Action démocratique du Québec

The Action démocratique du Québec (ADQ) is a populist, conservative, nationalist and autonomist provincial political party in Quebec, Canada. Its official registered name is Action démocratique du Québec/Équipe Mario Dumont (ADQ/ÉMD). While some journalists have translated the name into English as Democratic Action of Quebec/Mario Dumont Team, it has no official English name, and is normally referred to by its French name in the English-language media, or simply as "the ADQ". Its members are referred to as adéquistes, a name derived from the French pronunciation of the initials 'ADQ'.

It is Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition in the National Assembly of Quebec as a result of the 2007 provincial election. The ADQ gained official party status in the provincial parliament for the first time in the realigning election of 2007, with 41 Members of the National Assembly (MNAs) and 31% of the popular vote. The rules of the legislature require either at least 12 members or 20% of the vote to be granted such a right.^[3] Prior to that, the ADQ had never had more than five MNAs at once. Consequently it had less visibility and fewer resources to operate at the National Assembly.

Ideology

The ADQ is to the right on the political spectrum of the Liberals and the Parti Québécois (PQ). It advocates autonomy of individuals, autonomy of municipal governments, and autonomy of Quebec within Canada.

According to Jean-Herman Guay, Professor at Université de Sherbrooke's Department of History and Political Sciences, the ADQ's message is based on three key ingredients:^[2]

1. Populism: connecting with people's perception that the government is ineffective and disconnected from reality;
2. Neoliberalism: downsizing the government and make more room for the private sector;
3. Moderate Quebec nationalism: rejecting blind loyalty towards Canada and the necessity to achieve a certain amount of autonomy within Canada, without making the constitutional debate a priority.

The party's current proposals include:^[4]

• Fiscal Responsibility: scaling back Quebec's civil service, putting welfare recipients back to work and reducing government spending by one per cent, in order to balance the budget;
• Education: lifting freezes on college tuition and abolishing school boards;
• Electoral reform: implementing an election reform in which the premier would be elected by popular vote (i.e., a presidential government) and 50 of Quebec's 125 legislature seats would be determined by proportional representation;
• Health care: encouraging private health care delivery, in order to take the burden off Quebec's overcrowded public health care system;
• Immigration: "reasonable accommodation" granted to immigrants, preventing cultural communities from interfering with a number of mainstream values of the Quebec society, such as women’s rights;
• Labour: erasing mandatory dues and membership for unions and subcontracting duties currently handled by full-time employees;
• Relations with the Federal Government: re-opening constitutional talks and increasing Quebec's autonomy within Canada, without holding another Quebec referendum;^[5]
• Tax Reform: extensively restructuring the Quebec tax system, and lowering taxes overall.^[6]

In recent years the ADQ has abandoned a number of radical proposals, including issuing education vouchers to give parents the ability to pay for the education of their children at a school of their choice. Furthermore. the ADQ's brand of conservatism is not based on religious values.^[7][8]

Electoral support

Socially and geographically, the core support of the ADQ is similar to that of the provincial wing of the Social Credit Party in the 1962, and 1963 federal elections and the 1970 provincial election, the Union Nationale in the 1976 provincial election and the Conservative Party of Canada in 2006 federal election.

Its strongest base is provided by Chaudière-Appalaches and Québec, the most conservative regions of Quebec. The party’s popularity also reaches other predominantly French-speaking areas of the province, including Mauricie, Bas-Saint-Laurent, Centre-du-Québec and even Montérégie.

However, the ADQ has more difficulty breaking through in the more cosmopolitan urban districts of the Montreal area on one hand and in the other hand the most remote regions, such as Abitibi, Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean and Côte-Nord, whose economy is largely based on forestry.

Because of the polarization of the debate over the constitutional debate from 1970 to 1995, conservative voters have often limited their choice between the Quebec Liberal Party or the Parti Québécois. However, a number of commentators claim that resentment of the rest of Quebec against Montreal’s perceived hegemony, general mistrust towards current office holders, overburdened taxpayer's frustration and constitutional fatigue have let a cultural gap in Quebec society become more apparent and have resulted in an increased support for the ADQ.^[9][10]

History

Foundation and first decade: 1994-2002

The party was formed in 1994 by a group of nationalists that supported the Allaire Report, a document that advocated a decentralized federal system in which the provincial Government of Quebec would have significantly increased powers.

