I have always found in Sophie Brochu a brilliant woman with a fair vision of the management and development of energy resources in Quebec.
When, a few months ago, she came out of her reserve to make preemptive strikes before Fitzgibbon arrived in her flowerbeds, she said figuratively that Quebec gains nothing by becoming “Dollarama of the electricity “. A way also to remind the future superminister and Mr. Legault, who seems to have a blind belief in him, the need to find a fair balance between economy and ecology.
In other words, this obsession with Ontario’s GDP should not lead the government to sell off our electricity by importing energy-hungry companies that want power at a discount. So, no matter how much we surpass ourselves in intellectual contortions to make us believe that Sophie Brochu left in peace, the discrepancy between her vision and that of the Legault-Fitzgibbon duo has a little something to do with her departure. After his appointment, we felt the superminister ostensibly flex his muscles to announce that there was henceforth a dominant male in the affairs of Hydro-Québec. Today, as in the tradition of Thanksgivinghe must thank heaven for his resignation which is an unexpected gift at the start of the year.
But, beyond the bickering, it is the great power that François Legault entrusted to Pierre Fitzgibbon that I question in this text. I may be in the field, but I believe that because of Mr. Fitzgibbon’s personality, it’s not a good idea. Since his arrival in politics, he walks under an opaque cloud and a certain verbal aggressiveness which makes him a person at the antipodes of this duty of humility towards the population that Mr. Legault likes to repeat to the elected officials of the CAQ.
The super minister is probably a talented economist who is adored by the business community, but he is also a politician who causes a great deal of unease among the population.
To be convinced, all you have to do is take a look on social networks. Go see the answers and reactions to his tweet where he is close to Mme Brochu to greet his departure. Even if this surge of bad words towards him is not a poll, it is an indicator of a crisis of confidence and Mr. Fitzgibbon would benefit from understanding that one does not run a ministry like one manages a private company.
When businessmen who have been economically successful enter politics, it is customary to present them as altruists who want to put their expertise at the service of the common good. Since they are independently wealthy, some will say that they are there for the right reasons, because the meager salary cannot be an incentive for their commitment. Unfortunately, this vision is often more poetic than truthful. In our capitalist societies, when we have a lot of money, what remains to climb even higher? There remains political power, which allows us to have influence even on people richer than us. Great political power makes it possible to open doors out of sight, to reward, to favor, to exclude and to scare with fear by its mere presence.
Many rich people therefore enter politics to connect to this other fountain of youth which is much more enjoyable than the mere fact of having a large fortune.
What I have just said may not be the case with Mr. Fitzgibbon, but all these pranks that make the headlines suggest the opposite.
In an issue of the last bye, with his “Super-Fitzgibbon”, Claude Legault parodied this “favoritism” and this blind trust that Mr. Legault seems to have for his minister to whom he forgives many faults. For how long ? I do not know. One thing is certain, the not very ministerial ways of settling accounts with his critics and adversaries in social networks do not help for his image.
If the trend continues, the super minister risks one day becoming a mega-problem for his government. Two reasons therefore lead me to hope that Mr. Legault will reconsider his decision and fragment this excessively large ministry. First, in these times of great climatic and ecological turbulence, leaving so much power, in such a sensitive area, in the hands of a single minister, without a monitoring or moderation mechanism, is not a good idea. Secondly, the gigantic pool of elected members of the Coalition avenir Québec does not lack the talents and skills to deal with innovation and energy and leave to Pierre Fitzgibbon the economic portfolio which has always been at the center of his professional life.
While waiting for this pious dream, I wish him to regain wisdom, restraint and transparency commensurate with his too great responsibilities. I also wish him to have the delicacy not to try to replace Sophie Brochu with one of his hunting or business partners. One last thing. Returning the state corporation to its traditional phallocratic system after the brief passage of Sophie Brochu would be, as my friend Nicholas Bilodeau would say, a very bad move for Mr. Legault.