Robert Bourassa was a nationalist. René Lévesque too. Claude Ryan was a nationalist. Jacques Parizeau too. Even Philippe Couillard was a bit of a nationalist.
Posted at 6:00 a.m.
François Legault, who became the leader of the nationalists, quite naturally welcomed Bernard Drainville into his party, who revealed to us that he had always been… a nationalist! Sovereignist? The word did not pass his lips.
This is proof that in fact nationalism is to Quebec politics what apple pie is to gastronomy: everyone likes it, even though apple pie has real competition from sugar pie and blueberry pie.
All this to say that you will never hear Bernard Drainville explain to you why he is back in politics with the Coalition avenir Québec, which he once fought against. Or how he abandoned the idea of sovereignty that had been so central to his early political career.
At most, the future MP for Lévis will tell you that “the figures are not there”. Which does not show the greatest conviction towards his new party. Which you can interpret as you want, but his words would certainly not rule out that, if ever the numbers were to be there, he could go back to where he came from.
It is easy to agree with him that “Quebecers have no appetite for independence”. But it is still a little uncomfortable to see Mr. Drainville affirm, without the shadow of an explanation, what could have been the creed of any Quebec federalist leader: “I think that we can, as Quebecers , make progress with our current status, with the powers we have, the economy we have, the institutions, the democracy we have, the green energy we have, the natural resources we have a, the territory we have. »
Bernard Drainville is not just any former PQ member. He was a candidate for the leadership of the party before realizing, like others, that the PQ wanted “its Pierre Karl Péladeau moment” and to withdraw.
The fact remains that he wanted to be the leader of the PQ, the one who would sign, if necessary, the founding act of sovereign Quebec. Such a reversal — even if a decade has passed — would have required some explanation, if only out of respect for the PQ activists who followed him at the time.
For the rest, Bernard Drainville skilfully repeated the short catechism of recent converts to the CAQ. Among other things about the third link, especially since it will be an ecological project, since there will be a lane reserved for public transport – but just at rush hour…
Obviously, as the saying goes “politics is always a local affair” and it would not have been possible for Mr. Drainville to present himself in Lévis without supporting the project.
At least he will have done it with more elegance than Caroline St-Hilaire, who had sharply criticized the project as a commentator and said she was reassured by the new version of the project because there was a reserved lane, not knowing not that, in the first project, there was already one, but permanent!
But in his enthusiasm, Mr. Drainville went a bit far, saying that the nationalism of the CAQ could make Quebec a leader in the fight against climate change.
Because the virtuous effects of nationalism on the environment will necessarily come up against the indifference of the CAQ on everything that affects the environment.
But the arrival of Bernard Drainville and, to a lesser extent, of Caroline St-Hilaire, clearly illustrates one of the major strategic objectives of the CAQ in this election campaign. Not only to win the greatest number of seats, but above all to make sure to cut off the oxygen to the Parti Québécois, which could end up with a very thin representation in the National Assembly.
This would leave all the room for the CAQ in the French-speaking and therefore nationalist electorate, relegating the Liberal Party to being “the party of the English”. This makes a use of nationalism that is quite similar to that of Maurice Duplessis, but hey…
One thing is certain, however, and that is that the Prime Minister is quite proud of his take, to the point of suggesting that he could give him an economic ministry – which in Mr. Legault’s hierarchy is a mark of confidence. major.
We have never known any great interest on the part of Bernard Drainville for economic issues, but what is certain is that he would not want another identity issue. He wouldn’t say whether his defense of the Charter of Values was a good or bad memory — just “a memory,” he said — but it’s clear he doesn’t want to play in that film.