Prime Minister François Legault had Nicolas Sarkozy’s hyperactive presidency (2007-2012) in mind when he took charge of the Quebec state in the fall of 2018. Draped in a “unifying nationalism”, the new leader of government has multiplied initiatives to ensure “the economic development of the Quebec nation within Canada, while proudly defending its autonomy, its language, its values and its culture”.
He had sent Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette to the front. He succeeded in having the Act respecting the secularism of the Quebec state (Bill 21) adopted, then the Act respecting the official and common language of Quebec, French (Bill 96) by the National Assembly, in addition to having reorganized the immigration system.
Quebecers have every reason to be proud of these laws. In any case, François Legault is “very proud” of it.
Will the Prime Minister succeed in restarting the pride machine without introducing new identity bills of the importance of Laws 21 and 96? “There will have to be other cases,” notes an early adviser to François Legault. ” The [loi sur la] secularism, we will talk about that in 50 years, ”he adds. And also when the Court of Appeal of Quebec, then the Supreme Court of Canada will rule in turn on the validity of the law prohibiting in particular the wearing of religious symbols by certain employees of the Quebec State.
François Legault is convinced of the need to take “additional actions” to those listed in Bill 96 in order to curb the erosion of the French language, particularly on the island of Montreal. In his mind, “Law 96 is not the end of the story. This is only the beginning, ”we explain. He will say more during the opening speech of the 43e legislature Wednesday.
During the election campaign, the Coalition avenir Québec pledged to “continue to make Quebecers proud” in a second term. To achieve this, the next government will work to launch “a major awareness campaign” on reading, to set up 20 research chairs in Quebec studies “to learn more about our trajectory, our history, our culture, our territory and our language”, to promote the repair of “our churches”, but also to “increase the food autonomy of Quebec” and to encourage the production of educational programs for young people, promised the nationalist political party.
After the re-election of the CAQ, François Legault asked each of his 30 ministers to identify three priorities each, which makes a total of 90 government priorities. He will give them a marching order on Wednesday.
It will outline the efforts to be made by the Quebec government not only to ensure the vitality of the Quebec nation, but also to decarbonize the economy — objective: zero net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050 — and eliminate the wealth gap between Quebec and Ontario.
“Without prosperity, pride lacks means. And without pride, prosperity lacks meaning, ”supported François Legault at the end of the existential crisis that hit the CAQ after his defeat in the riding of Chauveau, in June 2015. The caquistes had then developed their nationalist project.
They presented themselves as the hyperactive ones of “Pride and Prosperity”. Unlike the Sarkozystes, the Legaultistes were granted a second term.
The “trademark”
Professor Olivier Turbide finds that the Legault government’s “call to pride” “takes the form of an emotional injunction addressed to the Quebec people to rally around what is going well in Quebec, collective successes”. “Betting on an effect rally around the flagwe want the general feeling of pride to translate into a patriotic reflex, preventing us from taking the full measure of the almost permanent state of crisis of our education and health systems, ”says the teacher at the Department of Social Communication and public from UQAM.
“Articulating an inaugural speech around past achievements and the promise of future national cohesion is particularly convenient for a government that is struggling to arouse passions and to propose inspiring and promising collective projects for young people”, adds Prof. Turbide. on the eve of the resumption of work in the National Assembly.