Right-wing incumbent favoured to win as Quebec votes

Canada’s French-speaking Quebec province went to the polls Monday after a heated election campaign expected to return the right-wing governing party to power in a landslide after pushing claims that immigration threatens its unique culture.

More than six million people were eligible to cast a ballot, with polls scheduled to close at 8:00 pm (0000 GMT).

Voter Alain Gravel, 55, told AFP his ballot choice was swayed mostly by concerns about the economy and asylum seekers slipping into Canada from the United States — a trend which surged in 2017 during Donald Trump’s presidency, sparking an outcry, and peaked this year at more than 23,000, so far.

Nearly all of those migrants were intercepted by police in Quebec.

“We need to clean up public spending,” Gravel said. “Also we absolutely have to find a way to plug breaches in the border as we know that many migrants are exploiting those.”

The political discourse in Quebec has shifted in recent years away from the notion that once dominated, that of splitting the province from the rest of Canada — which was twice rejected in referendums in 1980 and 1995 — making way for fresh ideas.

Four years ago, former multimillionaire businessman Francois Legault succeeded in his bet to introduce a “third way” in Quebec politics.

Neither separatist nor federalist, the founder of the country’s third largest airline, Air Transat, pitched to Quebecers a “business” approach to politics coupled with Quebec nationalist values.

This round, identity politics once again stirred controversy in the campaign with the Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ), a motley right-wing Quebec nationalist party led by current Premier Legault, making sensational declarations blaming immigrants in part for the decline of the French language in the province.

It would be “a bit suicidal” to take in more newcomers given the language situation, said Legault, who had also previously linked violence and immigration.

Such fears are based on the latest census data which found that the proportion of Quebec’s population that speaks French most often at home has been on the decline since 2001, falling from 81.1 percent to 77.5 percent last year.

Experts, however, point out the data doesn’t take into account people who are fluent in French but it’s not their mother tongue.

– Low turnout expected –

As voting booths opened early Monday only a handful of people trickled in to an election station in a downtown Montreal gymnasium.

By midday, officials estimated the turnout at just over 29 percent.

Angele Hebert, 22, voting for only the second time in her life, lamented the low turnout, saying she was saddened to see “that only half of the population who can vote, votes.”

“If few people vote, the election result will give less legitimacy to the government,” she added.

According to Elections Quebec, nearly one quarter of eligible voters had already cast advance ballots — a record number.

“Even though the result seems to be a foregone conclusion, it’s still important to vote,” commented Adam Sanger, who at 20 was casting a ballot for the first time.

The CAQ was credited with nearly 38 percent of voting intentions in the latest surveys.

Its main rival, the Quebec Liberal Party, is expected to garner about 17 percent of the vote, which would be the worst result ever for the party that ruled Quebec for nearly 15 years prior to 2018.

Other opposition parties have trailed far behind with the exception of the separatist Parti Quebecois, which is expected to hold onto a few seats in the province’s national assembly despite a steady decline in its support over the past decade.

The election results are expected Monday night.