Melançon: PSPP ramps up rhetoric, attacks — and arrogance

The French language is rich with creative, vivid expressions.

“Tourner sa langue sept fois dans sa bouche avant de parler” — literally, to turn your tongue seven times in your mouth before speaking — is one of those delightful idioms.

Why seven times rather than six or eight? Nobody really knows. But everyone understands the message: Think before you speak.

It’s something Paul St-Pierre Plamondon could have done more of in recent days, as his attacks on Quebec’s cultural sector have sparked major controversy.

The Parti Québécois leader was reacting to Marc Miller’s appointment as the new federal minister of Canadian Identity, Culture and Official Languages.

One can certainly disagree with Miller’s decision to begin his first day as culture minister by declaring he was “fed up” with the language debate that he says has become about “identity and politics” — prompting Premier François Legault to call him a “disgrace.” Miller is unlikely to be done with that “debate” any time soon, anyway; protecting French across the country — a core element of Canadian identity — will be central to his new portfolio.

But St-Pierre Plamondon’s comments went much further as he accused leaders of the province’s cultural industry of being “intellectually void” and “disloyal to Quebec” by “submitting” to a “dogmatic” federal regime he described as “harmful to Quebec culture.”

On Sunday evening, after almost a week spent defending his declarations, he admitted on Tout le monde en parle that he “went too far” with his comments. You think?

Let’s be clear: It is entirely normal for Quebec cultural organizations to work with the federal government, to offer good wishes to a newly appointed culture minister and to publicly rejoice when Ottawa grants them much needed funds. After all, whether PSPP likes it or not, unless the PQ wins a referendum someday, Quebec is still part of Canada.

St-Pierre Plamondon’s latest rant highlights how the PQ has changed ideologically in the five years since he became leader. This is no longer René Lévesque’s soft, social-democratic PQ — the party that was once close to artists and the progressive centre-left. Today, most of these people are much closer to Québec solidaire than to the PQ.

St-Pierre Plamondon should tread carefully with artists. If a third referendum on independence does materialize, he will need the influential endorsements of singers, actors and other public figures Quebecers admire and whose approval could play a crucial role in helping persuade a majority of voters to back such a project.

In recent months, PSPP has increasingly projected the image of a leader who is impulsive and arrogant — as though his party’s rise in the polls has gone to his head. The PQ leader now allows himself to publicly attack journalists and media outlets he disagrees with, something we rarely see in Quebec politics. His abrasive tone, his inability to tolerate being contradicted and his sometimes paternalistic approach suggest he believes he knows better than everyone else.

He should be wary of that. Quebecers have historically had political “love stories” with humble, down-to-earth leaders like Lévesque. Politically, appearing pretentious rarely pays off in this province.

He should also remember that the PQ’s current success is not primarily due to flourishing support for sovereignty — it stems largely from the fact that he has become the only realistic alternative to a fatigued Coalition Avenir Québec, on one side, and on the other, a Liberal party once again mired in ethical scandals. Ten months is an eternity in politics. If ever Legault or Pablo Rodriguez were to resign before the next election, for instance, the political cards could be shuffled quite quickly.

St-Pierre Plamondon may think he’s already king of Quebec. But if he hopes to make it to Coronation Day, he might want to twist his tongue a few more times before speaking … and come back down to Earth.

Raphaël Melançon is a public affairs consultant and political analyst. A former journalist, he previously worked as a political adviser at all three levels of government.

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