Beware the ADQ piper

Clearly meant as a volley across the bows of the powerful Liberal fleet that has been moored just off the West Island for longer than most people can remember, the alliance being forged between the ADQ and the mayors of Baie d’Urfé, Dorval, Senneville and Montreal West was all but inevitable.

Scanning the faces at the table during last Friday’s press conference, some people did a double take, for one mayor’s absence spoke louder than the all the others combined—Karin Marks. Westmount's mayor is by far the most visible and vocal anti-agglom activist in the entire municipal structure, but this community's ties to the Liberal Party are so strong that its mayor's endorsement of the ADQ is next to unthinkable. It would also be a taken as an unfair swipe at MNA Jacques Chagnon, who has served this riding well and managed to hold on for dear life throughout the storm.

Support of the ADQ may be all very well and good, in fact it sends a clear message to the Charest government that after four years in power it has failed miserably in any attempt to assuage the terrible mess created by Bill 170 and everything that came after. But we must always remember that there are other issues involved. Don’t forget, at the very root of any provincial election is that pesky threat of another referendum. Separation, sovereignty, independence—call it what you will—it still serves the Parti Québécois as its primary electoral platform. There are still plenty of diehard separatists out there, and although they may now be seen as political dinosaurs by Quebec’s high-tech, global-minded younger generation, they still represent a significant portion of the electorate and must be courted by the PQ—and the best way to do that is to promise another referendum.

It seems that a lot of people are looking to Mr. Dumont as if he is some sort of Pied Piper come to magically rid the suburbs of their municipal Agglomeration woes. Instead, even a few new ADQ seats in Liberal-held ridings might mean a victory for the PQ and, inevitably, another sovereignty referendum. This Pied Piper may have good intentions, but as the fable clearly warns, he may be inadvertently leading our children out of the province.