English-rights group Talking. Advocating. Living in Quebec. (TALQ) says it is cautiously optimistic about the province’s new Parti Québécois (PQ) government, adding that it is looking forward to working with premier-designate Paul St-Pierre Plamondon on issues concerning the community. “I think people are happy that it’s a minority government, which means that all parties will have to pay attention to what Quebecers want,” said Sylvia Martin-Laforge, TALQ director general. “For the time being, it’s the right result.” READ MORE: She noted that all Quebecers have “more leverage” with a minority government. “Most English-speaking Quebecers would tell you that we’ve had doom for the past eight years, and anything might be an improvement,” Martin-Laforge said. “We’ll have to see. We’re optimistic, some of us more than others.” Some of the issues she said the group wants to discuss with the incoming premier are English rights when it comes to education. “The continuum of education in the English community is very, very important,” she said. “Anything that a government tries to do to strangle our education system...we will fight. We will fight.” Martin-Laforge insisted that the same goes for the right to English services in health care and voting - referring to Élections Québec being barred from sending bilingual voter cards to electors, as well as election day employees being told they must prioritize speaking unilingually in French. “There are many things we have to talk to the premier about,” she said. “We want to know if he will have a minister responsible for English-speaking Quebecers or relations with English-speaking Quebecers, if they will continue with the Secretariat and the funding that the Secretariat has given to the English-speaking community.” In his victory speech Monday night, the PQ leader made a point of speaking English to emphasize that he’s ready to work for all Quebecers. “Many of you right now may be wondering how the Parti Québécois will be governing over the next four years,” he said. “I just want to let you know very clearly, I’ll be the premier of everyone in Quebec.” He continued, “We’re all in the same boat, and we share the same future. We have the same interests, and we have before us many challenges and problems that we will solve together.” READ MORE: Tuesday, TALQ retorted that it’s not the first time a premier-designate has made that promise. “The only thing we can do is take them for their word and give them what they need to listen to us, and if they don’t listen to us, to complain,” said Martin-Laforge. “We’ve been doing that for eight years. We’re very good at this. We give them data. We give them information, and hopefully, it’ll make a difference.” TALQ said it plans to meet with the new government as soon as possible to discuss its priorities and concerns.
