You've probably seen them while walking around your neighborhood: election posters are plastered on streets across the country. The parties are presenting their candidates in each riding. Among them, those of the Bloc Québécois caught our attention. The party is focusing on promoting values it considers important to Quebec identity: the French language and secularism. But on social media, some citizens are expressing their discomfort: does this vision of Quebec truly reflect the province's diversity?
“In Montreal, a Bloc poster says they've chosen secularism?! This is really a big deal for us...” reads a post on Carmen Chouinard's Facebook page about the Bloc Québécois posters. ‘We know that for years, racists [...] of all stripes have been hiding behind this word, which has lost all meaning,’ she continues.
For this retired doctoral student in religious studies at the University of Montreal, these posters are a real provocation... even though she has voted for the Bloc in the past.
“I no longer vote for the Bloc because they have become nationalists rather than nationalists. That is to say, they are people who have the right nationalist spirit, who have remained rooted in old traditions and who forget that Quebec has changed,” she explains.
Converted to Islam nearly 25 years ago, Carmen wears a headscarf. She feels less and less supported by politicians who say they want to represent Quebec. For her, the Bloc Québécois' election platform is evolving into a kind of “insidious racism.”
“Since Bill 21 was passed, I am no longer protected. I have never taught at the elementary or high school level, but if I wanted to, if I wanted to substitute teach at the high school in my neighborhood, I couldn't because I wear a headscarf. And yet I have a doctorate!” says the former lecturer indignantly.
She feels a real disconnect from the Bloc leader, who, in her opinion, is not paying enough attention to issues that have a real impact on people's daily lives. “We are going through a crisis. The education system is in shambles, the healthcare system is in shambles. I'm a baby boomer, I knew a system that worked. The question I ask myself is, 'What happened in the meantime?'”
For the retiree, the Bloc is turning increasingly toward conservatism and leaning further to the right. “We are not working toward social justice, social recognition for all individuals, or the well-being of society. I think that's the problem,” Carmen Chouinard laments.
A political strategy in response to a difficult context
In its political platform, the Bloc proposes bills to “exclude Quebec from Canadian multiculturalism so that Quebec can choose its own model for integrating newcomers” and “firmly oppose the federal challenge to Quebec's Bill 21.” To better understand this approach, we spoke with Catherine Ouellet, a professor of political science at the University of Montreal.
According to her, the political climate plays a major role in the Bloc Québécois' decisions.
“Since Mark Carney was elected leader of the Liberal Party, the Bloc has plummeted in the polls in Quebec,” she notes. According to the poll aggregator Canada 338, if elections were held today, the Bloc would drop from 32 to 16 seats.
This decline puts the party in a delicate position. Especially since the central issue of this election seems clear: who, between the Liberals and the Conservatives, will be best placed to deal with Donald Trump's return to the US presidency?
“The Bloc Québécois finds itself, de facto, out of the equation,” the professor analyzes. ”It cannot be the one to stand up to Mr. Trump.”
Falling back on its base
This context is pushing the party to adopt a more defensive stance, explains the researcher. Rather than seeking to broaden its electorate, it is banking on the loyalty of its base. “The Bloc is consolidating the support it has always had,” says Catherine Ouellet. Its partisan base is largely made up of fervent defenders of Bill 96, Bill 21, and secularism.”
These themes, deeply rooted in the party's identity since its creation in 1991, now serve as pillars of its electoral strategy.
But this approach raises a fundamental question: by placing so much emphasis on a certain vision of Quebec identity, isn't the Bloc at risk of excluding part of the population, particularly Quebecers from marginalized or racialized communities?
“What do we do about Indigenous languages?”
Simon Goulet-Tinaoui, a doctoral student in psychology at the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM), comes from a Quebec-Lebanese family. The slogans plastered on the streets of his neighborhood sometimes scare him. He is particularly concerned about how the Bloc represents Quebec on a national level. He does not recognize himself at all in this rhetoric, even though he is a sovereignist.
“It makes me ask myself a lot of questions. It's not black and white. Very divisive rhetoric like that upsets me,” explains Simon. Saying 'I choose Quebec' or 'I choose French' is like saying that if you don't choose Quebec like we do, you're against us.”
For the student, the election campaign is an opportunity to debate and compare how the Bloc represents Quebec, both in his parents' day and today. Having received an education where political engagement was very important, he wonders: “I can understand that when you feel threatened, when you feel that your identity is threatened, you want to be strong and defend Quebec pride. But you can't always base your identity on being against someone else.”
“There's also the whole question of the place of Indigenous communities in this discourse. We don't even talk about it. What are we going to do about Indigenous languages?” asks Simon. He notes that the party talks a lot about immigration and Muslim communities in Quebec, but shows little interest in First Nations, in his opinion.
In a way, he is glad that the party will have little influence at the national level.
The end of the campaign is fast approaching
As Catherine Ouellet points out, “Things can still change in the coming weeks. But it's hard to see how anything other than the tariff war and Donald Trump will be able to take center stage.”
As the public debate intensifies and the parties refine their final arguments, it remains to be seen whether other issues will manage to surface in this campaign dominated by tariffs and Canada-U.S. relations.
We contacted the Bloc Québécois several times but did not receive a response to our questions.