She was the first woman to be elected President of Public Service Alliance of Canada, the former Vice President of the Canadian Employment and Immigration Union, served as a member of the Executive Committee for the Canadian Labour Congress, served as Vice President of the Ombudsman's office of the City of Gatineau, is the former Treasurer of the Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women, and represented workers on the Management Committee of Financial Assets of the QFL Solidarity Fund.
Politically, she has been a member of the New Democratic Party of Canada since 1991, served as Associate President of the party, and moderated the party’s leadership process in 2003. As remarkable of a life as that may sound, this woman also co-Chaired the Social Democratic Forum on Canada’s Future that “brought together progressive Canadians from all parts of the country” with a clear federalist mandate and vision. This is the life of Nycole Turmel, interim leader of the NDP.
However, there’s a catch. Nycole Turmel was also a member of the Bloc from 2006 to 2010 and a member of the Quebec Solidaire, a leftist political party with separatist roots.
Predictably, politicians and the media in English-speaking Canada are up in arms over her brief political affiliation with the separatist movement in Quebec. The attack seems to be led by the Liberals – an all but extinct political breed in Quebec – but even the Prime Minister has expressed his ‘disappointment’.
However, the Grits and the Tories should be very cautious in their attempts to smear Nycole Turmel’s character. Underneath the political posturing lies the unpredictable and often unstable underbelly of Canadian regional politics and there is much more at stake than simply scoring a few cheap political points – the Liberals are playing politics with national unity.
What many people outside of Quebec don't realize is that until the NDP breakthrough in the last election, there wasn’t a viable left-leaning, federalist political party in Quebec and separatists have traditionally dominated leftist politics in the province. Quebecers know that being a member of a separatist party is hardly evidence that you are a separatist.
Before May 2nd, many Quebecers who had voted for the Bloc or held membership in the party were Quebec nationalists, not separatists. That is an important distinction to make and is often lost on English-speaking Canadians who dismiss any sympathy for the Bloc as anti-Canadian.
If you were living in Quebec before the NDP breakthrough on May 2nd and you considered yourself a progressive it is quite likely that you held a party membership of or voted for a separatist party at some point in your life. You see, to Quebecers, sovereignty is a legitimate political position and many left-leaning Quebec nationalists saw the Bloc as a viable alternative that could speak for Quebec in Ottawa, without fully endorsing separation.
This is where I believe the Liberals – and Harper, who I will touch on later - have gotten themselves in trouble. While this issue may get headlines in English-speaking Canada and score some cheap, short term political points the potential fallout from this could be dangerous for Canada’s national unity.
If the Liberals are successful in their bid to make all things vaguely relatable to the Bloc off limits for federalist parties, they could run the risk of a serious long-term backlash and this stunt could be the much needed wind missing from the deflated sails of Quebec sovereignists.
Ask yourself – how many former members of the Bloc identify with Nycole Turmel? By attacking her credibility as a legitimate interim leader of the NDP, because of her “ties” to the Bloc, the Liberals risk indirectly attacking regular, every day Quebecers. This would confirm the deep rooted suspicion held by many Quebecers that English-speaking Canada is arrogant and intolerant of Quebec’s political culture.
I suspect separatists will be the first to point out to sympathetic Quebec nationalists that this political posturing is evidence that Canada’s English-speaking mainstream will never understand Quebec and the political establishment will never tolerate any kind of Quebec nationalism at any level. This is not good for national unity regardless of your feelings on Quebec nationalism.
Harper also runs the risk of allowing some political skeletons to escape from his closet. Many will remember the meteoric rise and fall of Quebec’s ADQ and the special relationship the party had with the federal Conservative Party. The right wing party, led by Mario Dumont, became Quebec’s Official Opposition in 2007 only to lose official party status in the following election.
What makes Harper’s attacks on Nycole Turmel potential political dynamite for him and his party is the fact that he supported Dumont’s vision of Quebec “autonomy”. Couple that with Dumont’s support for the “Yes” side in the last referendum and you can see how chastising a woman who voted "No" in the last referendum while tacitly supporting a man who voted "Yes" could prove difficult for the Prime Minister to explain.
Mario Dumont’s plan for Quebec autonomy would have given Quebec control over twenty-two specific areas of governance and was crafted to appeal largely to the Quebec nationalist vote – the same vote that is also courted by separatist parties and the same constituency that sent fifty-eight NDP MPs to Ottawa.
If Harper isn’t careful, he risks exposing his former alliances with staunch Quebec nationalists and former separatists – a risk that could end up further alienating the shrinking number of Quebecers who still support the Conservative Party in the province.
At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter whether or not Nycole Turmel has led a career serving in many leadership positions that took on a decidedly federalist tone or that she refused Gilles Duceppe’s request to run for the Bloc or that she has stated that she voted “No” in both Quebec referendums. Or the fact that any self-respecting separatist would never consider running for a federalist party, let alone take on the position of interim leader of said party. No, this is Canadian politics and reason and rationality rarely win the day.
However, I hope the Liberals, who are playing politics with national unity, understand that the only way to defeat separatism is to co-opt it. Quebec's right to self determination is something I've always supported and we need to engage Quebec nationalists if we want to prevent the Quebec sovereignty movement from taking the nationalist vote. If we chastise Nycole Turmel, we risk alienating other Quebec nationalists at a time when they have just flocked to a federalist party and rejected separatism in record numbers.
Sources:
Nycole Turmel’s Official Website
Social Democratic Forum on Canada’s Future
The Ottawa Citizen
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