Claude Ryan was widely laughed at when he declared that “the hand of God” had guided his political commitment. Divine intervention is generally not seen as a determining factor in this matter.
However, it is difficult not to see a real gift from heaven given to Paul St-Pierre Plamondon in the forced withdrawal of the candidate of Québec solidaire in the riding of Camille-Laurin, Marie-Ève Rancourt, after a security camera surprised her stealing a Parti Québécois flyer from a mailbox.
The ways of the Lord are inscrutable, it seems. If this reversal were to allow the leader of the PQ to make his entry into the National Assembly, one would have to wonder if the Almighty had not converted to independence.
It is also said that heaven helps those who help themselves. The general opinion is that Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon ran a remarkable campaign and he certainly deserves to be elected. The case is not in the pocket. In 2018, the outgoing CAQ MP, Richard Campeau, only won by 500 votes over his PQ opponent, Maka Kotto. The projections of the Qc125 site give him only 3 points in advance, but a Mainstreet poll published a week ago gave him 11.
Solidarity voters should also be affected by the grace and go to the polls even if their party no longer appears on the ballot. Since the delegates to the QS congress rejected the hand extended by the PQ in 2017, relations between the two parties have oscillated between sourness and bitterness.
You never know, the election in Camille-Laurin could be the start of a reconciliation. According to the latest Léger poll, the PQ is the second party that 34% of QS voters would choose, while the CAQ is that of 17% of them. PSPP does not arouse among solidarity the same aversion as its immediate predecessor, Jean-François Lisée. Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois and him give less the impression of seeing each other as mortal enemies.
However, it is not tomorrow the day before that we will speak again of an official alliance. After having succeeded in expelling the PQ from the island of Montreal, the strategists of QS would undoubtedly not like the prospect of seeing him set foot there again.
The good Lord does not seem to be the only one interested in the Quebec countryside. The devil obviously decided to put his grain of salt there too. Who else but him could have inspired the nonsense uttered by the Minister of Immigration, Jean Boulet?
While he should normally be the best informed on these issues, he was completely wrong when he stated that 80% of immigrants settle in Montreal and do not work in French. It was as irresponsible as it was inaccurate. Either, francization and regionalization remain clearly insufficient, but to darken the picture still further cannot contribute in any way to improving things.
This is not the first time that Mr. Boulet has put his feet in the dish on immigration issues. Last spring, while François Legault was already repeating ad nauseam that Quebec’s capacity for integration did not allow it to welcome more than 50,000 immigrants a year, his minister said he was open to accepting more to fight against labor shortage. He had to correct his remarks, claiming to have expressed himself badly. Yet his words were crystal clear.
The cup finally overflowed. In the eyes of his leader, his latest blunder disqualified him from the position of Minister of Immigration. With the increased representation that the CAQ will undoubtedly enjoy in the National Assembly, we can even assume that Mr. Boulet, who had long been perceived as a first in class, has disqualified himself from a post of minister altogether.
“It’s tricky talking about immigration,” said Mr. Legault in an interview with the Montreal Journal the report of which was published earlier this week. This did not prevent him from repeating the offense on Wednesday before the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal, declaring that it would be “suicidal” to raise the immigration thresholds beyond 50,000.
“Suicide is killing yourself. François Legault believes that welcoming more immigrants is the death of the Quebec nation. That’s what he said. These are rude, hurtful and irresponsible remarks, ” roared Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois.
After trying to refocus the campaign on the economy, saying he wanted to make it the decisive theme, the head of the CAQ was in no hurry than to return to immigration. He may have done it clumsily, but he did it anyway. There is a clear and disturbing intention here. The devil must be rubbing his hands.