The nine great Liberal values

True to its name, the Quebec Liberal Party values liberty. A liberal thinker’s primary concern is to ensure that a bill, a regulation or a government program does not lead to the unwarranted restriction of individual freedoms. For any restriction of individual freedoms to be acceptable, it must be established conclusively that it is for the greater good.

The Liberal Party has consistently been committed to simultaneously promoting Quebec’s economic and social development. Because it creates the wealth necessary to finance social development, economic development has been a priority for all modern-day liberal governments.

Identification with Quebec starts with identification with its French-speaking majority. This presumes embracing the aspirations of this majority, as well as its history, its language, its culture, its institutions, its particularities and its way of life. The Quebec Liberal Party recognizes the unique character that the French-speaking majority brings to Quebec society. It pledges to vigilantly affirm and defend Quebec’s French identity and to be a preponderantly French-speaking party, without causing prejudice to the equal rights of all its members.

A society that exclusively exalts individual values quickly becomes an egotistical society. Sooner or later, it will be given over to domination by its strongest members, to the detriment of its most vulnerable members. Without necessarily being poor, many low-income individuals and families will be denied access to services such as education and healthcare, which they cannot provide for themselves. It is necessary to pool resources to ensure reasonable equal opportunity for all and a minimum of justice in a society.

“Civil society” generally means those human activities that take place outside the marketplace and the political arena. Each individual and each group has its own worldview and its own values. Rather than aiming to impose its own views at any price, the government should find ways to make institutional arrangements that take into account the continuous evolution of opinions and behaviour, with due respect for public order and morality.

The Quebec Liberal Party has done its utmost to ensure that all parties are treated equally, that election officials are held accountable before the courts, that election expenses are limited and inspected, and that electors are not fraudulently replaced by others on polling days.

While adhering to Canadian federalism, for forty years the Quebec Liberal Party has held that since Quebec is the primary embodiment of the French presence in Canada, it cannot simply be a province within the federation as the others are. Through the voice of all its leaders to date, the Quebec Liberal Party has asserted that, in addition to being a province in the legal sense of the term, Quebec is a distinct society in many respects, most notably because of its language, its culture, its legal system, its institutions and its way of life. Nevertheless, the Quebec Liberal Party is convinced that remaining part of the Canadian federation is the most appropriate constitutional option to further the best interests of Quebec and its partners.

Intergenerational equity defends the right of future generations to live in a society as prosperous and developed as the generations who contributed to building it. This principle requires decision-makers to devise public policies with a forward-looking and innovative perspective, so that the next generation will not suffer the economic, social and environmental impact of decisions taken by its predecessors. A responsible government must respond to the present generation’s needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own. In Quebec’s public debate, this concept especially resonates in the management of public finances and the repayment of the debt, pension plan issues and the development of our natural resources.

Under the impetus of the Commission Jeunesse, in November of 2021 members of the Quebec Liberal Party adopted a resolution to include a 9th Liberal value; environmental protection. By doing so, each of our party’s actions is considered from this perspective. That being said, while a political party’s action is good, we need to do more. Society as a whole must follow suit. A Liberal government will therefore adopt a bill to include the right to biodiversity and environmental preservation among the fundamental rights protected by the Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms.