Four vie for Nunavik votes in Quebec election

When Quebec votes on Monday, March 26, Nunavimmiut will have four candidates to choose from.

Jacques Cadieux of the Action Démocratique du Québec, Luc Ferland of the Parti Québécois, Gilbert Hamel of Québéc Solidaire and Aline Sauveageau of the Quebec Liberal Party are competing for the Ungava riding, which the PQ has held during the past three elections.

However, Aline Sauvageau hopes voters in Nunavik will continue to vote Liberal, in spite of heavy support for the PQ in the southern part of the riding.

In the last provincial election in 2003, the majority of voters in the Nunavik section of Ungava riding chose the Liberals. The Liberal candidate received 61 per cent of votes from Nunavik in a losing cause, while the PQ received 28 per cent and the ADQ 11 per cent.

If Sauvageau can pick up more votes in the southern part of the riding and keep Inuit and Cree on board, she just might have a chance to take the seat from the PQ.

That’s the message Sauvageau brought to Kuujjuaq last week. Natural resources minister Pierre Corbeil, her boss until this election call, was also along for the visit.

Sauvageau doesn’t speak much English, but during her many trips to Nunavik with the minister, she said that hasn’t been a handicap, thanks to interpreters.

In Kuujjuaq, Sauvageau and Corbeil met with regional and local leaders and went live on three radio programs to answer questions.

“I told them, Nunavik can make the difference in the results.”

Sauvageau said voters told her they want see their high cost of living reduced. A Liberal government will do that, she said, with transportation subsidies and possible tax credits.

The ADQ candidate is forestry consultant Jacques Cadieux. In an interview from Chibougamou, he revealed that he knows little about the northernmost part of the Ungava riding – where there are no trees – but the avid caribou hunter said he’s keen to learn.

Cadieux, who speaks fluent English, said if he wins he’ll be in Nunavik “immediately – the day after [the election]. I will buy my tickets.”

Campaign pledges on the ADQ’s socially conservative agenda include limiting early parole for prisoners and drafting a charter of victims’ rights.

Cadieux sees the ADQ’s family policy as a strong selling point for Nunavik voters. The ADQ is promising $100 per week to the parents of any preschool-aged child who doesn’t go to subsidized child care centres. The new parental subsidy would cost $25 million, but overall Cadieux said it would produce cost savings for the government.

“This is what we have to do,” he said, to support families.

Luc Ferland, who has been the right-hand man for Ungava MNA Michel Létourneau since 2001, wants to keep the seat for the PQ.

Ferland has no trouble finding lots of reasons Nunavimmiut should vote for the PQ. In an interview from Chibougamou, he said the PQ has done more for Nunavik than any other party.

“We have always supported self-government for the territory of Nunavik. We believe it should become its own riding with its own member in the national assembly. We have been completely supportive of this,” he said.

At about 22,000, Ungava already has the second smallest population of any riding in Quebec, although it stretches from the Hudson Strait almost as far south as Val d’Or.

In his interview, Ferland didn’t mention the PQ’s position on Quebec sovereignty. Education, the environment and the economy are the main themes of his platform. He emphasized the PQ’s intent to give regions like Nunavik more control over their economy and hand them the money to do the job.

Ferland said he’s particularly interested in helping youth in Ungava learn to better understand each other though exchanges between Inuit, Cree and Québécois students.

“If we encourage them to socialize in a social or cultural situation, within 10 or 15 years, when they are 25 years old, they will have learned to know each other, to be friends and to carry out projects together,” he said.

The Québec Solidaire Party is also running a candidate in Ungava, Gilbert Hamel. This new party was created in February 2006 after various left-wing political movements merged to form a new party. The QS supports sovereignty and the nationalization of wind energy, among other policies.

In April 2003, the Liberals won Quebec, but Nunavik’s Liberal votes weren’t enough to prevent PQ incumbent Létourneau from winning again.

That’s because in the Ungava, Inuit are vastly outnumbered by Cree and non-aboriginal residents.

Létourneau easily won with 56 per cent of the total vote because he had heavy support from voters in the French-speaking communities in the southern part of the riding.

However, after three terms, Létourneau decided not to run again in this month’s election. As a result, his seat is wide open in a volatile election which could see Premier Jean Charest end up sharing power, although Quebec hasn’t seen a minority government since 1878.

The Liberals now have 72 seats, the PQ 45 and the ADQ five seats in Quebec’s national assembly.

But the ADQ hopes to pick up at least 20 seats on March 26 under the leadership of its popular young leader, Mario Dumont. Some political observers suggest some are likely to vote ADQ due to a mistrust of PQ leader André Boisclair and the suspicion that Charest would rather be prime minister of Canada rather than premier ministre of Quebec.

Polls will be open throughout Nunavik on March 26 from 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.