Amira Elghawaby might have converted to Catholicism and whipped herself until she bled, but the Legault government would still have continued to demand her resignation.
Like many Quebecers, there is no doubt that the Prime Minister was really insulted by the comments of Justin Trudeau’s new representative for the fight against Islamophobia.
It was easy for him to see in the appointment of M.me Elghawaby an escalation in Ottawa’s fight against the law on secularism, in which Mr. Trudeau seems to see another manifestation of what he perceives as intolerance, even racism induced by Quebec nationalism.
It is always astonishing to note to what extent the Canadian Prime Minister remains a stranger to the states of the Quebec soul. It was only when some of his ministers expressed their discomfort that he felt the need to correct the situation. He himself had seen nothing reprehensible in Mr.me Elghawaby.
Conversely, the pride in which Mr. Legault continually wraps himself is so ostentatious that it becomes a little annoying. It is as if he were seeking to compensate by exalting national virtues for the abandonment of the ideal which inflamed him so much in his previous life.
In this, he is quite representative of many Quebecers whose lack of audacity in 1995 made them particularly picky about honor. Moreover, if English Canada also devotes itself willingly to Quebec bashingis that he knows very well that these cries of indignation will have no unfortunate consequences.
Mr. Legault still had to thank his Canadian vis-à-vis internally for having facilitated a parliamentary return that was announced to be difficult. He probably loses nothing by waiting, but the fireworks that the opposition parties promised each other have been completely drowned out. Better still, they themselves offered the sad spectacle of a division which the government was able to take advantage of.
Once again, the interim leader of the Quebec Liberal Party, Marc Tanguay, had to put out a fire. The Liberals finally unanimously supported the government’s motion calling for the departure of Mr.me Elghawaby, but no one doubts that the MP for Westmount–Saint-Louis, Jennifer Maccarone, expressed the sentiment of the Anglophone base of the party when she came to her defense.
In the same way, the deputy for Maurice-Richard, Haroun Bouazzi, made himself the spokesperson for many militants of Québec solidaire by denouncing a diversionary operation mounted by Mr. Legault to make people forget the many failures of his government.
Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois knows this better than anyone. While waiting for the meeting of the National Council, at the end of next week, he made sure to spare the goat and the cabbage by proposing a meeting with Mme Elghawaby before taking a stand.
QS finds himself again in the situation where he has to reconcile the irreconcilable. How to satisfy a militant base and an electoral clientele who also believe that the Legault government encourages Islamophobia, while approaching the French-speaking majority without which the party is condemned to cap? In this respect, the by-election in Saint-Henri–Sainte-Anne, on which QS has great hopes, will be very instructive.
Even if the Parti Québécois is a negligible number in terms of deputies, it acts as a sort of spur, as a reminder that the hegemony of the Coalition avenir Québec remains conditional on the fervor of its nationalism.
Now that he has succeeded in entering the National Assembly, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon is pursuing his strategy of restoring independence as “an option that is still valid”, as he told Mr. Legault. this week.
Although the Prime Minister has converted to federalism and his objective is simply to “make gains” within Canada, Robert Bourassa felt that it could be useful to keep independence as an “insurance policy” .
It is not a question of adopting the “knife to the throat” strategy, as Léon Dion once proposed, but having a plan B is never a bad thing in a negotiation.
This is precisely what Mr. Legault pleads, when he says that the chances of agreeing with Newfoundland on electricity from Labrador would be better if the construction of new dams could be presented as an option.
Who knows, there might be a plan to promote greater restraint in the Quebec bashing and thus allows less scratching his pride.