At the end of a session marked by criticism of his management of the pandemic, Prime Minister François Legault expects the gap to narrow with the opposition in voting intentions over the coming months and still promises once “not to get angry” with his opponents.
The head of government inaugurated a new parliamentary session in October by proposing to “start planning for the post-pandemic”. In June, he also promised to be “more zen” this fall in the face of his political opponents. In both cases, the challenge has been greater than expected.
In taking stock of the last three months on Friday, Mr. Legault commented on the significant lead he has maintained for months over his opponents in the polls.
“I think it will tighten in the coming months,” he predicted at a press conference.
Mr. Legault explained that he preferred to consider this scenario, because he does not take anything for granted by the elections of October 2022. “I have enough experience in politics to know that polls can change quickly “, did he declare.
In mid-October, the Prime Minister wanted to give new impetus to his government by proroguing Parliament and presenting new priorities to “plan for the post-pandemic”.
Two weeks later, however, the government found itself in embarrassment after doing an about-face on mandatory vaccination of healthcare workers. The Ombudsperson’s report on the devastation of COVID-19 in CHSLDs then confronted him with decisions taken at the height of the crisis. Coroner Géhane Kamel’s work on deaths in an accommodation center has finished providing ammunition to the oppositions.
The management of the pandemic has also dominated parliamentary debates in the last three weeks, the oppositions devoting 60% of their questions to it, according to a compilation of the Duty.
Mr. Legault began his assessment by mentioning the insistence of the opposition. “During the session, there were a lot of questions following the Ombudsperson’s report. I won’t hide from you that I found it hard to remember times that were difficult. “
Nothing to do with Charest
This week, the three opposition parties united in calling on the government to launch a public inquiry into the management of the pandemic. Mr. Legault reiterated that four investigations, including three in progress, relate to the subject.
In taking stock, he rejected a parallel with his predecessor Jean Charest, who pleaded in favor of police investigations to finally agree to the demands of the opposition and mandate a public inquiry into the construction.
“There is nothing to compare between the two, currently there are four investigations, this was certainly not the case in the case of corruption in construction,” he said. The ongoing investigations will get to the bottom of the matter. “
Even if he says he is “strong”, he criticized the opposition for having attributed too much of the responsibility to him in the failures of the pandemic – and in the problems which still plague the health network. He believes that the Liberal leader, Dominique Anglade, has gone too far in declaring that the death of a man could have been avoided in Abitibi-Témiscamingue if the government had better managed the shortage of nurses.
“I do not agree that I am responsible, with Christian [Dubé, le ministre de la Santé], of the death of a person in Senneterre, he blurted out. She also said that I was the only one who did not know, in 2020, that people were being sent to the slaughterhouse. [dans les CHSLD]. That’s what she said. It’s hard. “
The end of the session was marked by the tabling of a report by the Auditor General, Guylaine Leclerc. The document accuses the Minister of the Economy, Pierre Fitzgibbon, of his lack of transparency after the allocation of 68 million in aid to companies thanks to his discretionary power.
“It’s not problematic,” he dropped.
The “great diversion”
In November, the Prime Minister caused a surprise: he resuscitated the project of a professional hockey team in Quebec. Two weeks later, he repeated his interest in funding the return of baseball to Montreal in exchange for spinoffs.
A way of diverting attention from the questions raised by its management of the pandemic and the findings of the Auditor General about Mr. Fitzgibbon, ruled the oppositions.
“The government is using professional sport, among other things, to distract from the real issues that are the priority of Quebecers at the moment,” said Liberal MP André Fortin.
“What we saw from the CAQ this fall is the end of the great seduction. We are past the hour of the start of the great diversion, ”also launched Manon Massé, from Québec solidaire.
At the end of the session, Mr. Legault had to justify the tone of his discussions at the Salon Bleu, where he hoped to be “more zen”.
“I ask the opposition parties to be respectful. I will try not to get mad even if they say things that are wrong, that are not true. I will continue to try to be calm and drink my herbal tea, ”he conceded.
For his part, the PQ leader, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, noted the strength of the exchanges between his opponents. He maintained that his training had intentionally stayed away.
“That does not prevent us from being very relevant, and I think that we will have more listening to the population by maintaining a tone which is fair and which is relevant”, he affirmed.
Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon, who gave up being a candidate in the by-election in Marie-Victorin, relies on his party’s position to regain ground, in particular on Mr. Legault’s Coalition d’avenir Québec.
“That makes us the only party that has growth potential, which returns in 2022 with the potential to rally Francophones, nationalists who are disappointed with the CAQ,” assured the leader.