Don Macpherson: The NDP’s ‘Jagmeet Singh problem’ in Quebec is real – Montreal Gazette

Ontario NDP MPP Jagmeet Singh launches his bid for the federal NDP leadership in Brampton, Ont., on Monday, May 15, 2017. Nathan Denette / THE CANADIAN PRESS

Quebecers are not used to being asked to vote for politicians who look like Jagmeet Singh. He wears colourfulturbans and has a long, dark beard, symbols of his Sikh faith. And he is a serious contender for the leadership of the federal New Democratic Party.

Some Quebec New Democrats are concerned that if Singh wins the leadership, voters in this province will reject their party. Considering the evidence, including their own recent experience, that concern is understandable.

Last week, Le Devoir reported the fear of several Quebecers in the NDP that electors in their province would not vote for an aspiring prime minister who displays his religious convictions so conspicuously.

The newspaper followed up this week, quoting an unidentified source as saying that some New Democratic members of Parliament from Quebec are considering not running again if Singh becomes leader, because they fear that they would be defeated.

A former New Democratic MP defeated in the 2015 general election, Pierre Dionne Labelle, flatly told Le Devoir that Quebecers arent ready to have a leader wearing conspicuous (religious) symbols.

He and other, unidentified sources also mentioned positions taken by Singh, as a member of the Ontario legislature, that may have been influenced by his religious beliefs.

Dionne Labelle wasnt the first Quebec New Democrat to go on the record with his concerns about Singh.

Like Dionne Labelle and the other sources quoted by Le Devoir, Karl Blanger, writing last month for Lactualit magazine, recalled that the turning point against the NDP in 2015 was a controversy in Quebec over a religious symbol.

As the partys national director at the time, Blanger was well-positioned to witness the effect of the Bloc Qubcois attack on NDP leader Thomas Mulcairs defence of a Muslim womans freedom to wear the face-covering niqab.

On the specific question of a Sikh leader, recent poll results suggest that with Singh, the NDP would face resistance from a majority of Quebec voters.

In a Canada-wide survey by the Angus Reid Institute in late May, 54 per cent of Quebecers expressing an opinion candidly gave the politically incorrect answer that they would not consider voting for a party led by a Sikh. And 64 per cent said they would not consider voting for a party led by a man who wears a religious head-covering.

The argument that Quebecers are uncomfortable with religion in general because of their experience under an oppressive Catholic Church prior to the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s is unconvincing.

True, in the 1970s, when we baby boomers were all liberating ourselves, I was struck by hearing many of my French-speaking contemporaries tell me of their additional personal struggles to free themselves from the grip of the Church.

Still, the relationship of Quebecers to religion remains, well, complicated.

There has been no movement to eradicate Catholic place names from the map of Quebec, as there was to eliminate those in English, or to remove Catholic symbols from public school buildings.

It was the courts, not public pressure, that halted the recital of a prayer before meetings of the Saguenay city council. And it is public opinion, as interpreted by the three largest parties in the National Assembly, that keeps the crucifix on the wall above the speakers chair.

Last week, there were complaints when a Muslim prayer was overheard at the privately owned Parc Safari zoo outside Montreal. But as La Presse columnist Mario Girard pointed out, nobody objected last month when an outdoor Catholic mass was celebrated during an arts festival held by a Lanaudire village named Sainte-Batrix.

All this is the selective secularism thats been called Catho-lacit, a combination of the French words for Catholicism and secularism.

Eventually, Quebecers will probably get used to politicians who look like Singh, just as they have got used to ones who are women, or black, or gay. But were not there yet.

dmacpgaz@gmail.com

Twitter: DMacpGaz

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Don Macpherson: The NDP's 'Jagmeet Singh problem' in Quebec is real - Montreal Gazette