Quebec’s far-left party risks imploding over one word: pragmatism

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Quebeckers first became captivated by Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois during the 2012 Maple Spring, when the then-history undergrad emerged as the star spokesman for striking students who paralyzed the province and its government for weeks.

Poised, polished and brimming with confidence and charisma well beyond his 21 years, Mr. Nadeau-Dubois seemed destined for politics. It was always just a matter of him identifying the right political vehicle for his unique talents.

Few were surprised when, in 2017, after finishing up a master’s degree in sociology, Mr. Nadeau-Dubois won a seat in the National Assembly after running in a Montreal by-election for Québec Solidaire, an upstart far-left formation that had won three seats in the legislature, and barely 7 per cent of the popular vote, in the previous provincial election in 2014.

Mr. Nadeau-Dubois, by then commonly known as “GND,” soon became QS’s co-spokesperson, alongside Manon Massé, a popular Montreal MNA, under a party constitution that called for gender parity in a bicephalic leadership structure. By championing environmentalism, feminism and social justice, QS became the first choice of Quebeckers under 35, going on to win 10 seats and 16 per cent of the vote in the 2018 election.

For a while after that, it seemed QS was set to become the main opposition to Coalition Avenir Québec Premier François Legault’s government. The sovereigntist Parti Québécois looked like a spent force, and the Quebec Liberal Party, despite forming the Official Opposition, had been almost entirely shut out of majority-French-speaking ridings.

Mr. Nadeau-Dubois and QS led the fight against the CAQ’s Bill 21, which was adopted in 2019 and bans some public employees from wearing religious symbols. GND attacked Mr. Legault’s brand of conservative nationalism as a throwback to the days of Maurice Duplessis, and castigated the Premier for denying the existence of systemic racism in Quebec society.

During the last election campaign, Mr. Legault spent most of his time attacking QS and its promise to slap hefty taxes on gas-guzzling pickup trucks and SUVs, depicting the party as a band of woke radicals out of touch with the bread-and-butter concerns of ordinary folks. In the 2022 election, QS won just 11 seats and its share of the vote declined from 2018.

Since then, Mr. Nadeau-Dubois has tried to nudge his party toward the centre, with proposals to drop some of its more hardline positions on the environment and the economy. QS’s current program, first adopted in 2006, calls for the “socialization of economic activities” and nationalization of key industries. But GND’s vision of a more moderate QS has faced blowback from rank-and-file militants who accuse him of selling out. In calling earlier this month for QS to represent the “pragmatic left,” Mr. Nadeau-Dubois set off an explosive internal debate that could lead to his party’s implosion.

The debate over the p-word – pragmatism – revolves around the Saguenay Declaration, a document aimed at transforming QS into a “party of government.” It outlines a series of bland party principles and jettisons the anti-capitalist rhetoric that dominated previous QS platforms. It advocates “collaboration” with communities and industry in the elaboration of measures to combat climate change.

QS members are set to vote on whether to officially adopt the Saguenay Declaration at a party meeting next weekend. It promises to be a make-or-break moment for GND.

“Where will this timid choice to stick to the limits of ‘pragmatism’ dictated by economic and media elites lead us? Our ambition is much greater than that,” a group of 40 party members opposed to Mr. Nadeau-Dubois’s proposals wrote in an open letter in Le Devoir. “Of course we want to take power. But not to quietly exercise it by passing the few bills that the dominant elites allow us to pass. It is to take this power head on and return it to the people.”

Mr. Nadeau-Dubois is not just facing internal party resistance to his ideas. His leadership style is also being openly contested by many in the party. Émilise Lessard-Therrien, Ms. Massé's successor as co-spokesperson, resigned last month after complaining about being shut out by “closely knit political staffers around the male co-spokesperson” and their preoccupation with “the usual compromises, image calculations and polls.”

All of this infighting is taking its toll on the party’s popularity. A Léger poll conducted for Le Journal de Montréal between May 10 and May 13 showed support for QS sagging to just 12 per cent, down six percentage points since March. Among its core electorate of Quebeckers between the ages of 18 and 34, QS leads the PQ by just three points – 32 per cent to 29 per cent. Over all, the PQ leads provincewide with 32 per cent, compared with 22 per cent for Mr. Legault’s CAQ.

For GND, who turns 34 at the end of the month, the Maple Spring must seem like a distant memory.