Royal news has been busy this year. News of the death of Queen Elizabeth II traveled around the world in September. In Quebec, the debate over the swearing in of deputies to the new king, Charles III, then made headlines for weeks after the October election. Until the adoption by the National Assembly of a law eliminating this obligation, against which the Parti Québécois had led the charge.
Sitting in a room adjoining his office, on the ground floor of a building located behind the Parliament, the Lieutenant-Governor of Quebec, J. Michel Doyon, told the Homework that he greeted this latest development with a certain stoicism. He exercised his function without qualms when sanctioning the new law on December 9.
“I felt very well,” replied the royal representative during a retrospective interview granted three days before Christmas.
In the days preceding the entry into force of the law, its personnel had nevertheless received calls urging them not to initial the document. But Mr. Doyon, chosen in 2015 by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, maintains that he could only give way to the democratic will. “It is not up to the one who is head of state in quotation marks to challenge 125 elected officials,” he explains.
The end of the obligation of the oath to the king for the deputies of Quebec certainly marks an “evolution of the thought”, admits Mr. Doyon. “People made a choice for them, because it didn’t meet their values,” he says. I accept that. We live in a democracy. »
Disputes
As a lawyer, he does not comment on the possibility of challenges to this amendment to the provisions of the Constitution Act of 1867.
“If people want to challenge it, they will challenge it. If people don’t want to challenge it, they won’t challenge it. The lieutenant-governor does not have to look into these moods,” he says.
His stoicism hints at mild annoyance when it comes to another episode where royal authority was challenged this fall. At the end of November, members of Québec solidaire broke with the tradition whereby elected officials stand up in the Blue Room when the lieutenant-governor arrives.
Mr. Doyon, who was making an appearance scheduled for Prime Minister François Legault’s opening speech, refuses to see it as an affront on the part of those in solidarity, the only deputies present to have remained seated.
“If it harms the institution, it’s not for me to say,” he says. Me, it didn’t shock me, it didn’t trouble me. »
distinct society
Doctor of history, Mr. Doyon notes that the monarchical symbols, of which the lieutenant-governor is a part in Quebec, have not played the same role for Anglophones and Francophones in Canada. “For the English-speaking population, it’s a way of saying that we’re not Americans,” he says.
The French language helped preserve Quebecers from the cultural imperialism of the United States, he said. “Quebec is a distinct society in terms of its language and its culture,” says Mr. Doyon.
He gives the example of the production of Quebec television series, such as The Plouffe family, who, from the 1950s, helped to forge this distinct culture. This has not been the case elsewhere in Canada, according to him.
“They took the American series, it was in their language, he notes. Much of the invasion of American culture has been through television [au Canada anglais]. Whereas in Quebec, it did not arrive by television. »
This exposure to American culture through television and the written media has an effect outside Quebec. “Between an American and a Canadian living in Alberta, I’m not sure that everyone would be able to see the difference,” observes Mr. Doyon.
Change of time
The end of the 70-year reign of Elizabeth II marks a change of era. Mr. Doyon believes that it is still too early to say whether the accession of Charles III to the throne will modify the link of the population with the crown. He acknowledges that the new monarch, whom he met in 2017, when he was still Prince of Wales, is “perhaps” less well known than his mother.
“He’s an artist, a watercolourist, a man who has always been concerned about the environment,” he says. This corresponds to the contemporary values of youth. »
In Quebec, the debate on the place of the monarchy in our institutions has resurfaced regularly for decades. In 2015, after the appointment of Mr. Doyon, the Coalition avenir Québec had included in its program the abolition of the post of lieutenant-governor. But, when he was seeking a second term in September, François Legault indicated that this commitment was not in his priorities for the next four years.
People made a choice for them, because it didn’t correspond to their values. I accept that. We live in a democracy.
According to Mr. Doyon, it would absolutely be necessary to keep an equivalent position to exercise the same functions, such as receiving the oaths of the members of the Council of Ministers or sanctioning the laws. He gives the example of the role of the president in a republic. “There is someone who would replace the lieutenant-governor. It would be a president or something,” he says.
Such a modification could not be done in the same way as for the oath to the monarch, notes the viceroy, however. “Under the Canadian Constitution, it takes the unanimity of the provinces to change that. »
Succession
Mr. Doyon succeeded Pierre Duchesne, who had taken the place of Lise Thibault, sentenced to 18 months in prison in 2015 for fraud and breach of trust in the federal and Quebec governments.
“The image of the lieutenant-governor has been damaged because there have been abuses,” he laments.
Since taking office, frugality has been the order of the day. When traveling, meals in McDonald’s and St-Hubert are the norm. In addition, he assumes from his remuneration the expenses of the receptions he organizes. All this to mark a break with Mme Thibault, whose taste for pomp caused the loss. “As it is there, I am in the antithesis. It may be overkill at times,” he says.
He hopes that his example, which allowed him to avoid making headlines for the wrong reasons, inspires the person who will succeed him.
Mr. Doyon, who will be 80 years old in April, remains evasive about what happens next. “In any function, whatever it is, you have to know how to leave,” he says. At some point, it’s never good that it’s always the same people who are there. »
However, he gives no sign of wanting to hand over. And his desire to meet people has not waned. “I decided when I became lieutenant governor that I would go out and see people. And I tried to be less formal,” he explains.
In the same spirit, Mr. Doyon affirms that he is not offended by the decision of the National Assembly to install over the next few years a waste sorting site under the windows of his office.
Certainly, he inquired about the possibility of retaining another place, but he went to the analysis of the civil servants, in spite of the criticisms of at least two constitutional experts who saw in it an attack on the dignity of the function.
“It’s not because I’m lieutenant-governor that I have to imagine that everyone is going to be at my knees,” says Mr. Doyon.