Politics & Power Quote by Gilles Duceppe

The sting in Duceppe's question is that it pretends to be a request for explanation while functioning as an indictment. "Why is this government so insensitive" is courtroom language dressed up as civic curiosity: the answer is implied (because it chooses to be), and the real goal is to force listeners to inhabit the feeling of being ignored. It's a classic opposition move, but sharpened by the moral framing. "Insensitive" doesn't accuse the government of being wrong on policy; it accuses it of being callous. That shifts the debate from spreadsheets to dignity.

The phrase "middle-class people" is doing heavy political work. It's elastic enough to include almost everyone who feels squeezed and disciplined enough to sound respectable, unlike the more polarizing "the poor" or "the working class". By invoking the middle class, Duceppe positions the government as not merely anti-Bloquiste or anti-Quebec, but anti-normal. The subtext is: these aren't niche grievances; they're the mainstream's daily anxieties, and Ottawa is either out of touch or actively catering elsewhere.

Context matters: Duceppe led the Bloc Quebecois, a party built on arguing that federal power routinely fails Quebec's priorities. This line leverages that long-running narrative without naming Quebec at all. It's a strategic broadening: if the government can be painted as deaf to the middle class, then Quebec's alienation becomes part of a larger Canadian story of distance between rulers and ruled.