Blog Post by Augustin Hamilton (Quebec Life Coalition) — Photo: Pixel-Shot/Adobe Stock

All Quebec politicians, from the CAQ to the QS (yes, even the QS!) and including the Liberals, are expressing a willingness to tackle the current falling birth rate. Quebec’s total fertility rate was 1.36 children per woman in 2025, which is well below the replacement rate of 2.1.

Their approach is similar to one promoted by University of Sherbrooke academics, such as Sophie Mathieu, a lecturer at the School of Applied Politics. She aims to help families have as many children as they want. Currently, there is a gap between the number of children families want and the number they actually have.

Mrs. Mathieu lists several obstacles to fulfilling this desire, including difficulty balancing work and family life, "eco-anxiety", the housing crisis, and the shortage of subsidized childcare.

The solution to "eco-anxiety" is simple: the media just need to stop bombarding the public with apocalyptic climate messages.
Work-life balance and the shortage of daycare spots are related issues that the government could easily address in some cases. For example, they could provide support to mothers who want to raise their young children themselves.

But what did I just mention? Mrs. Mathieu says that the issue of birth rates "strikes a sensitive chord, that of gender equality." She says that people in Quebec (or rather, feminists) would prefer to talk about "work-life balance" than "birth rate policy." This reluctance to use such a harmless term is astonishing!