Earlier this week, Éric Duhaime presented himself to the press as the heir to Jean Lesage.
Posted yesterday at 10:00 a.m.
The slogan of the Conservative Party of Quebec (PCQ), “Libres chez nous!” is openly inspired by the liberals’ 1962 “Maîtres chez nous”.
And according to the chef, this is no coincidence.
To tell the truth, Duhaime is convinced that there are affinities between his commitment and that of one of the most illustrious architects of the Quiet Revolution: “At the time, the idea was for Quebec to be more master at home […]. Today, our message is that we want Quebecers to be more free at home […]. I think you could say it’s a quiet revolution too. »
If, obviously, Éric Duhaime is not afraid of heights, he delivered this week one of the most insane presentations of his life.
Put it another way: either the leader of the PCQ is determined to bamboozle his sympathizers, or he was the type to snore in his high school history classes.
Need we remind him that Jean Lesage’s “Maîtres chez nous” was an echo of the Liberals’ most important election promise of 1962, that of nationalizing hydroelectricity? Duhaime, the libertarian, is therefore associated with a government that has strongly contributed to bringing the welfare state into the world, the very one that has haunted the nights of the leader of the PCQ for many years now.
Lesage v. Duhaime
But beyond the slogan, there are comparisons with Jean Lesage.
Éric Duhaime dares to compare himself to this premier of Quebec whose historians have retained a gift for insight and a superior instinct. While the PCQ is in 2022 the party of one man, Jean Lesage, he had the genius to surround himself with the most brilliant minds of his time. He set up a “thunder team” in 1960 and believed in René Lévesque in 1962 when the nationalization of hydroelectricity divided his cabinet.
When Éric Duhaime compares himself to one of the most sagacious premiers in the history of Quebec, not only does he show an embarrassing inability to interpret the past, he also turns his back on a much more realistic reading of his political future.
Indeed, if he desperately seeks to inscribe his movement within a tradition, it is not the 1962 elections that should interest Éric Duhaime, but those of 1976.
That year, to protest against Bill 22 passed in the National Assembly by the Liberals of Robert Bourassa, a good part of the English-speaking community had decided to offer its vote to the National Union (UN).
Éric Duhaime and Rodrigue Biron, head of the UN at the time, do not have much in common, but Dominique Anglade’s gaffes in the Bill 96 file and the data from the Léger poll of May 2022, which indicated that the PCQ ranked second among non-francophones in Quebec, should appeal to the flamboyant conservative since they recall the conditions of the 1976 elections.
Unfortunately, Éric Duhaime will be disappointed to learn that by absorbing part of the Anglophone vote and that of the immigrant communities, the Union Nationale had only succeeded at the time in favoring the majority victory of the Parti Québécois.
Nearly 50 years later, the PCQ risks this time opening the way to glory for François Legault.
With all due respect to Éric Duhaime, it is not Jean Lesage who wants it.