The Squeaky Curd Gets the Grease
NDP blunders have given the Bloc Quebecois historic leverage over the federal government. Why are they using it to defend supply management?
By Gabriel Blanc
If you were to ask politicos what the third rail in Canadian politics is, they’d say that it’s anything that offends Quebec – and maybe the dairy industry. In the House of Commons, the Bloc Quebecois (BQ) is daring the Liberal government to grab hold of these rails with both hands, by threatening to bring down the government should they fail to pass a bill protecting supply management from future free trade agreements. To secure the Bloc’s support in motions of confidence, the Liberals would also need to pass a bill increasing Old Age Security (OAS) payments by 10 per cent. Both demands are likely to be met, not because of any unwritten law of Canadian politics mandating deference to Quebec, but because the Bloc Quebecois and the dairy industry alike have played their cards right.
While NDP threats are toothless, and Conservative motions of no confidence little more than an opportunity for sloganeering, the BQ is actually in a real position to bargain. On the one hand, the Bloc is polling well, and poised to gain seats from the flailing Liberals were an election to be called. On the other hand, they will never form government, and have much more leverage with a Liberal minority government than the likely Conservative majority to come.
For Bloc leader Yves-François Blanchet, now is the time to play hardball. From the perspective of the Liberal government, his demands are not too onerous – but why are these concessions, in Blanchet’s eyes, particularly appealing to Quebeckers? Regarding the increase of the OAS, it’s worth noting that the Bloc’s voter base is older. The party consistently polls better with older voters, and Quebec sovereignty is more popular among the older generation as well.
Supply management is a bit more complicated. Over 40 percent of Quebec's agricultural revenues are in supply-managed industries, and Quebec is also home to the largest dairy industry in the country. The main beneficiaries of supply management, agricultural producers, are concentrated in rural areas, where the Bloc does well. However, there is more to supply management than electoral math.
When supply management was first introduced by Pierre Trudeau, Quebec farmers protested the government’s interference in their businesses by dumping milk on the Minister of Agriculture. Their support for the programme was never assured, but gradually won by giving “Big Milk” control over the Dairy Commission, which was originally intended to be an independent body. The dairy lobby was successful not only in winning over politicians but also in convincing the Canadian people that tariffs and quotas were beneficial for the country – even if they increased prices at the grocery store. The Bloc has framed supply management as a part of Quebec’s cultural heritage, saying it protects small farmers from international and Canadian competition. Party communications describe supply management as a distinctly Quebecois system and something to be “proud” of.
The Bloc is far from alone in supporting supply management, and this is precisely what has made it such a compelling wedge between them and the federal government. It is also particularly offensive to the BQ that the bill is being held up by the Upper House – which they consider to be a relic of the monarchy long past its expiration date. Yves-Francois Blanchet has called the Senate “illegitimate” and accused its members of deliberately holding up the bill in order to prevent its passage before the next election. Various Senate committees are reviewing the impact of the bill on international trade. Bloc MP Yves Perron, a strong advocate for Bill C-282 before Senate committees, has joked that he is spending so much time at 2 Rideau Street he is starting to make “friends” there.
Supply management is, at least for the time being, the subject of quasi-consensus support. When Bill C-282 went to third reading, it enjoyed the support of all but 51 MPs. These were largely Conservatives from West of Winnipeg (where supply-managed industries are less important). Increased scrutiny in recent years has made supply management a bugbear for a certain kind of online policy wonk (like Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, one of two Liberals to vote against C-282). Still, the Bloc’s disagreement with the government appears to be about procedure, not policy.
Ultimately, the Bloc’s demand is not the entrenchment of supply management (which all parties support), but that Parliament does its job efficiently rather than remain caught up in political gamesmanship. Ironically, this is much better politicking from the BQ than the NDP has mustered over the past two years. In choosing a cause that is broadly popular – not just in Quebec, but from coast to coast – the Bloc has positioned Blanchet as a statesman focused on proper democratic procedure, standing up to an unpopular government invested only in holding on to power.
The NDP would do well to learn from the clarity and consistency with which the Bloc Quebecois advocates for their policy objectives. Blanchet has been very honest about his strategy for extracting concessions from the Liberal minority, a far cry from Singh’s flip-flopping between cooperation with the government and “holding it accountable.” Like the dairy industry, Quebecois voters score policy wins because of tactically savvy champions. When the Bloc is successful, pundits should focus more on the effectiveness of this strategy than the usual moaning about how Quebec “gets everything that it wants.”
Gabriel Blanc (he/him) is the Editor-in-Chief of The Bell from Toronto, Ontario. He wrote for the Brown Political Review as a staff writer while pursuing his undergraduate degree at Brown University. He has since written for several online publications, including his own blog. While working at UNICEF, he contributed to human interest stories in English and French. He is excited to bring a fresh perspective and more French content to The Bell as the Editor in Chief.