After the failure of the Meech Lake Accord, which made many French-speaking Québécois feel rejected by the rest of Canada, the Liberals adopted the Allaire Report as their official constitutional policy. However, the party eventually chose the Charlottetown Accord over the Allaire Report in 1992. The Charlottetown Accord would have recognized Quebec as a distinct society within Canada, but consisted of a much milder reform of the Canadian federal system. While most Liberals supported the Charlottetown Accord, a number of them opposed it and eventually quit the party.

Led by Jean Allaire, a Liberal insider and attorney from Laval, and Mario Dumont, a rising political star who had been President of the Liberal Youth Commission, the dissidents founded the ADQ. Allaire became the first party leader, but resigned within a few months for health reasons. He was succeeded by Mario Dumont, who has retained the leadership to this day.

With limited financial resources and excluded from the televised Leaders Debate, Dumont won a seat in the Quebec National Assembly in the 1994 provincial election, the only adéquiste candidate to do so in that election.

In the 1995 Quebec referendum on the Parti Québécois government's proposals for sovereignty, Dumont campaigned for the "Yes" side, in favour of the sovereignty option. However, in subsequent election campaigns, he has promised a moratorium on the sovereignty question, which earned him accusations of not having a clear and honest stand on the constitution question.

Shortly before the 1994 provincial election, Yvon Lafrance, a one-term Liberal backbencher who served under Premier Robert Bourassa, switched parties to join the ADQ, becoming the party's first sitting member of the legislature. In the ensuing election campaign, Dumont took part in the televised Leaders Debate and was re-elected as an MNA, but could not expand his electoral support significantly enough to get other party members elected and remained his party's only sitting MNA. Although Dumont was a very popular leader, support for the ADQ always lagged behind support for its leader.

Rise: 2002

In April and June 2002, voter dissatisfaction with both the Parti Québécois (PQ) government of Bernard Landry and the Liberal alternative presented by Jean Charest led the ADQ to an unexpected victory in a series of by-elections, bringing the party caucus to five members.

After the by-election wins, the ADQ soared in popularity, leading the established parties in public opinion polling for the first time in its existence. For a brief period, a number of political analysts predicted that the ADQ could gather as much as 42% of the vote and more than 80 seats in the National Assembly.

The increased popularity of the party provided the ADQ with larger grassroots support, more money and star candidates for the subsequent election. For the first time, Mario Dumont, who was able to recruit Beauce businessman Marcel Dutil, chairman of Groupe Canam Inc. as Director of the ADQ's fund-raising activities, was considered as a serious candidate for the office of Premier of Quebec.

Backlash: 2002-2003

As a result of the ADQ attaining greater popular support, its political opponents conducted negative campaigning against the ADQ for the first time. Those efforts were successful in damaging the public perception of the party. While a number of attacks were somewhat unfair (David Payne, the PQ MNA from Vachon, compared the ADQ to Jean-Marie Le Pen’s Front National), others brought to light the existence of flaws in the ADQ platform and a potential incompatibility between the party’s conservative philosophy and the voters.

Moreover, the party's repeated backtracking on its various policies, including a flat rate income tax of 20 per cent, may have appeared opportunist and harmed the party’s image as a viable alternative. It was also revealed that a close advisor of Mario Dumont had a criminal record, which prompted the media to question Dumont’s judgment.

The popularity of the ADQ declined. Dumont did not make any major mistake during the televised Leaders Debate, but did not deliver the outstanding performance he needed to gain momentum. By contrast, Liberal leader Jean Charest was able to put Bernard Landry of the Parti Québécois on the defensive.

The ADQ received 18% of the vote at the 2003 provincial election. All ADQ incumbents and star candidates, except Dumont, were defeated. The losses were compensated by the election of three new ADQ MNAs, who were still unknown at the provincial level but were well established in their communities. The ADQ drew enough votes from previous PQ supporters to give the victory to Jean Charest's Liberals, but did not make a significant breakthrough in the National Assembly.

