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A report by La Presse last week detailing how the Quebec government blocked federal aid that would have provided vulnerable seniors with food assistance left me shocked.

The aid would have supplied 1,000 meals per week, yet the CAQ government stood in the way of the much-needed assistance, apparently to make a point about supposed interference in provincial jurisdiction. As if Quebec taxpayers aren’t equally Canadian taxpayers and therefore also entitled to these funds.

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In the article, the director of the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve community organization affected by this provincial-federal tug of war understandably expresses frustration at his group being deprived of close to $800,000 that could have directly helped 200 Quebec seniors over an 18-month period.

Le Journal de Montréal columnist Josée Legault criticized the government’s move in a scathing column, stating that “by depriving cities and organizations of federal subsidies — or by delaying them unnecessarily — instead of asserting itself in a constructive manner, the Quebec government is resorting to cheap nationalism.”

She’s right.

One can perhaps claim government officials were simply complying with existing legislation that aims to prevent or minimize federal interference in matters that are considered provincial jurisdiction. But that would be a cop-out.

At its most fundamental, politics is about people. The very word derives from the Greek word for citizens, and citizens should always be at the core of every public policy or political decision made. Politics should ultimately be about improving people’s lives, not playing chess at their expense.

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Cheap nationalism has unfortunately been part of the CAQ government’s playbook since it swept into power.

Premier François Legault’s “Quebec first” brand of nationalism has often been limited to a certain kind of Quebecer, and Bills 21 and 96 have clearly indicated that under this government, the province’s secularism and linguistic protection often involve the marginalization and vilification of religious communities and minority language groups.

When it could have chosen compassion and inclusion, the CAQ government has often chosen exclusionary populism that panders to voters’ insecurities and fears, instead of their aspirations.

In the family reunification file, it has chosen to be unnecessarily cruel, slashing the number of applications it will process and depriving fellow Quebecers of their loved ones for years.

Another example of cheap nationalism that penalizes the most vulnerable is Bill 96’s unrealistic six-month timeline for newcomers (including asylum seekers) to have access to government services in another language, after which those services must be solely provided in French. It’s a punitive demand, especially while the Quebec government’s francization resources are sorely lacking.

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The CAQ’s cheap nationalism has also seeped into the language used in health care, as recent changes under Bill 96 and the subsequent directive from the Health Ministry aiming to clarify said changes have caused immeasurable confusion and stress among the English-speaking community. And for what? None of these measures appear to offer any concrete benefits for the French language.

Similarly, the CAQ government has chosen to undermine and hurt the province’s English-language higher education institutions even though they are very much Quebec institutions, educating and employing Quebecers.

In this latest example of cheap nationalism, the government opted to block financial assistance from the federal government instead of finding a way to use those funds to help improve the lives of Quebecers who are less fortunate.

Instead of doing what a government should be doing — making people’s lives better — it prioritized the optics of Quebec’s self-affirmation while simultaneously depriving vulnerable citizens of support.

I want a government whose sense of pride isn’t derived from sticking it to Ottawa, but from working hard for the well-being of all Quebecers.

Toula Drimonis is a Montreal journalist and the author of We, the Others: Allophones, Immigrants, and Belonging in Canada. She can be reached on X @toulastake

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