Western Quebec Voters Deliver Four Liberal Seats; Prime Minister Appoints Western Quebec Minister?

Mr. Prime Minister:  Not only did your dream of a majority government being elected on Monday, September 20th not work out for you, but for the second general election in a row, your political party received less votes across the country than that of the party of the Leader of the Official Opposition.   Not much of a popular mandate to pursue your many many campaign promises. 

Complicating measures were not only your government’s introduction of Bill C-32 in the House of Commons promoting asymmetrical federalism, but also the actions of you personally, your cabinet ministers, and the vast majority of the M. P.s in your own government party caucus  including those of Hull-Aylmer, Gatineau, and Argenteuil-La Petite-Nation voting in favour of the Bloc Québécois motion introduced by BQ Leader Yves-François Blanchet in support of the constitutional amendments 90Q.1. and 90Q.2. in Bill 96 which was introduced in the National Assembly of Québec by the Coalition avenir Québec government:

“CONSTITUTION ACT, 1867                                                                                                                                       159. The Constitution Act, 1867 (30 & 31 Victoria, c. 3 (U.K.); 1982, c. 11 (U.K.)) is amended by inserting the following after section 90:                                                                                                          FUNDAMENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF QUEBEC                                                                                                90Q.1. Quebecers form a nation.                                                                                                                             90Q.2. French shall be the only official language of Quebec. It is also the common language of the Quebec nation.”                                                                                                                                   

So how did most Anglophones, Allophones, federalist Francophones, and libertarians – quite a coalition of electors –in the four Western Quebec federal ridings vote?  This significant population of dissatisfied voters held their noses and voted Liberal, as they have in the two previous federal general elections.

It has become much clearer in my mind that reading is not one of your favourite personal pastimes, especially when it comes to the topic of Canadian federalism, and the important role played by your late revered father in its evolution.  

It has been a full decade - yes ten whole years - since Western Quebec has had a minister representing the priorities of our region at the meetings of your Canadian Cabinet. Not since 2011, when the Honourable Lawrence Cannon, the Conservative M.P. for Pontiac, was in the Cabinet of the Right Honourable Stephen Harper.   

So Mr. Prime Minister: what are you to do?  You often put yourself in a difficult position by what you have said in the past.

You strongly believe in a gender equal cabinet.  Sounds like a great idea in 2021. Remembering that the three cabinet ministers defeated in their own ridings on Monday, September 20th were all female, the construction of your next cabinet needs the skills of an expert carpenter.  Unfortunately, the gene poll in your Liberal caucus is quite shallow, as once again barely one-third of your     M. P.s are female. as is the case for the opposition parties as well.

So Greg Fergus, Steven MacKinnon, and Stéphane Lauzon

have been re-elected to serve their third terms in office.  Baring a sex change, all three are at a disadvantage in the face of your gender equal cabinet appointment process.  But alas!  Your appointed candidate in the Pontiac riding, Sophie Chatel, is thank God! a female and even though a rookie M. P. may very well end up at the Cabinet table.  Politics, after all, does often work in mysterious ways!