The naivety of Youri Chassin

From the beginning, Youri Chassin’s membership in the Coalition avenir Québec was based on a misunderstanding. Less than a month before officially announcing his candidacy, in April 2018, he wrote on his blog: “If I am so suspicious of state solutions, it is mainly because I do not believe in the myth of a state serving the common good.”

Since he didn’t believe in the usefulness of the state, what was he going to do in politics? Now that he has regained his freedom of speech, he intends to defend his point of view in the public arena, as he did when he was at the Montreal Economic Institute. In retrospect, perhaps he should have stayed there.

It is true that the slimming cure promised by the CAQ never materialized. On the contrary, the State has continued to gain weight. But could we really think that a man who promised 4-year-old kindergartens to everyone would preside over its dismantling?

Unlike the member for Saint-Jérôme, Mr. Legault has always believed that the pursuit of the public good was the raison d’être of the state. Of course, he believes that its effectiveness has limits and that private sector contributions can be beneficial, but he has never had the soul of a libertarian.

Mr. Chassin also said that it was necessary to “relegate economic nationalism to the dustbin of history”, while the Prime Minister, who knows very well what is required to create a business, has always believed in the need for state intervention.

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Mr. Chassin’s ideas may be questionable, but one can only bow to his loyalty to his principles, even if it may have harmed his career. There are too many examples of people who have abandoned them to satisfy their ambitions.

The member for Saint-Jérôme has never hidden his disappointment at not having been granted access to the Council of Ministers, but should we be surprised that Mr. Legault did not appoint a man who wanted to privatize Hydro-Québec and the Société des alcools du Québec, abolish the Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement and the Green Fund, or abandon carbon taxation?

You would have to be a little naive to believe that Mr. Legault, who did not hesitate to renounce his sovereignist convictions to become Prime Minister, would dare to upset an electorate that nevertheless remains attached to the welfare state inherited from the Quiet Revolution.

If Quebecers elected the CAQ in 2018, it was not to liquidate the “Quebec model,” but to get rid of the Liberals. After seeing what the Couillard government’s austerity policies had cost them, Mr. Legault was certainly not going to star in a remake of this film.

Politics requires a certain pragmatism. Before the 2018 election, unions predicted the worst if the CAQ took power. That didn’t happen. The last round of negotiations in the public sector was a little more difficult than others—and there’s still an impasse with the Fédération interprofessionnelle de la santé du Québec—but relations between the government and the union world have remained relatively cordial overall.

Mr. Legault said that during their final meeting, Mr. Chassin tried to convince him to impose greater transparency on unions in their internal management, particularly financial management, as right-wing circles have been demanding for decades. If there is one thing that neither the government nor Quebec in general needs, it is what Mr. Legault called an “atomic war” with unions, which remain essential elements of the “Quebec model.”

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Where Mr. Chassin undoubtedly agrees with the majority of the population and his former CAQ colleagues is when he notes that despite a record deficit of 11 billion, public services continue to deteriorate, whether it be health, education, daycare services, the road network, public transportation, etc.

Here, as elsewhere, taxpayers want value for their money. However, there is a difference between demanding that the state be managed competently and wanting to dismantle it.

While the departure of a second MNA in two weeks is a bad thing, Mr. Legault is certainly relieved that Mr. Chassin decided to finish his term as an independent MNA, thus avoiding another by-election that the CAQ would likely have lost. The latest projection from the Québec125 website put the probability of a PQ victory in Saint-Jérôme at 99%.

The Prime Minister says he does not fear other departures, but he himself demonstrated that they can be unpredictable when he slammed the door on the Parti Québécois. While there is no reason to doubt the sincerity of Mr. Chassin’s motives, the poor poll numbers and the prospect of defeat could well make others discover principles they did not know they were so attached to. Unless they suddenly feel a loss of motivation.

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