The three leaders of the opposition parties represented in the National Assembly as well as the leader of the Conservative Party of Quebec, Éric Duhaime, all accepted François Legault’s invitation to meet him one-on-one. One should not sulk his pleasure, so to speak, the strategy of the empty chair not being appropriate.
Although the meeting with the leader of the Parti Québécois, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, was postponed to next week due to illness, the other meetings took place in a spirit of collaboration.
Of the leaders who spent this hour and a half discussing with the Prime Minister surrounded by a few apparatchiks, it was undoubtedly Éric Duhaime who was the most delighted with this “constructive dialogue”. The Conservative leader even came out with “good news”, that of the creation of two private mini-hospitals where patients can present their health insurance card to obtain free care, leaving complex cases to public hospitals. “It’s a point of convergence that our party has with the CAQ,” said Éric Duhaime after the meeting on Tuesday. He tried to convince François Legault to authorize the extraction of shale gas in the St. Lawrence Valley, reminding the CAQ leader that it was a position he defended ten years ago in his book Heading for a winning Quebec. The Saint-Laurent project. Without success: François Legault is elsewhere, obviously. In the process, Éric Duhaime gave him his unwavering support for the construction of new dams.
The Conservative leader, whose party won no seats even though it won 13% of the votes cast in the last election, or some 530,000 votes, was delighted that the Prime Minister had simply agreed to meet him , seeing it as a form of recognition. “He wouldn’t do that with the Culinary Party,” the former radio host quipped.
The parliamentary leader of Quebec solidaire, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, described as “cordial” his meeting with the Prime Minister, even if he seeks to avoid being taken for an objective ally of the CAQ leader against the Liberals.
During the head-to-head, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois made the “pragmatic” choice to present proposals that François Legault could find acceptable, or at least not reject out of hand. It would have been pointless to come back with QS electoral commitments which the CAQ leader strongly opposes, such as asking him to apply surcharges on gas-guzzling vehicles and a wealth tax. Thus, QS has called on the government to take measures that appear to be the most reasonable, namely to summon car manufacturers to offer only electric vehicles from 2030 rather than in 2035 and to accelerate the electrification of freight transport. Or to require state-assisted companies to gradually adopt green technologies and to urgently bail out public transit companies that are cutting services. As for the request made by Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois to hold a parliamentary committee on Hydro-Québec’s 2022-2026 Strategic Plan, it makes sense and could even be expanded.
This is also what the Liberal Party of Quebec is proposing, which suggests launching an itinerant National Commission on Energy, an idea that can be defended given the importance of the challenges posed by the energy transition, its connection with economic development and its social repercussions. During his meeting Thursday afternoon with the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Official Opposition, Marc Tanguay, hit on the nails that the Liberals will continue to hammer: labor shortages and the delivery of services public services, whether in health, education, childcare services or the justice system. It must be said that the elected Liberals, including their interim leader, must stay on familiar ground and will not be able to make bold proposals: they must leave it to the next Liberal leader and the members who choose him to define the party’s orientations.
Holding these meetings is an excellent initiative by the Prime Minister. It is a recognition that even if the Coalition avenir Québec won more than 70% of the seats in the National Assembly, it did so with a minority of votes. Discussing with the leaders of the opposition parties and hearing their proposals reinforces the legitimacy of the government. It is also to contribute to the idea that in Quebec politics, “adversaries” does not rhyme with “enemies”. Obviously, we will see what will remain of this noble spirit of cooperation when what is called hostilities resumes in the Blue Room.