Bloc Québécois plans to hammer the Liberal government on cultural issues in upcoming Montreal byelection

OTTAWA — With three federal byelections set to happen in Quebec in the coming months, the Bloc Québécois is already gearing up to attack Mark Carney’s Liberals on their perceived failure to defend the cultural industry in U.S. trade talks.

On Thursday, Alexandre Curzi, director-general of l’Union des artistes, which represents 13,000 performing artists who work in French in Quebec and across Canada, announced he will be seeking the nomination for the Bloc in Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie in Montreal.

He also happens to be the son of Pierre Curzi, a well-known actor in Quebec who served for a few years under the Parti Québécois banner before retiring from politics in 2012.

Alexandre Curzi will seek to replace NDP MP Alexandre Boulerice, who is set to resign from his federal seat this summer and run for the provincial party Québec solidaire in the fall.

Curzi said he felt the need to jump into the political ring to bring light to cultural issues.

“For years, I’ve been fighting for our culture and the rights of artists, creators and artisans, and it is time for me to bring this fight to a new level,” he said.

Bloc Leader Yves-François Blanchet was beaming as he presented his new recruit during a press conference in Montreal alongside MPs Martin Champoux and Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe. Blanchet jokingly said that he essentially wore Curzi down to join his party.

“I’d say that he was tired of always getting courted and not saying ‘yes’.”

Curzi said that he dreamt of going into politics one day, but it was never the right moment, citing family reasons.

What ultimately motivated him to run was the federal government’s decision to order the CRTC to review its proposed increase on Netflix and other large streaming services which would have injected large sums of money into supporting Canadian and Quebec content.

The decision has been widely seen in Quebec as Carney capitulating to the U.S. once more, after the digital services tax (DST) was rescinded last year to advance trade talks.

Canadian Identity and Culture Minister Marc Miller has said the government is immediately injecting $600 million into the cultural sector to compensate for the funds that are frozen around the ongoing litigation surrounding the implementation of the Online Streaming Act.

Blanchet said the cultural sector would lose out on nearly $1.5 billion from Big Tech companies by scrapping the DST, and around $2 billion by renouncing the CRTC’s recommendation to increase annual contributions from online streamers.

With $600 million instead coming from taxpayers’ pockets, there is a hole in the federal budget of $4 billion for the country’s cultural industries, he argued.

By presenting Curzi in Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, the Bloc is showing that it intends to hammer the message that Liberals simply are not prepared to stand up for the future of Canada’s — and in particular Quebec’s — cultural industry in the face of Trump.

In fact, Blanchet said his party is an “ally” to the cultural industry. Curzi and Brunelle-Duceppe were both technicians, Champoux was a former TV and radio host, while Blanchet pointed to his “heavy past” as Quebec rock star Éric Lapointe’s manager.

Blanchet also served as president of ADISQ, an industry association for independent music, entertainment and video industries in Quebec, prior to going into politics.

But Blanchet said his party won’t be “exclusively” talking about cultural issues.

There will be another byelection in Laurier—Ste-Marie where environmental issues will be particularly acute because of former environment minister Steven Guilbeault’s impending resignation, citing the backsliding of several Liberal climate policies he has put in place.

Speaking last month, Blanchet said the voters of Laurier—Ste-Marie will have an opportunity to send a message to the Carney government on the environment.

The third federal byelection in Quebec will be held in Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot—Acton, southeast of Montreal. Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, who recently left the Bloc caucus to sit as independent is stepping down this week as MP to run for the Parti Québécois.

A Bloc source recently said that Savard-Tremblay’s decision to resign earlier than Guilbeault and Boulerice caught the other parties off-guard, and it will put pressure on the government to call the byelections by the end of this year to respect the six-month limit.

The Bloc got a bit more than 18 per cent in Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie last year, but with Boulerice out of the picture, all bets are off. It had been a Bloc riding for over two decades before the NDP swept the province in 2011.

Blanchet said a Bloc win would “only make a victory even more spectacular.”

But the Carney Liberals remain widely popular in Quebec, judging by the polls and by their convincing win in the byelection in Terrebonne this spring against the Bloc.

Blanchet remains optimistic that his party still has a fighting chance.

“There are many byelections that are coming and I can assure you that there are none where we will step on the ice without the conviction that we can win.”

National Post calevesque@postmedia.com

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