Resurgence: 2003-2007

In the months that followed the election, the ADQ benefited from anger over the decision of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) not to renew the license of Quebec City radio station CHOI-FM. Radio host Jeff Fillion urged listeners to vote for ADQ candidate Sylvain Légaré in a by-election for the local district of Vanier. Légaré defended the station’s freedom of speech and was elected on September 20, 2004, which raised the number of ADQ seats back to five.

A few days later, the ADQ held a convention in Drummondville, where its members adopted the new constitutional position of the ADQ, which is labeled as autonomist without much precision on what it actually means. ADQ members also elected ex-Liberal minister Yvon Picotte as President of the ADQ, a job previously held by political analyst Guy Laforest.

In the January 2006 federal election, ten Conservative Members of Parliament were elected in Quebec, at the federal level. Four of those newly elected federal Members of Parliament - Maxime Bernier, Steven Blaney, Jacques Gourde and Josée Verner - came from districts represented by ADQ members at the provincial level. All except Bernier were at one point ADQ activists.^[11] Blaney was ADQ candidate in Beauce-Nord in 1998. This breakthrough prepared the ground the subsequent growth of the ADQ, which could rely on a number of supporters from the modest Conservatives' organization in Quebec.

In May 2006, the ADQ held a general council (French: conseil général in Granby, where Dumont has brought up the subject of having the current federal Conservative government broach the subject of a new round of constitutional talks in order to get Quebec to finally sign the Constitution.^[12]

Embarrassing comments were made by Party President Yvon Picotte about PQ Leader André Boisclair. Boisclair had decided not to run in a by-election for the district of Sainte-Marie—Saint-Jacques (in Montreal), the district where he lives and that is well known for its large gay population. Accusing Boisclair of being a coward, Picotte jokingly said that the riding would fit Boisclair, who is openly gay, like a glove (comme un gant). Many journalists criticized Picotte, saying his comment sounded homophobic. Within days, Picotte apologized.^[13]

In November 2006, the ADQ held its 6th Member's Convention ("Congrès des Membres"). The next month, it adopted its platform for the 2007 election, entitled "A Plan A for Quebec" ("Un plan A pour le Québec")^[14] and defined its stance on the controversial reasonable accommodation debate, which was well received by a substantial number of voters.

Quebec general election, 2007

When the 2007 election campaign started, the ADQ was running only a couple candidates with widespread name recognition and lacked the financial resources its rivals (especially the Liberals) had. Marcel Dutil announced that even though he likes Dumont he would vote strategically in favour of the Liberals.^[15]

However, polls showed that the ADQ had the potential to significantly increase its representation at the National Assembly. Dumont ran an effective campaign,^[16] unveiling one plank from his electoral platform every day and therefore benefiting from sustained attention from his opponents and the media.

Dumont's good performance though had its own setbacks: it led to more scrutiny of the ADQ.

The Liberals criticized the ADQ's financial plan as vague and unrealistic, accusing Dumont of underestimating its total cost. According to them, the ADQ's promises totaled $6.3 billion rather than the $1.7 billion announced by Dumont.

Besides, many journalists accused the ADQ of being a one-man show.^[17] Two candidates, who had made inappropriate comments, were dropped by the party from the election.^[18]

On election day, the ADQ made a surprisingly strong showing. It took 21 seats from the Liberal Party and 15 seats from the PQ. All five ADQ incumbents were re-elected, for a total of 41 seats. (The election of so many legislators without prior parliamentary experience delights cartoonist Serge Chapleau who likes to portray the ADQ MNAs as elementary school kids and Dumont as their teacher.)^[19] The reigning Liberals were reduced to a minority government, with only 48 MNAs.

For the first time, the ADQ received a plurality of the popular vote among French-speakers and it is now the official opposition.

Nonetheless, it failed to take a single seat on the island of Montreal, but it did come second in some of the city's ridings. Further developments are therefore necessary to determine whether or not the ADQ will permanently replace the PQ as the alternative to the Liberals.

