Like nature, politics abhors a vacuum. The space vacated by some actors is spontaneously occupied by others.
Without presuming the result of the election on October 3, the Legault government could well find itself facing a fragile opposition so divided that it will not be able to counterbalance it.
It is no longer the parties represented in the National Assembly that are most successful in opposing its arbitrariness, but rather the big cities that do not recognize themselves in a government that is manifestly more eager to satisfy its voters in the suburbs. Faced with their opposition, we begin to hear the characteristic “beep-beep” of the truck reversing.
After the about-face in the Quebec tramway file, the eviction of the Caisse de dépôt et placement from the REM de l’Est project is an even more spectacular illustration of this new balance of power.
If the office of the Prime Minister seems to have understood the danger of fueling controversy at the dawn of the electoral campaign, the pill seemed more difficult to swallow for the ministers responsible for the Metropolis and the Capitale-Nationale.
Chantal Rouleau had made an impassioned plea in favor of the project defended by the Caisse de depot. “The whole world is watching this project,” she said without laughing. To denigrate him was to denigrate the entire population of east Montreal.
At the National Assembly, she had brandished a map of the city of Paris, with its tangle of subway and bus lines, which she seemed to have taken as a model. That the city center is disfigured and that the REM cannibalizes the subway did not matter to him. To hear him, the City’s objections were either capricious or bitter.
Moreover, she did not seem to understand or did not want to take the measure of the questioning of the project, its financial consequences and the delays it will cause. It doesn’t matter, the important thing is that common sense prevailed.
In Quebec, the Deputy Prime Minister, Geneviève Guilbault, also did not accept that the tramway was primarily intended to serve residents of the city itself rather than suburbanites, nor that Mayor Marchand was not a simple executor who had to comply with the will of the government.
Her ego was put to the test again this week, when she had to retract after having nonchalantly swept away the commitment to carry out phase IV of the Promenade Champlain, which the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) had nevertheless formally taken during the campaign. 2018 election.
If we simply make hot throats of the declarations of Mme Rouleau, who does not weigh heavily in the government, criticism of Mme Guilbault, who leads wide, are more acerbic.
The leader of the official opposition at City Hall, Claude Villeneuve, called her “the worst minister in the Capitale-Nationale”. It is true that Mr. Villeneuve is a former member of the Parti Québécois, where Mr.me Guilbault doesn’t have many friends and isn’t looking for any either.
The fact remains that, unlike her predecessors Sam Hamad or Agnès Maltais, she is widely perceived as the spokesperson for the government in the capital rather than the reverse.
Beyond the personalities and the traditional opposition between the city and the suburbs, it is clear that in Montreal as in Quebec, the occupants of the city hall are ideologically at odds with the Legault government. Both Valérie Plante and Bruno Marchand are progressives who would feel much more at ease at Québec solidaire than at the CAQ.
The malfunctioning of the voting system will likely allow the CAQ to exercise heavy hegemony in the National Assembly, with the risk of paternalism and arrogance that entails.
The party will nevertheless be returned to power with a minority of votes. Inevitably, those who oppose the CAQ vision will have to find other channels to make themselves heard, and cities, especially the largest ones, are the only ones who can claim the necessary legitimacy and who have the means to promote another option.
In the interest of Quebec society and in his own interest, Mr. Legault should take note of this. Moreover, Ottawa would like nothing better than to be an ally of the municipalities if it commits the clumsiness of alienating them by playing the braggart.
His about-face in recent weeks fortunately gives the impression that he has become aware of this new balance of power. All he has to do is explain it to his troops.