Since François Legault left the Parti Québécois (PQ) and founded the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ), many sovereignists have maintained the hope that he had not given up his convictions and that he was waiting simply that the circumstances become favorable again to show his cards. Many federalists also feared him.
It was well known that Ottawa would never respond favorably to the demands contained in its “New project for the nationalists of Quebec”. Wasn’t that a trick aimed at provoking a new constitutional crisis?
In all fairness, it must be recognized that Mr. Legault has never said or done anything to accredit this hypothesis, except to recruit former PQ members ready to deny everything to find the intoxication of power.
The head of the CAQ, however, showed so little enthusiasm when speaking of Canada that he seemed to regard it as a last resort. Granted, he wouldn’t do anything to encourage secession, but he wouldn’t turn himself into a crusader for Canadian unity either. One could even imagine him taking the lead in the sovereignist movement if “social acceptability” was there.
He abandoned this posture neither flesh nor fish during the televised debate last week, claiming to snatch from the Quebec Liberal Party the banner of the fight against independence that he had been brandishing for more than fifty years.
After he had carefully maintained an ambiguity that has served him well over the past few years, this metamorphosis into a Canadian shield surprised more than one. Until now, federalists and sovereignists had cohabited without great difficulty within a party which was precisely intended to be a coalition.
Dividing the opposition is generally a good strategy for a government, but Mr. Legault still cannot seriously consider Québec solidaire (QS) as such a great threat that he feels the need to breathe new life into the PQ.
Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, who is desperately trying to bring the sovereignists back to the fold, received this statement as a real gift from heaven. He went a bit too far in declaring that Mr. Legault is “more federalist and more opposed to independence than the liberals of Jean Charest, Philippe Couillard and Dominique Anglade”, but it will be very difficult to still believe that the head of the CAQ secretly cherishes dreams of independence.
We are still waiting for the PQ to present the updated version of the study on the finances of an independent Quebec that Mr. Legault himself published in 2004. He concluded at the time not only that the new state would be viable, but that the gains resulting from sovereignty would amount to 17 billion in five years.
Mr. Legault had not minced his words to denounce Ottawa’s “fiscal strangulation strategy”, which resulted in a reduction in financial transfers and massive investments in areas of provincial jurisdiction.
The PQ may be reluctant to relaunch a debate that could constitute a distraction in a campaign that is going well, but it would be interesting to hear Mr. Legault explain that all of this was not so dramatic in the end or that the federal government is today a federalism that is too fair and respectful of provincial jurisdictions to be called into question. A little more and it will bring out the theory of two governments being better than one.
He also begins to fall back on his demands. While he presented the repatriation of full powers in matters of common immigration as a question of survival for the nation, he now seems ready to be satisfied with those which Quebec already has, provided that Ottawa makes a small effort to welcome more French speakers.
It’s been a long time since we’ve heard of the single tax return administered by Quebec or the transfer of tax points. On the occasion of the queen’s death, the abolition of the post of lieutenant-governor was promptly postponed.
Like the Liberals before him, Mr. Legault seems to have understood that it is better not to ask for what Ottawa is not prepared to grant. In reality, the “New Project for Quebec Nationalists” was never intended to be realized, but simply to fill a void in the discourse that was harming the electoral chances of the CAQ. Now that she is in power, it is this same project that has become a source of embarrassment.
The first term was largely monopolized by the health crisis. Mr. Legault certainly prefers to devote the second, which will perhaps be his last, to his favorite field, the economy, rather than to a guerrilla war against Ottawa. Justin Trudeau will agree.