The “New project for the nationalists of Quebec” of the Coalition avenir Québec and the project of third link between Quebec and Lévis have one thing in common: everyone knows that it is rubbish, but François Legault does not budge.
In both cases, these are rabbits that Mr. Legault pulled out of his hat at the time when he decided to go all out. The 2018 election was his last attempt to become prime minister: a third defeat would have convinced him to throw in the towel.
He was the first to know that his demands would come up against a categorical dismissal in Ottawa, like all those that Quebec has made for 50 years. His “new” project was new only in name.
No matter: he could not appear again before the voters by repeating that the 10-year moratorium on the national question decreed by the CAQ when it was founded had not yet expired.
During his last mandate, he was able to draw on this grocery list to write the letter he sent to the various party leaders in anticipation of the two federal elections that were held—and he will continue to draw inspiration from it next time, without having the slightest illusion about what will happen next. In politics, it is better to say anything than to have nothing to say.
The leader of the Parti Québécois had the good idea to go to Ottawa to recall that none of the 21 requests from the CAQ received a positive response. If he had made this trip to Quebec or Montreal, we would hardly have talked about it.
“When you hit 0 for 21, you may not have any business in major league baseball,” said Paul St-Pierre Plamondon. Maybe, but the Quebecers have indicated twice that they are happy to stay in the minor leagues. As long as there are hot dogs and pop corn…
Mr. Legault has taken note of this, but as Jacques Parizeau has already said, “in the land of cul-de-jatte, the one-legged man is king”. He may not get anything, but since the others ask for less or even demand the moon…
In the Liberal Party of Quebec, they invoke Robert Bourassa as others invoke Saint Jude, the patron saint of desperate causes, but the survival of the political formation depends only on the support of unconditional federalists. There was not a second of discussion on the place of Quebec within Canada at the last congress of the PLQ. The few lines devoted to federal-provincial relations in his platform are an imposed figure.
The demands of the Conservative Party of Quebec are limited to the repatriation of full powers in immigration, which would allow Quebec to select immigrants according to their “civilizational compatibility”, but Éric Duhaime has never felt a great desire for emancipation. . The PCQ is the only party whose program still refers to the “French-Canadian nation”.
At Québec solidaire, we look at all of this with a certain condescension. Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois does not hide it: bickering with the federal government does not interest him. “These ritualized quarrels with Ottawa sell copy, but it is illusory to think that they will lead to a revival of independence,” he wrote in the essay published by a group of united MPs under the title What binds us. While waiting for Quebecers to see the light, we are leaving the field open to Ottawa.
While the Trudeau government often gives the impression of heartbreaking amateurism—when it comes to issuing passports or managing airports, for example—mi, Ottawa’s game is worthy of the major leagues when it comes to is about strengthening the Canadian federation.
After the agreement with CN on the Quebec bridge, which makes the Legault government look like a bad sleeper, the embarrassing information from Ottawa that Pierre Fitzgibbon was willing to discuss the LNG Quebec project again demonstrated the know-how federal strategists.
They have to tweak themselves by observing the escalation of tax cuts to which the Quebec election campaign is giving rise. To think that these people claim to lack money to finance health services!
On the eve of the 2007 elections, Jean Charest had begged Stephen Harper to extend him 700 million dollars, supposedly to fly to the aid of the health network, which he had immediately distributed to taxpayers-voters. He took it badly: it was not enough to ensure him a majority in the National Assembly, and Mr. Harper concluded that he could reduce the federal contribution. From stuff of junior!