Official Opposition

The ADQ MNAs and supporters met in Victoriaville in late September 2007 to detail the party's environmental policy.^[20] Former PQ Cabinet Member Jean Garon, former Hydro-Québec CEO André Caillé and environmental activist Steven Guilbeault attended the convention. Tom Pentefountas, a former ADQ candidate in the district of Nelligan in a 2004 by-election, succeeded Gilles Taillon as President of the party. Pentefountas enjoys little name recognition among voters in general, but he is a member of the Greek community and lives in Montreal. ADQ supporters hope that his profile might facilitate the party's attempts to connect with these constituencies.^[21]

During the year that followed the 2007 election, a number of ADQ members such as Éric Caire, Gilles Taillon and especially Sébastien Proulx emerged as effective and articulate legislators. Nonetheless, the ADQ is still getting adjusted to its new role as Official Opposition. According to journalist Gilbert Lavoie, the more experienced PQ caucus has been able to position itself as the best alternative to Jean Charest's Liberals.^[22] While political observers make unflattering comments about the ADQ's performance, political support for the party seems to lose momentum again.^[23][24] The ADQ suffered a major setback in 2008, losing four consecutive by-elections by substantial margins. Its support did not exceed 15% in any of the districts at stake.^[25][26][27] Furthermore, MNAs Pierre-Michel Auger and André Riedl, as well as power broker Yvon Picotte, switched political affiliation from ADQ to Liberal in October 2008.^[28][29]

Canadian federal election of 2008

ADQ Leader Mario Dumont made no official endorsement in the federal election of 2008. He said that he would vote Conservative, but claimed that his colleagues and party's supporters were free to support whoever they wanted. MNAs Pierre Gingras, Ginette Grandmont, Linda Lapointe, Lucie Leblanc and Sébastien Proulx campaigned on behalf of the Conservative Party of Canada's candidates. ^[30][31] Yet, the election provided no increase in membership for Quebec's Conservative delegation to Parliament.

Quebec general election, 2008

Quebec premier Jean Charest subsequently called a snap election for December 8, 2008. The ADQ entered the campaign far behind the governing Liberals and the second place PQ. A Léger Marketing poll conducted between Friday, November 14 and Monday, November 17, showed the Liberals with 44% of the vote and the PQ with 33%, while the ADQ trailed far behind at 15%.^[32]

Leaders of the Action démocratique du Québec

ADQ Presidents

Presidents of ADQ's Youth Commission

The Youth Commission of the ADQ was created in August 1995.

ADQ Members of the National Assembly

Defeated ADQ star candidates

Prominent ADQ members

Election results

General conventions

General conventions (French: congrès généraux) are open to all card-carrying supporters.

Sources

• Julien Béliveau, Mario Dumont - Le pouvoir de l'image

See also

• Politics of Quebec
• List of Quebec general elections
• List of Quebec premiers
• List of Quebec leaders of the Opposition
• National Assembly of Quebec
• Timeline of Quebec history
• Political parties in Quebec
• Jean-François Plante

Footnotes

External links

• Action démocratique du Québec website
• Directeur Général des Élections du Québec entry
• National Assembly historical information
• La Politique québécoise sur le Web

Provincial political parties in Quebec Represented in the National Assembly of Quebec: Liberal - Parti Québécois - Action Démocratique - Solidaire Other parties recognized by the Chief Electoral Officer of Quebec: Affiliation Quebec - Green - Marxiste-Léniniste - Bloc pot - Démocratie Chrétienne - Communist - Conscience Universelle - Parti égalité - République du Québec Historical political parties Action libérale nationale - Bloc Populaire Canadien - Les Démocrates - Fédération du Commonwealth Coopératif - Ouvriers - Conservateur - Parti créditiste - Parti national populaire - Parti social-démocratique - Ralliement créditiste du Québec - Rassemblement pour l'Indépendance Nationale - Union Nationale - Unité-Québec Pre-Confederation political parties Parti britannique - Parti bureaucrate - Parti bleu - Parti canadien - Parti patriote - Parti rouge - Parti patriote - Parti tory