A Legislative Assembly without Kevin Arseneau

We will never know if Kevin Arseneau’s electoral defeat in his riding of Kent North was due to the period of hospitalization that took him out of the game in the middle of the campaign. It was certainly a setback to leave voters with only their good memories of his work as MLA while being bombarded with slogans by adversaries desperate to finish him off.

In an era when the population expects so little of politics, it was Susan Holt that quite rightly made the observation in a discussion with Acadie Nouvelle (October 5, 2024) that Kevin Arseneau was more than just a member of the Greens, a party one can believe in. With his integrity, critical sensibility and sharp mind, he gave a new dimension to the role of MLA, sometimes giving the impression that he alone was the political opposition in this part of the country. A light in a desert of ideas.

As a performer, he could represent arts and culture. As a graduate in geography and the humanities, he had a grasp of the social sciences. As an organic farmer, he knew how to advocate for the land, its animals and plant life. He was also a smart financial critic and exercised this capacity with that hint of radicalism that we expect from a demanding thinker.

One savoured hearing him speak. With his paradoxical proposals and bold sense of initiative, he displayed real intelligence in the Legislative Assembly. Centres for addiction treatment? Put them in rural areas to prevent problems from being concentrated in cities. Glyphosate spraying? Here is a bill to ban the practice. Concentration of media ownership? Let’s pass an Anti-Monopoly Act.

It was a real sight to see him needle Ernie Steeves, the Minister of Finance, who had to humiliate himself by explaining that he would never lift a finger to make the federal government put an end to the tax loopholes that are so profitable to the Irving companies, and so costly to the people of New Brunswick. Kevin would follow up with a series of feasible proposals to deal with the issue immediately; namely, withholding all subsidies from any private entity that transferred funds to tax havens such as Bermuda.

At a symbolic level, he was the only one bold enough to voice any thoughtful criticism. He would do this by asking simple questions, such as: Whose decision was it to lower the Acadian flag at the Legislative Assembly to half-mast when the Queen died?

At such moments, an awkward silence would fall. You could hear the flies buzzing. Liberals and Conservatives started to look alike and could be seen for what they are.

Beyond the attachment one may have for Kevin Arseneau as an individual, his defeat in the election, as well as the defeats of similar figures like Serge Brideau, Jacques Giguère and Simon Ouellette, exposes the frightening mould into which people must fit to be electable in our culture. It produces nothing but uniformity in politics. Who would dare to speak out among that gang of lawyers, accountants, shopkeepers, managers, and people from other fields who do their best to fit in. Why is there so little interest in what Diani Blanco might bring to politics? Instead, we see all the same social and professional backgrounds, the same photoshopped heads, the same obsequious eyes and horribly white teeth.

The parliamentary habitus – a sociological term for the moral and behavioral rules of different social milieus – is that of mediocrity. But we must use the word with precision.

Contrary to popular usage, mediocrity does not imply bad, stupid or poor. It should not be confused with inferiority. Rather, mediocrity – and its corresponding social structure, “mediocracy” – describes the rule of the average, and of the average person. These are the people whom politics attracts: They have an average amount of culture, an average ambition, will perform at an average rate throughout their term of office to convince the greatest number of people that we have no more collective means available to us than what these mediocre individuals are willing to grant us. They will persuade us that we are worth no more than some happy medium. The Conservatives were desperate to find the middle ground. Even the Green Party proved somewhat drawn to it. The political bar is low.

With his eloquence, audacity and humour, but also his ethical conviction and intellectual grasp of the issues, Kevin Arseneau is one of the rare politicians who inspired us to believe that progress is possible in a desirable direction. The world is in a bad state, whether due to frightening social inequalities or the ongoing ecological crisis. The politics of the extreme centre are not up to the task of dealing with the issues of today. The time has come to build a political resistance outside of this sterile forum.

Alain Deneault is an author and Professor of Philosophy at Université de Moncton, Shippagan Campus.

A version of this commentary in French originally appeared in the Acadie Nouvelle on October 22, 2024.