This is not the first time that the six former prime ministers of Quebec who are still among us have united their voices to defend what they consider to be in the national interest.
In December 2020, at the initiative of Gilles Duceppe, then leader of the Bloc Québécois, Lucien Bouchard, Jean Charest, Philippe Couillard, brothers Daniel and Pierre Marc Johnson and Pauline Marois signed an open letter in support of the Legault government and a unanimous motion from the National Assembly, which asked the Trudeau government to subject federally regulated businesses to the provisions of the Charter of the French Language.
If recriminations against Ottawa have been part of daily life in Quebec politics for generations, this is the first time that former prime ministers have spoken out against a bill or policy of the Quebec government, as this group has just done. to do in the case of Bill 15 on health.
We underlined the transpartisan nature of the initiative, and it is true that it brings together three Liberals and three PQists. However, there has never been a CAQ prime minister before François Legault. None of his predecessors therefore had to disavow a government formed by his own party.
This does not detract from the sincerity of their approach, but their conscience may have been eased. Conversely, despite all the respect due to them, they come from these “old parties” from which the CAQ is pleased to have freed Quebec.
Initially, the letter that the gang of six sent to Mr. Legault was not intended to be made public. There is nothing unusual or objectionable about former prime ministers privately raising concerns with their successors. They can also provide very good advice, and anyone who must assume the responsibilities of power has every interest in consulting them if necessary.
It is true that former PQ prime ministers often had an unfortunate tendency to publicly lecture those who followed them, but it was generally less a question of criticizing their government policies than of keeping them on the right path leading to the ‘independence.
Giving your opinion in private and displaying your concern in public are two very different things. An open letter takes on the appearance of a reprimand, which can have the effect of accusing the person who receives it, and Mr. Legault could only have been irritated by that of his predecessors.
Knowing that his mentor, Lucien Bouchard, orchestrated this reprimand must have been all the more mortifying. One wonders if the Prime Minister did not take his anger out on Jean Charest by declaring that he found it insulting to be compared to him.
If the former prime ministers moved from a private approach to a public outing, it is because the government remained deaf to the representations they made in recent weeks. They did not fall from the last rain and they were not fooled by the amendments that Quebec Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, made to his bill on Tuesday.
Whatever Mr. Dubé says, they clearly saw that these modifications would maintain the subjection of institutes and university hospital centers to the future Santé Québec agency. In their minds, the resulting loss of legal identity “would inevitably lead to a decline in their performance in the pursuit of their mission of excellence in health, to the detriment of patients and all of Quebec society.”
Mr. Dubé is not the first health official to want to reduce the autonomy of cutting-edge establishments. Each time this situation has arisen, we have managed to convince the Prime Minister to curb his enthusiasm. Moreover, three of the signatories of the letter addressed to Mr. Legault have already served as Minister of Health, just like the current Prime Minister.
Whether it is Marc-Yvan Côté, Jean Rochon or even Gaétan Barrette, several predecessors of Mr. Dubé who had great reform ambitions had their wings clipped, but Mr. Legault seems determined to support his minister , with whom he has developed a close bond over the years, which was further strengthened during the pandemic. He will not want to impose a step back which would be felt as a humiliation.
The Prime Minister paid tribute to the “courage” of Mr. Dubé, but he himself seems annoyed by the resistance of the boards of directors of institutes and university centers, “where we want to keep our little power”. He will not bow to the gang of six.