Bernard Drainville appeared this morning in front of the journalists as a man who has just seen his dog being run over, holding back his tears. But he hadn’t just lost his dog. He was coming to atone for a broken promise.
Like other heavyweights of the CAQ, the member for Lévis was in his little shoes 36 hours after the announcement of the abortion of the Quebec-Lévis tunnel, the famous “3e link. »
Tuesday evening, the news had leaked: the Legault government is pulling the plug on the project, six months after an election campaign where all the cannons of the caquisites had promised to give birth on 3e link.
Some promises ?
The PM himself-in-person made it an urgent matter, telling Montrealers to “stop looking down on the people of Quebec and Lévis”, in the file of the 3e link1. Mr. Drainville, caquiste star in Lévis, cited as “proof” of the need for a Quebec-Lévis tunnel the time spent by an individual in traffic in the National Capital, enjoining those who were worried that the 3e link increases said traffic of these famous words2 : “Let go of me with the GHGs! »
Thursday morning, therefore, Bernard Drainville held back his tears under the microphones of the reporters3 “I first want to apologize to the people of Lévis and the people of Chaudière-Appalaches. I made a commitment and I am not able to deliver it. I understand their disappointment and I understand their anger and… I’m so sorry. »
I know Bernard well enough to know him so emotional, but I also think his reaction is on par with the immense anger4 that the decision has sown among those with whom he must interact daily on the South Shore of Quebec: voters, mayors, prefects…
He must have heard green and salty since Tuesday evening, from these people, enough for 36 hours later, the tear dams gave way.
I’m never going to throw stones at a man who shows his emotions in public, Bernard, don’t worry. Even that I find that the reaction of the Minister of Education is reassuring: it betrays a very human feeling, shame. Bernard Drainville is obviously ashamed to have gone all in in this freeway poker which had no support from any data, from any expert.
We do not find this introspection in Éric Caire. The caquist deputy of La Peltrie, Éric Caire, in 2018, had declared this to the journalist Jean-Simon Bui5 : “If the CAQ backs down on the third link, I resign. »
Five years later, Éric Caire’s party formed the government—twice—and it has just backtracked on its commitment to the third Lévis-Québec link.
Will Mr. Cairo resign?
Of course not.
Response, Thursday, from the MP for La Peltrie about his 2018 promise6 “I think my constituents have a right to expect their MP to make the best decision based on their interests…”
This sentence is a fine example of political baloney. Mr. Caire seems to have decided that the voters do not want him to resign, it’s funny: in 2018, he did not attach this condition to his resounding promise…
In short, Mr. Cairo is not ashamed at all. How unashamed he was when he got caught in a lie on his resume. How shameless he was when, lately, as Minister of Cybersecurity and Digital, he washed his hands of the digital transition fiasco at the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec. It’s a great talent, in him, this inability to experience the slightest embarrassment.
I end with this curiosity: around the CAQ volte-face on 3e link, there is a spin that the government had shown “courage”…
Sorry, but I’m not buying that: the “courage” argument is just that, a spin, a polish on an obvious masquerade, it’s the equivalent of putting a coat of paint on a full house hidden defects. The 3e link has never been supported by studies riddled with compelling evidence7it has never been supported by any mobility expert…
He was a political bug, purely political.
And the guns of the CAQ knew it.
Courage would have been to cut short the masquerade of 3e link DURING the electoral campaign launched at the end of August 2022, the one that culminated in the re-election of the CAQ on October 3. And to advocate for urban density and public transport8 when this speech carried a risk at the polls…
If the CAQ had had the courage, Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault would not have been sent alone this morning to explain why the government was reneging on its untenable promise: all the CAQ MPs who had supported the 3e link over the years would have accompanied her.
Including sound bossPM Legault.