Heading for a winning Quebec. The Saint-Laurent Project (Boréal, 2013), by François Legault, is the most popular essay with visitors to the National Assembly souvenir shop, according to data obtained by The duty under the Freedom of Information Act.
Over the past five years, the prime minister essayist has sold 42 copies of this book in which he proposes making the shores of the St. Lawrence a “valley of innovation”.
The success of Parliament Hill is closely followed by I trust. Thoughts (without cynicism) from a gamepolitician, of the current Minister of Justice Simon Jolin-Barrette. The essay published in 2018 by Quebec America has gone through the cash register 38 times. Its author delivers his vision of politics while denouncing “bad partisan faith” during question period in the Blue Room. “It’s a scourge to fight,” he wrote in this 128-page opus published before his accession to the post of government parliamentary leader.
The Minister of the French Language, Jean-François Roberge, occupies the third step of the sales podium among the works written by politicians with his Francis the Fearless (Pierre Tisseyre, 2014). This children’s novel has been released 37 times from the souvenir shop of the National Assembly. The author has therefore sold 10 copies more than for his essay What if we reinvented the school? (Québec Amérique, 2016), on which the former teacher — and future Minister of Education — strikes a pose holding a very red apple.
The co-spokespersons of Québec solidaire are doing quite well in this sales chart. Manon Massé indeed ranks fourth with the 32 copies of her speak true (Écosociété, 2018), compared to 30 for Letter from a concerned MP to a Prime Minister who should be (Lux, 2019), by his colleague Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois.
Maple and butter
The souvenir shop of the Quebec Parliament Building is housed in the underground reception pavilion, inaugurated in 2019 and located under the facade of the building designed by architect Eugène-Étienne Taché. There are, in particular, wine glasses bearing the logo of the National Assembly, yellow birch magnets, golf balls, ties and stuffed animals from the snowy owl, the avian emblem of Quebec. Tourists can also sample local flavors here by purchasing ‘Maple Dragon’s Beard’ and passion fruit and nectarine whipped butter.
The literary section includes the publications of the National Assembly and the works of elected members of the current or previous legislature. The writings of the deputies will however have to be withdrawn, in the future, as soon as their author is no longer in office, whether following a voluntary departure or an electoral defeat, specifies the National Assembly in an exchange. with The duty.
“The adoption of these criteria being rather recent, certain works which do not correspond to these criteria are always sold at the store, in order to sell the copies”, explains the spokesperson for the National Assembly Camille Simard.
In accordance with these new rules, the works of Paul St-Pierre Plamondon published before his election, in 2022, will not be able to cross the doors of the shop located under the floor of the Blue Room. To start with political orphans (Boréal, 2014), in which the leader of the Parti Québécois revealed his discomfort with the Quebec left. “I can’t identify with his outraged, rebellious, improvised and often very nationalist image,” he wrote.
Sensuality
The books offered at the National Assembly shop will now have to deal with subjects relating to parliamentarism, politics or the history of Quebec, indicates Ms.me Simard. It will therefore be more difficult to justify the presence of a book like Why is my boss so annoying? (La Semaine, 2018), of the former CAQ Minister of the Environment, MarieChantal Chassé. This book, which appeared in the catalog of the Parliament shop, was the delight of 16 readers in search of answers.
Labor relations are also addressed in Either accuse or apologize. The underside of my illegal arrest (Hugo, 2020), of the former independent deputy Guy Ouellette, who settles his accounts there with the ex-boss of UPAC, Robert Lafrenière. The hard-hitting book has sold four times in the past five years.
The former presidents and vice-presidents of the National Assembly will retain their access to the establishment’s shop, where one can already obtain the autobiography of its outgoing president, François Paradis, My job or my life… (Druide, 2014), and the poetry collection of Third Vice-President Frantz Benjamin. The latter has already sold nine copies of Night of the full coves (Mémoire d’encrier, 2021), which presents itself as an ode to sensuality.