Montreal: Bitter Orange

By Cédric Levasseur-Laberge (Montreal)

I must confess something. This is the first time that I truly voted. During the federal and provincial elections of 2008, I was studying abroad under the palm trees of southern France, and got absentee ballots that I brought to school and filled under the eyes of my classmates, bewildered to be staring at a moment of foreign democracy. But then I was voting only because I thought voting was important - my riding always being safe for a party I did not intend to vote for.

This time, on a rainy day, I entered the polling booth still undecided.  My riding had become a battlefield between the two parties I was considering to vote for, the Bloc and the NDP, both putting forward excellent candidates. I felt there was something solemn about it and, if you don't mind, I shall use that old prerogative to keep my vote secret.

Quebec hungover

From afar, it may seem like the NDP wave that stormed Quebec was a happy one and left everyone smiling, but it is rather a bitter feeling that many Quebecers have today. Jack Layton is still Quebec's beloved at the moment, but there is a feeling of guilt floating around for having hammered the Bloc so much and given such a humiliating end to the career of Gilles Duceppe, a politician who, regardless of whether we agree with the option he was putting forward, had been a model of integrity, dedication and service.

Quebec's "zeitgeist" yesterday was in some ways that of a hangover: disoriented and shameful about what had happened. To that was added the political nightmare of many Quebecers: a Conservative majority, despite their putting all their might against it.  The vote for the NDP was a sign that Quebecers had the will to have in influence in the affairs of the country. The realization that was a deception was rather tough and quite swift to arrive.

So the orange wave has left a bitter taste at Quebec's first attempt at joining the rest of Canada in a long while. As Quebecers had been constantly told, for the last fifteen years, that they were no different from the rest of the country, many hoped that this alleged similarity would have meant this movement to the NDP be shared from coast to coast.

So, in the minds of many disappointed Quebecers, this poll will have been much like this song by the great Leonard Cohen:

So the great affair is over, and who ever would have guessed
It would leave us all so vacant and so deeply unimpressed;
It's like our visit to the Moon, or to that other star,
I guess you go for nothing if you really want to go that far.

P.S.: It was a pleasure and a privilege to try to give you an insider's view of what goes on among young Quebecers and to share the whole action and sentiment that went along with this election. I hope the enjoyment was shared! Cheers!