In politics, pre-campaigns are always revealing. They serve either to define the adversary before he has had a chance to do so, or to correct or mask flaws in a leader or his platform. And looking at the pre-campaign of the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ), we can clearly see where it believes it has flaws.
Posted at 6:00 a.m.
Much has been said about an ad featuring a Madame Tout-le-Monde who describes how Premier Legault is close to people, that he is not afraid to apologize when he makes mistakes and that, under the circumstances, no one would have done better. There are now more than one on this topic.
Decryption: we fear that the image of Mr. Legault is that of a somewhat arrogant man. A millionaire far from the concerns of the ordinary world and who may have made mistakes in this totally unprecedented situation of the pandemic, as anyone would have done!
Surprisingly, we also insist on Mr. Legault’s ability to apologize. It’s probably happened a few times, but let’s say a quick search shows he’s nowhere near Justin Trudeau’s habit of public apologies.
But if these questions are brought to light, it is necessarily because they have been revealed by polls or discussion groups, the famous discussion groups (focus groups) that are part of the research of any party that can afford it. Perceptions that need to be corrected.
That said, what is unusual in this pre-campaign is that it does not attack its opponents, at least for the moment.
When we look at the most recent polls, it is true that none of the opposition parties exceeds the 20% mark of the vote and does not seem to want to threaten the CAQ. Negative publicity at this time could well backfire.
Better, therefore, at this time, to try to smooth the image of the leader with the help of advertisements featuring either “ordinary” voters or backbenchers who come to praise his qualities. This shows that, for the CAQ, we really do not feel that there is danger in delay.
Anyway, there will always be time to adjust advertising to the circumstances. Remember the 2003 election, when Jean Charest’s Liberals felt their main opponent was no longer the Parti Québécois (PQ) – which was finishing a tumultuous second term and showing signs of fatigue with a leader – the third since their seizure of power – who, despite his experience, was in his first campaign as leader.
Many people raised their eyebrows when they saw the Liberals adopting the slogan “We are ready”. But this slogan was not aimed at the PQ in power, but at the second opposition party, Mario Dumont’s Action Démocratique du Québec (ADQ), which was on the rise.
Internal Liberal polls showed the ADQ aroused mistrust because of the team’s youth and inexperience. The Liberals’ “We are ready” aimed at Dumont and his party rather than a tired PQ. A fine example of a campaign that knows how to change targets when circumstances require.
But pre-campaigns can also show the weaknesses of parties.
And for the CAQ, in this case, it takes the form of a ritual for new candidates – especially those from the Quebec City region – of a blind profession of faith in favor of the third link, this tunnel between Quebec and Levi’s.
Candidates must state publicly that not only do they support the pharaonic project, but also that they never even had the thought that it might be a false good idea.
Even if this has the perverse effect of clearly suggesting to the electorate that said third link risks being a weak point for the CAQ during this campaign – at least outside the Quebec region. We would therefore like one of the means of countering this to be to show that there is a clear unanimity in the party.
Still, this tunnel is becoming the symbol of one of the weaknesses of the CAQ government: its almost total indifference to environmental issues.
There is a limit to saying that the project will not encourage urban sprawl. Or pretend it’s a necessary replacement for aging bridges. Remember that the Quebec Bridge, built 57 years after the Victoria Bridge, is still open, and no one is asking for it to be abandoned. Similarly, the Jacques-Cartier bridge is 40 years more worn than the “ageing” Pierre-Laporte bridge.
But over recent events, the third link, even without studies and traffic data, has taken on the status of “obviousness” in the discourse of the CAQ. So, no need to look at other less expensive solutions first. Because, it is well known, the “evidences” are not disputed.