Despite the heavy rain, a few hundred people responded to Éric Duhaime’s call on Thursday evening in Quebec City to shout “tramway, no way” into the National Assembly. The conservative leader sang the refrain of the “elites” against the “people”, convinced that the audience of opponents spread out before him represented the “silent majority”.
“You are I don’t know how many hundreds, applauded Mr. Duhaime. You represent thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people in Quebec!”
The Conservative leader, who assured, not so long ago, that “his goal is not to be at the head of the demonstrations”, has nevertheless promised to multiply them by October 3 to abort the tram.
“I can sign you a paper, the tram issue will be at the heart of the electoral campaign, whether François Legault likes it or not!” he promised the crowd huddled under the umbrellas. If the CAQ takes power on October 3, he assures us, “that will mean that people want [le tramway]. We’re going to give up.”
“No acceptability”
What does it matter if the municipal election brought a large majority of elected officials in favor of the tramway to the town hall: for the conservative leader, 44% support among the population according to the latest poll commissioned by the City , it enjoys “no acceptability”.
“Usually, when you take 100% of the world and subtract 44, it still remains 56. Aren’t those people important? These people don’t count?” indignant the former columnist. Are these people not a majority?
When his candidacy in the riding of Chauveau was formalized, Éric Duhaime had bludgeoned the health measures put in place during the pandemic. The floor of people gathered in front of him, he assured then, also represented “the silent majority” whose demands he promises to carry to the Blue Salon.
Thursday, he was the defender of the population against an elite ready to pay nearly 4 billion dollars against their will.
“People have been lied to election after election after election in relation to this project,” laments Mr. Duhaime. He himself, however, borrows a few shortcuts in his argument, especially when he deplores the “wire spider” that will darken the skies of Quebec once the tramway is built. The City, on the contrary, intends to take advantage of its arrival to pool the cables that run along the route and make them less apparent.
Free rather than the tram
Assuring that he is not opposed to public transport, “quite the contrary”, the Conservative leader proposes instead to make the bus free in Quebec. “If it’s free and people don’t use it, it will be the best survey,” believes Éric Duhaime.
The public transport system is already overflowing at peak times, maintains the Réseau de transport de la Capitale. Increasing its accessibility without increasing its capacity amounts to shooting oneself in the foot: it is precisely for this reason, argues the City, that the tramway is a necessity.
The father of the expression “enverdeur”, forged in his former life as a columnist to denigrate environmentalists who claimed too much for his taste, was on Thursday the champion of mature trees and 11 hectares of wooded sacrificed in the wake of the tram. He posed, too, as the guardian of the environmental conscience that he denounced, in the past, when it held up the market.
“We are going to create heat islands, we are going to cut down the trees on René-Lévesque: where are these people? indignantly the conservative leader. It is still special that environmentalists are the most ardent defenders of a concrete project and oppose free public transport.
“Like Labeaume in time”
Few young people had answered the call of the conservative party on Thursday evening. Steve lives in the Montcalm district. “It’s especially the war on the car that bothers me in this project, he says. Me, personally, rue René-Lévesque, I always take it and it is sure and certain that it will be disturbing for motorists.
For Doris, a resident of L’Ancienne-Lorette, the billions earmarked for the tramway could be used elsewhere – such as the third link, a “priority”, in her opinion. “There is such a unique vision. That’s the problem, there is no other alternative. It’s as if they wanted to force it on us.”
Jeffrey, resident of rue Maguire, in Sillery, was worried about the concrete platform on which the tramway must travel. “It’s absurd, for me it will lengthen my travels, he laments. In addition, I find it ugly leaving.
Éric Duhaime will be able to count on his vote on October 3. “I think he speaks for the people,” he said. A bit like Labeaume in time.”