Prime Minister François Legault has a great quality that has allowed him to remain popular despite the difficult management of the pandemic. He is not stubborn. You could even say that he has mastered the art of elegantly walking on paint.
On health issues, Mr. Legault had the annoying habit – particularly for a prime minister – of thinking out loud, of saying what he hoped for, often a little too early when his optimism or his desire to reopen the economy the as soon as possible outweighed the prudence which must characterize its functions.
Thus, at the end of November, Mr. Legault had mentioned a holiday season with 20 or even 25 guests. He shouldn’t have done it, especially because prime ministers shouldn’t make wishes. They are there to decide and not to have moods.
Even while only wanting to give hope to Quebeckers, he imposed on his Minister of Health and his Director of Public Health a framework that they might not be able to respect. When they announced the “good news”, MM. Dubé and Arruda seemed to fulfill a political order. Because in the administration, a wish of the Prime Minister is practically the same as an order …
This week, seeing the deterioration of the health situation and the meteoric rise of the Omicron variant, Mr. Legault was forced to backtrack. For the second time, he looked like the ‘Grumpy Man Who Spoiled Christmas’.
But even if the announcement will certainly have an effect on the morale of Quebecers, they should forgive him without leaving too many consequences.
Why ? Because Mr. Legault is not stubborn. He doesn’t see leadership as charging straight ahead with head down once a decision is made, even if it means crashing into the wall.
Quebeckers still remember the previous government, which rushed hard, even when it became clear that its austerity policies were weakening our health and education establishments.
The books have been put back in order, but at a price that Quebeckers still pay, particularly in the health network.
In this health crisis, when we demonstrated to François Legault that he had to change course, he did not hesitate to follow the recommendations of Public Health. At the risk of giving an impression of disorganization.
When it really mattered, facts always won over ideology. Even when the Prime Minister had publicly come forward with questionable theories like “natural immunity” at the start of the crisis, he was quick to pack it all up.
However, the result is not always the best. Quebec’s record in terms of the number of cases and hospitalizations compares rather poorly with that of other Canadian provinces. We’re way behind the rest on the third dose and so on.
But the time to take stock is not yet. He will come and we can count on the opposition parties to launch the debate as soon as they return to the National Assembly in February.
But since it is the holiday season, it is okay to make wishes. Could the Prime Minister have the same elegance when he reconsiders his positions in the field of the environment, which is more than ever the blind spot of his government?
Quebec’s greenhouse gas report was published last week and it is disastrous. Not only do we not advance, we retreat. Emissions for 2019 – the balance sheet is always given two years late – represent an increase of 1.5%.
” It hurts. The step was already very high, it is all the more so now, ”lamented the Minister of the Environment, Benoit Charette.
We can of course blame it on previous governments that allowed horrors like the McInnis cement plant, but the current government’s targets lack ambition.
For now, the government’s actions have mostly been symbolic – such as promising not to produce any more hydrocarbons that we do not produce anyway – but we have avoided tackling head-on the sector that produces the most. greenhouse gas emissions, that is to say that of transport.
Worse still, the Prime Minister persists and signs on the worst ecological project that one could imagine, the third link between Quebec and Lévis – which will produce greenhouse gases in its construction and after, and which will strongly encourage urban sprawl, also a producer of GHGs.
But since the Prime Minister has mastered the art of elegantly walking on paint, should he not use it to revisit this project which promises to be as pharaonic as it is polluting?