The surprising mid-June by-election results in Quebec indicates that Quebecers, not happy with the provincial political scene, are looking for change. Mario Dumont and the ADQ have used this sentimenmt as a springboard, presenting themselves as the party of new ideas and solutions. But are the ideas really new, and what exactly are the solutions?

According to June 1 Léger Marketing-Le Devoir poll, 83% of Quebecers could not name even one aspect of the Action Democratique du Quebec’s platform. However, anyone who has even taken a casual glance at the ADQ’s platform would see that the so-called new ideas and solutions are actually a political turn to the hard right.

The Platform

The ADQ has clear ideas about how Quebec should be governed, but is ambiguous or silent on other issues, most notably on constitutional and international issues.

Not only would the ADQ allow the participation of the private sector in Quebec’s Health Care system, but also Mario Dumont does not hide the fact that he is in favour of a two-tiered system. In Education, plans include indexing tuition fees to the consumer price index. The party also plans to stimulate wealth and prosperity in Quebec, but there is no mention of how they plan on redistributing it. Their fiscal policy does include, however, a flat tax and a minimum revenue programme.

The key element in all this is the ADQ’s plan to deregulate and scale back government.. They are committed to reducing State involvement in the economy and eliminating State complications in the creation of jobs. It is, in fact, the entire concept of State interventionism that the ADQ is calling into question.

Old at Heart

Critics content that the new idea card which the ADQ has been exploiting is misleading since the ideas are far from new. According to Guy Lachapelle, political scientist at Concordia University : “Mario Dumont is young, but his ideas are not. They are based on the political conservatism of Mike Harris,