Éric Lefebvre will not be the first MP to see if the grass is greener in the other parliament.
Still, the departure of the whip of the Coalition Avenir Québec – who trades a seat in the Council of Ministers for a role to be determined in a possible Poilievre government – is a sign for the Legault government.
Of course, we had to announce our colors quickly, because it is an open secret that MP Alain Rayes, who left the Conservative caucus after the election of Pierre Poilievre as leader, might well not complete his mandate, which which would mean a by-election in the short term.
That said, you don’t leave a seat in the Council of Ministers – even if it’s just a folding seat – when everything is going well. The departure of Mr. Lefebvre is significant. We could say that, for the first time since they took power in 2018, CAQ deputies have the blues.
For most CAQ MPs, these were mostly happy days since they were in government. But it’s starting to crumble.
Since the last budget, the “government of accountants” has lost control of public spending. Things are not really better in the health sector, where the Dubé reform is slow to bear fruit.
And François Legault is certainly no better than his predecessors at finding the response when he is told no by the federal government.
The immigration issue is a good example. Mr. Legault was able to bluff for a while, but it is obvious that he is not going to call a referendum to obtain more powers in this area and that in the end, it will be resolved through negotiations where the federal government will end up by giving only what he is willing to give away.
In the circumstances, it is not too surprising that even government heavyweights dream out loud of high positions in Ottawa. The Minister of Finance, Eric Girard, surprised everyone a little last week by revealing – although we suspected it – that his real ambition was to be Minister of Finance… of Canada.
Mr. Girard has already been a federal Conservative candidate in a riding in the Montreal region, but if some members of the Quebec Conservative caucus would have liked him to try his luck again, his lack of political sense in the matter of non-matches -Los Angeles Kings competition in Quebec will have cooled them down a lot.
Obviously, the polls are not very favorable to the CAQ these days. But nothing is lost in advance for elections which will take place in a year and a half.
PHOTO JACQUES BOISSINOT, CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES
Last week was difficult for the PQ leader, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, who pushed the envelope very far by speaking of Ottawa’s desire to “crush those who refuse to assimilate”
The PQ has regained the upper hand in the polls mainly because old PQ members have returned home. But the PQ still only obtains a third of the voting intentions in an electorate which now has the choice between five established political parties.
Last week was difficult for the PQ leader, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, who pushed the envelope very far by speaking of Ottawa’s desire to “crush those who refuse to assimilate.” Clumsiness that could follow him for a long time, if he’s not careful.
Sovereignty will be much less attractive if it is presented as revenge necessitated by historical grievances, some of which go back centuries.
Canada has a colonial history, of course, but recalling the deportation of the Acadians in 1755 or the hanging of the Patriots in 1837 will not help the PQ move Quebec forward.
The PQ must show Quebecers that there are advantages, here and now, to becoming sovereign. Not because of old grievances, but because this is what Quebec needs today.
Instead – and whatever Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon says – he chose to make awkward amalgamations between Justin Trudeau, his father, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, and tragic events, but which date back to the time colonial.
In fact, it is difficult to find the Paul St-Pierre Plamondon who made a name for himself in the PQ in 2017, by producing a report entitled Dare to rethink the PQ at the request of the chef at the time, Jean-François Lisée.
“We find among the members a shared feeling according to which the argument has not been updated or communicated, so that there is no appropriation of the national destiny by the rising generation,” he wrote at the time. It is difficult to think that this rising generation will find itself more in the revanchist speech of the current leader of the PQ.
At the time, Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon described the PQ as having been “a reformist, inventive and friendly party”, which had become “fixed, conservative and aging”.
It is very difficult to believe that it is by resurrecting Lord Durham or the specter of an assimilation planned by Ottawa that he will succeed in renewing the PQ, as he said he wanted not so long ago.
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