For the sovereignist and nationalist politicians and commentators who paternalistically believe they reflect the prevailing views of the population when it comes to issues of identity, immigration or Quebec’s relationship with the rest of Canada, Monday’s federal byelection result in Terrebonne came as a rude awakening.   

The Liberal candidate, Tatiana Auguste, a Haitian immigrant to Canada in 2008, defeated her opponent from the separatist Bloc Québécois unequivocally in the traditionally nationalist stronghold northeast of Montreal that has consistently voted Bloc federally or Parti Québécois provincially in almost every election for decades.    

Voters this time, however, sent a message that evidently contradicts the insular nationalist narrative that has underpinned Quebec politics in recent years — a narrative marked by:

Debates of one-upmanship between the Coalition Avenir Québec government and the PQ opposition on the backs of minority communities, with the adoption of laws regulating the wearing of religious symbols, public prayer, integration of immigrants, and language. 

Railing........

© Montreal Gazette