Faced with the prospect of seeing Canada open the floodgates of immigration in order to have 100 million inhabitants by the end of the century, the whole discourse of the Legault government on the repatriation of full powers in this matter suddenly seems incidental.
With or without them, no one will force Quebec to permanently welcome the immigrants it does not want. He could very well choose to be reduced to a French-speaking blue pocket on the continent, which would be gradually reduced and would have within the federation the same influence that the elephant can recognize in the mouse. Or to follow the movement, by raising the thresholds somewhere between 120,000 and 150,000 newcomers, whom he will be quite unable to integrate, and thus to realize Lord Durham’s dream.
Moreover, with the Initiative of the Century, we can also wonder what the new official languages action plan made public two weeks ago by Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor would mean.
Already unrealistic in the current state of affairs, the objective of welcoming a sufficient number of French-speaking immigrants to ensure the survival of French outside Quebec is downright frivolous. The disappearance of the fleur-de-lys from the new Canadian crown offered to Charles III ultimately appears as a symbolic projection of the future.
Justin Trudeau says he sees no danger for Quebec, but the National Assembly is unanimous in saying that the increase in immigration thresholds planned by the federal government “is incompatible with the protection of the French language in Quebec”. The question that arises is therefore: what do we do?
The Legault government has given up on the big forum on immigration that was mentioned last year. Therefore, the review of the multiannual immigration plan for the years 2024-2027, which will take place at the end of August, should be the time to have this collective discussion.
Even if the PLQ has presented a bill that would include temporary immigration, which is experiencing dazzling growth under pressure from companies hungry for labour, Minister Christine Fréchette intends, however, to limit the exercise to permanent immigrants only. All the more reason for this excludes the examination of the implications of the increase in the thresholds that Ottawa is considering.
In Mr. Legault’s mind is the “short term”, as if that did not constitute the beginning of the long term and that he will always have to react to the federal initiative when Quebec finds itself faced with a fait accompli.
We can very well understand that Mayor Plante does not want to get involved in the debate, but to simply see it as one more “quarrel” between Quebec and Ottawa constitutes a suicidal trivialization. Mr. Legault would tragically fail in his responsibilities by refusing to hold the debate for fear of losing control.
The recent past teaches that the bursts of nationalism of the PLQ are temporary. Here he is, worried about Quebec’s reception capacity and accusing the government of underestimating the threat posed by temporary immigration.
Of course, he would never go so far as to say that belonging to the Canadian federation could also become a danger. We can even think that he is just waiting for the opportunity to become the champion he once was.
The Prime Minister declared last year that we could always defend the sovereignist project for identity reasons, but not for financial reasons. It is now a question of knowing if he considers that these can justify that one sacrifices his soul.
Since he left the PQ to found the CAQ, Mr. Legault has always managed not to have to ask himself this question, contenting himself with ironizing about the nostalgics of the imaginary country who await the “Grand Soir” during that he himself lives in the real country and works to make Quebecers as rich as Ontarians.
He always tries to make people believe – and perhaps to convince himself – that the solution lies in the autonomy advocated by the CAQ, while his “New project for the nationalists of Quebec” describes a country which comes under the pure fantasy and that the reality is the one before which the Initiative of the Century places Quebec.
It is in itself the most striking demonstration that the fate of French and of the Quebec nation is of no interest to the rest of Canada. Besides, why would he care if Quebec itself doesn’t seem to care too much?