Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - April 15, 1981, Winnipeg, Manitoba 14 Winnipeg free press wednesday april 15, 1981 new Young voters add heft to pm by Vincent Lemieux the Canadian press Quebec despite appearances monday s election barely resembled those that have taken place in Quebec in he last 20 years. Even though the parti quebecois won twice As Many seats As the liberals 80 to this was the first time since 1960 that two parties were so close in the popular vote. The pm received 49 per cent of the vote and the liberals 46. Resulting in a narrower margin of Victory than that of 1960 when it was five per cent. It was also the first time since the beginning of the 1960s that third parties received less than five per cent of the vote. Once again the Union nationals disappears from the Quebec National Assembly. The pm Victory pales by comparison with the 1976 election. The party gained eight per cent of the popular vote this time and 10 seats while the liberals picked up 12 per cent and 16 seats. However compared with last year s referendum and the 11 by elections the liberals had won since 1976, this Victory is stunning. Few observers predicted after the referendum or even last fall that the pm would win re election. Until the end of last year All opinion polls Public or private indicated a relatively easy Victory for the liberals. Before asking what has happened since then we might mention a Point not stressed enough. The electorate of 1981 is not the same As that of 1976. New voters almost All very Young now Are on the electoral lists. They lean mostly towards the pm though less than those Between 25 and 34. Many have left others who voted in 1976 were no longer there this year either because they died or because they have left Quebec. Most of them favored the Liberal party. All in All the electorate of 1981 is better disposed towards the parti quebecois than the electorate of 1976. It has been the same from election to election since 1970, which explains in part the pm s steady Rise. Despite that the pm lost the referendum and would no doubt have been beaten by the liberals last fall. What has happened what can explain the outcome monday the reversal of the trend seems to be due to a series of factors which the voters have interpreted in their own Way. The common Therne found in All these explanations is that of the competent and honest team which respects the people and protects them against uncertainties within and without. These prevailing uncertainties explain the defeat in he referendum. But since then the pm has promised that there will not be another referendum during its second mandate. The threat no longer came from pm plans but from unilateral Patria Tion of the Constitution on which Claude Ryan s liberals have taken an ambiguous position. The Liberal Leader also disturbed people by his personal attacks repeating the error of Lise Payette during the referendum when she called federalist women Yvette the docile girl of Quebec textbooks. Ryan had said his party tolerated Louise Currier the pm s Deputy speaker in the last Assembly Only because she was a woman. No credible solution and to those who were disturbed about economic and financial management of tiie government Ryan was unable to offer a credible solution in its place. In a word while the pm and its Leader were More and More reassuring the Liberal party its Leader and its fed eral allies were More and More disquieting. A poll published last weekend revealed an interesting fact which passed unobserved. A majority of voters Between 35 and 44, until then mostly in favor of the liberals were turning towards the pm. These were electors who voted for the first time in the 1960s, in the glorious years of the quiet revolution and of the liberals who brought it in. That Many of them came to see themselves reflected More in the pm of Levesque than in the Liberal party of Ryan is undoubtedly revealing. An immense Challenge faces the pm at the Dawn of its second mandate. Its platform still includes sovereignty association but it must take part with its allies in the other provinces in a redefinition of Canadian federalism. It still dreams of a planned society established by the state but it must manage Zero growth and therefore the austerity of several years in a situation of pinpoint balance in which what is Given to some will be taken from others. That must be understood by powerful corporations powerful unions and powerful administrations which would rather have people believe that what is Good for them is Good for Quebec. 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