating policies and defeats, Thomas was a loyal minister in a government that had nothing to envy to Mike Harris. Charest however continued to blunder by attempting to privatize Mont Orford, a popular park outside Montreal. Not only the green crowd was outraged, but more importantly the local communities who knew what kind of ‘economic development’ was behind that (cronyism). Mulcair was under pressure as Minister of environment. He tried to negotiate a position shift with Charest, but Charest refused, accusing Mulcair of double-playing and forcing him to resign. Two years later, after having knocked on many doors, Mulcair reappeared with Jack, and won a by-election in the Outremont riding, an old Liberal fortress with a mixed population. It was a real victory to be fair; however, Mulcair rode on the sponsorships scandal. Liberal voters were furious and decided to change their vote or to abstain (less than 30% of voters participate in by-elections).

So here we are right now. In many ways, Mulcair does not really fit in a party which calls itself social-democratic. He is at the best a centrist Liberal and at the worst, he demonstrated that he could side with tough neoliberal policies.

One could say, well, it’s not the end of the world. And no, it is not. Mulcair is well spoken and nice looking and could win again, who knows? I would be pleased to have at least an NDP parliamentarian from Quebec. But because it’s him, it is ambiguous.

The problem is that all of this reflects an inherent weakness in the NDP in Quebec. It is not the only occasion where the NPD has ended up with strange mavericks. At some point, the provincial leadership was in the hands of a former FLQ activist, certainly a nice guy, but again, who had nothing to do with the NDP.

In fact the NDP has no base in Quebec. It cannot bring more than 300 QuĂ©bĂ©cois together to discuss its policies, outlooks, strategies. It is cut out. Most of its leadership thinks this is another planet. They don’t understand it. They don’t even know the language (apart from Jack, and a small group of other folks, the NDP is Anglo world). They are not even able to ask the questions.

Most of their votes in Quebec are by ‘default’, protest votes, mostly from progressive people, but without any adherence to the Party as a party or a platform.

So here is my provocative advice, my two penny dream. Sometime after the election, when we are trying to heal our wounds faced with an aggressive Harper government, Jack should come out of the box and say something like this (excuse my French):

Bonjour mes concitoyens québécois

Je voudrais d’abord vous dire que nous nous excusons. Le NPD n’a jamais Ă©tĂ© capable de comprendre et d’Ă©couter le QuĂ©bec. Et surtout nous n’avons pas Ă©tĂ© consĂ©quents avec le fait que le Canada a Ă©tĂ© construit dans une perspective coloniale, pour subjuguer le peuple quĂ©bĂ©cois et les peuples autochtones. L’État canadien, la constitution canadienne, n’ont pas Ă©tĂ© dĂ©veloppĂ©s pour vous inclure, mais pour vous contrĂŽler. Nous au NPD, nous voulons reconnaĂźtre ce fait et recommencer sur une nouvelle base.

La premiĂšre chose est que, nous allons immĂ©diatement nous engager Ă  non seulement reconnaĂźtre, mais Ă  appuyer le peuple quĂ©bĂ©cois dans sa lutte pour le droit Ă  l’autodĂ©termination. Jamais le NPD ne va appuyer les manƓuvres de l’État fĂ©dĂ©ral et des dominants au Canada pour nier ce droit. C’est Ă  vous de dĂ©cider et si vous optez pour un État indĂ©pendant, nous serons avec vous pour dĂ©velopper des relations fraternelles entre le Canada et le QuĂ©bec.

DeuxiÚmement, nous allons tout de suite engager un dialogue avec les forces représentatives et anti-Harper du Québec, incluant le Bloc Québécois. Nous allons voir comment il est possible de coordonner notre lutte au Parlement fédéral contre le néolibéralisme et le néoconservatisme.

Enfin, nous allons proposer aux divers mouvements populaires et syndicaux du QuĂ©bec, du Canada et des PremiĂšres Nations, un grand dialogue pour voir ce qu’on peut faire ensemble, au Canada et au QuĂ©bec, pour dĂ©velopper des alternatives. Que le peuple quĂ©bĂ©cois dĂ©cide de constituer un État indĂ©pendant ou non (c’est Ă  vous de dĂ©cider), cela ne change rien au fait que nous devons Ɠuvrer ensemble et lutter pour la justice sociale, la paix, la dĂ©mocratie.

En attendant, ensemble avec le peuple québécois et ses organisations, nous allons confronter les Conservateurs. Nous allons résister. Nous allons les isoler. Et éventuellement, nous allons les vaincre.

Jack Layton, chef du NPD

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Pierre Beaudet

Pierre was active in international solidarity and social movements in Quebec, and was the founder of Quebec NGO Alternatives, and Editor of the Nouveaux cahiers du socialisme. He blogged on rabble.ca in...