He does not officially bear the title, but in fact, we can say that Pierre Fitzgibbon is the real vice-prime minister of François Legault. Close friend and alter ego, he is by far his most influential minister.
Government heavyweight, Pierre Fitzgibbon is what we call an omni-minister. He is responsible for the Economy, Innovation and Energy, Regional Economic Development, the Metropolis and the Montreal region. That’s a lot of power.
Brilliant, deadpan, pheasant hunter, he is a man of numbers more than letters. Paradoxically, while he is rather appreciated by journalists for his outspokenness, Mr. Fitzgibbon does not return the favor.
One example among others is its after-sales service for the battery sector and the arrival of the powerful Swedish firm Northvolt thanks to the generous breasts of the Quebec public treasury.
Its epidermis immediately thins at the slightest criticism or question raised by citizens or journalists worried about the appearance of “carte blanche” that Northvolt seems to have enjoyed on the lands of La Belle Province.
Informed questions
Informed questions, however, must be asked. When mountains of public funds meet with a lack of examination by the Bureau d’audiences publique sur l’environnement (BAPE), that’s a minimum.
Like others, this is what my colleague Michel C. Auger did in the pages of The Press. At the same time, he reacted to the Prime Minister’s exit urging Quebecers to “change their attitude” towards his government’s “economic and energy policies”.
Mr. Fitzgibbon, clearly, did not like it. He therefore signed a “reply” in the pages of the same newspaper.
However, instead of limiting himself to defending his position as he must do as the bearer of the file, the minister could not help but shoot his arrows at the said journalist, at the media and, finally, at everyone wondering about this project.
The minister even denounces what he sees as a “demonization” of Northvolt. Which, according to him, “undermines our chances of success”. Ah good?
Who “demonizes” who?
Then comes the punchline: “How did we get there? It must be admitted that the political debate is tense in Quebec, and has been for several years. Some activists and some equally militant journalists are much more vocal than the silent majority who support these projects. They maintain an unhealthy distrust.”
So who is “demonizing” who? Except the minister when he points out “certain activists” and “certain journalists”, whom he wrongly accuses of being “just as activists” and even guilty, according to him, of knowingly maintaining an “unhealthy distrust » within the population.
Why so much impatience among Mr. Fitzgibbon and some of his colleagues with the media, whose job, they know since several of the ministers are ex-journalists, is to question and analyze?
Why not defend their projects to Quebecers without bringing out the old worn record of the evil media and the evil environmentalists?
Why not accept that in a democratic society, citizens and the media have the fundamental right, if not the duty, to question elected officials about what they are doing or not doing?
For months, the polls have been unkind to the CAQ. At least for the moment. Perhaps we find there a first element of explanation.