It is well known that politicians languish at the bottom of the scale of public esteem. In Quebec, a survey conducted by BIP Research in September 2021 placed them at 73e rank out of 76 trades and professions, just ahead of new car salespeople, advertisers and used car salespeople. Barely 45.8% of respondents said they trusted them.
They have no better reputation elsewhere on the planet, according to a poll conducted by Ipsos on the same date in 28 countries. Across locations, between 45% (Netherlands) and 79% (Hungary) of respondents identified them as the least credible. In Canada, the rate was 54%.
No wonder that for decades there has been an outcry over every proposal to increase MPs’ salaries. Former Supreme Court Justice Claire L’Heureux-Dubé, who was mandated in 2013 to find a way to evaluate the work of members of the National Assembly, explained the difficulty of including in her calculations a conception that the public service did not deserve to be better paid.
A base salary of $101,561, compared to $189,500 in the House of Commons, may not be excessive, but it may seem like a lot to someone struggling to make ends meet. All the more so if he feels he is not getting his money’s worth.
Whether prime minister or simple deputy, any elected official will say that the most important thing in his eyes is to represent his constituents. Unfortunately, this is not the impression given by the pathetic spectacle offered by the Quebec Liberal Party (PLQ) for the past two weeks.
Seeing Marie-Claude Nichols (Vaudreuil) and Frantz Benjamin (Viau) compete like ragpickers for the essentially honorary position of third vice-president, and the bonus of $35,546 that accompanies it, we say to ourselves that the most important thing seems rather be to scrounge all possible advantages. This painful haggling not only discredits the PLQ; the entire political class finds itself splashed.
Neither of the two protagonists can be considered stars. Since the election of Mr.me Nichols in 2014, the latter’s greatest achievement was the recent sulk that precipitated the departure of chef Dominique Anglade.
Since leaving the Montreal City Council for the National Assembly, Mr. Benjamin has been even more discreet. We do not see how one or the other could claim to demand anything.
A backbencher whose party is in power, and who therefore finds himself condemned to play extras, has every reason to try to escape his boredom. In an Official Opposition that has only 20 MNAs, everyone can be assigned one or more files that can keep them busy.
The prospect of facing a government that has elected 90 deputies for four years is probably not very encouraging. Between 1973 and 1976, the six PQ members nevertheless managed to put the Bourassa government on the grill, even if the latter had elected 102 of them.
The interim leader of the PLQ, Marc Tanguay, certainly did not need this childishness to begin a mandate that was already not looking easy. He himself had made the return of Mme Nichols in the caucus a first test of her leadership, but now she prefers to wait for the election of a permanent leader before deciding whether she will deign to return to the fold.
She would not have acted otherwise if she had wanted to handicap Mr. Tanguay’s chances of inheriting the position from the outset. Whoever she chooses to support in the race will wonder if this really constitutes an asset.
If the MNA for Vaudreuil was able to count on the sympathy of her colleagues at the start, who saw in her expulsion an excessive measure, she now risks being perceived as a spoiled child insensitive to the common interest.
Mr. Tanguay could not put it better when he declared that it was high time for the Liberal MPs to return to what justifies their presence in the National Assembly and to “work on issues that speak to Quebecers”.
It has now been a month and a half since the Coalition avenir Québec was returned to power, and the media space has been practically monopolized by the tribulations of the opposition parties, whether it is the oath to the king or the ” wanderings” of the PLQ. It is not the Legault government that will complain about it.