After two tumultuous weeks, the CAQ government has finally yielded: the mayor of Quebec will obtain the decree necessary for the progression of the tramway on Wednesday. The ministerial green light puts an end to the first confrontation between the troops of François Legault and Bruno Marchand, which emerges as the big winner of the battle.
Two weeks ago, heavyweights from the CAQ cabinet orchestrated a slingshot against a 500-meter shared street where motorists will have to cohabit with pedestrians, cyclists and the future tramway.
It was then out of the question to impose this sacrifice on motorized vehicles. For the government to adopt the decree, even erupted Minister Éric Caire, Mayor Bruno Marchand had to “stop polluting the lives of motorists” in this way.
Two weeks later, the tone and the demands have changed. No more question of a shared street: the only condition dictated by the government, repeated Tuesday the Prime Minister, is that the City of Quebec harvests the “best social acceptability” for its tramway.
The two-week showdown cost the government a few feathers, according to Laval University political scientists Thierry Giasson and Philippe Dubois. The CAQ, according to the latter, somehow released the dynamite to split a stone.
“The spark that set fire to the straw – this famous shared street – was astonishing, but it was above all the virulence that surprised me, explains Mr. Dubois. I have never seen so many ministers react so strongly to an issue that is, after all, quite banal. »
He notes that the revolt against the shared street, initiated the day after the tabling of the budget, “almost” succeeded in eclipsing the latter. On March 22, the Minister of Finance, Éric Girard, gave a check for $500 to 94% of Quebecers with great fanfare, and yet no one talked about it the following week: it was the 500 m section that finally, spills the most ink.
By announcing, on Monday, his desire to adopt the decree hoped for by Quebec, “François Legault called his ministers to order and decided to interrupt the smear campaign that he had, it must be said, himself. even authorized”, analyzes Thierry Giasson, professor in the Department of Political Science at Laval University.
“He decided that clearly, with the data he had in front of him, the support was more and more manifest and clear in favor of the position of the mayor of Quebec. »
A victory for the mayor
The episode has indeed allowed Bruno Marchand to establish himself as a defender of cities against government interference, underlines Mr. Giasson.
“He has shown that he fully assumes the position of captain that he himself endorsed and that he is ready to go to the front to defend the tramway, underlines the professor from Laval University. Not only to defend the tramway, but also to respect the areas of jurisdiction of municipalities. »
Mr. Giasson notes that a government allergic to federal interference found itself, in its showdown against the Marchand administration, accused of encroaching on the municipalities’ flowerbeds. “The CAQ has completely lost face on this issue,” believes the professor.
“Mr. Marchand, clearly, comes out a winner, opines Philippe Dubois. Now, all of Quebec has heard him say that he does not want to play politics and that he does not govern based on his re-election. It gave him a stature and an aura that he could put to good use in other cases. »
Curb the Conservatives
It is to slow down the progress of Éric Duhaime’s Conservatives in the voting intentions that the ministers of the Quebec region wanted to dictate their conditions to Mayor Marchand, believes the associate professor at UQÀM, Marie-Ève Maillé.
“There are two fairly clear camps around the tramway and François Legault is careful not to alienate any of them,” she said. By invoking social acceptability, the Prime Minister is deploying, according to Ms.me Meshed, less a condition than a strategy to save time and to spare the goat and the cabbage.
“We can’t fly over an area and map social acceptability like we do with wetlands. It’s impossible, that’s not how it works, “insists Mme Meshed.
For Thierry Giasson, the social acceptability required by the CAQ, a concept with vague contours, raises the issue of the representativeness and legitimacy of municipal councils.
“The tramway was at the heart of the last elections and it was councilors favorable to the project who were elected”, recalls Mr. Giasson. He notes that of the 22 members of the city council, only three oppose the tram.
“I don’t think a prime minister, with an election campaign fast approaching, wanted to deal with a mayor and nearly full city council campaigning against him on this issue. »
Despite the CAQ’s procrastination around the tramway, Philippe Dubois does not believe that the party in power will bite its fingers for long, on October 3.
“The supporters of the tramway do not seem to make up the electoral base of the CAQ, explains the doctoral student in political science. Elsewhere in the province, the shocks are likely to be limited: the crown of Montreal is not more progressive than the crown of Quebec. »