In living memory, I do not remember that Abitibi-Témiscamingue did not have a minister. The candidacy of Daniel Bernard in Rouyn-Noranda–Témiscamingue against the outgoing member of Québec solidaire Émilise Lessard-Therrien and the statement by François Legault indicating that the decision on the maintenance of the Horne smelter belonged to the citizens were perceived as a referendum and in prompted many to vote for the candidate to keep the smelter, especially since Daniel Bernard has always been associated with the mining world. From there to say that the citizens thought they were voting for a minister who was going to settle the file, there is only one step, given the poor performance of regional minister Pierre Dufour.
This morning, the people of Rouyn-Noranda probably feel they have been trapped by a Prime Minister who did everything to get rid of the member who sounded the alarm and who pushed the file like no one else had done it before.
It should be noted that the population of Rouyn-Noranda has always been divided on the issue of discharges from the Horne smelter, although citizens in favor of maintaining the latter have always been in the majority. Abitibi-Témiscamingue is a resource region where most jobs depend on mines and forests.
Faced with the absence of an Abitibi MP in the Council of Ministers, many citizens certainly perceive that they have been trapped, that they have let go of the prey for the shadows, that they have been thrown into political limbo. There will be no bearer of the dossier in the Council of Ministers, any more than there will be in the opposition.
A trap masterfully set by the strategists of the CAQ. A humiliating trick.
Glencore will be able to sleep peacefully, François Legault is managing the situation, there will no longer be anyone in the National Assembly to direct the government on the drama that the population of the Notre-Dame de Noranda district is experiencing every day, a district where I have resided from 1981 to 1984, close to the foundry, precisely in the second house at the foot of the chimneys on the 8e Street, now demolished.
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