Third way | Under the hood of the CAQ

The third way embodied by the CAQ is a “failure”, argued last week the Liberal Party and the Parti Québécois. On the contrary, this path between federalism and sovereignism is “stronger than ever,” declared François Legault. If this approach unleashes passions today, it is because two former political advisors, Pascal Mailhot and Éric Montigny, have just published an essay on this subject. They discussed it with our columnist.

“If you see a turtle sitting on top of a fence post, it didn’t get there by accident,” US President Bill Clinton once said.

It is a figure of speech that can be used to describe several political situations, and it seems particularly appropriate to me to talk about the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ).

François Legault’s party did not take power by accident in 2018. Nor was it by accident that it beat its rivals even more convincingly in 2022.

A fundamental reason for these successes is that the political “third way”, embodied by the CAQ, was in line with the aspirations of Quebec voters.

“The third way comes from the observation of a constitutional impasse. A blockage following the failure of the Meech Lake agreement [en 1990]. It starts from there,” explains Éric Montigny, who teaches political science at Laval University.

I spoke with Éric Montigny and Pascal Mailhot (now vice-president at Tact) because these two former political advisors have just published an essay, entitled Conquering power.

Reading their book and talking with them for a good hour, I had the impression of being in the company of two mechanics who opened the hood of the CAQ vehicle for me and described to me how its engine had been designed .

“The pivotal moment, the turning point for us in history, was after the defeat in Chauveau’s riding, when the CAQ hit rock bottom. It forced a deep questioning,” Pascal Mailhot told me.

It happened in June 2015.

In their book, the two authors reveal that a few weeks after the defeat, François Legault gathered his lieutenants to tell them that he wanted to “bring together nationalists from all parties”. He will subsequently evoke a “new and modern version of Quebec nationalism within Canada”.

The CAQ had just formalized the adoption of the third way – which had previously been opened by Mario Dumont’s Action Démocratique du Québec.

“We see it in the analysis of the CAQ’s speech afterwards: there was more cohesion in the message and a more assertive position of primary loyalty to Quebec, but also of demand for new powers,” added Éric Montigny during the interview.

That’s the genesis of the CAQ.

But the third way, what does ossa give? as Yvon Deschamps would say.

Many took advantage of the release of the test to criticize the CAQ’s approach.

The leaders of the Parti Québécois and the Liberal Party, in particular. They spoke of a “failure”.

In The duty, Antoine Dionne Charest maintained that the current problems of the CAQ stem from this “neither sovereignist nor federalist policy”. And that this “slows down the development of Quebec”.

Columnist Michel David expressed his doubts after Justin Trudeau’s refusal to grant Quebec full immigration powers.

Pascal Mailhot and Éric Montigny, who were respectively part of the close guard of François Legault and Mario Dumont, are for their part convinced that the third way remains the most effective.

“And the Parti Québécois in power, with a project of sovereignty in its purest form, is the dynamic of rupture. I experienced it when I was in the PQ, within the government of Bernard Landry. And we then saw it with Pauline Marois: any discussion, any relationship with the rest of Canada is poisoned because we are in a dynamic of rupture,” he adds.

If Justin Trudeau said no to Quebec on immigration, the file is not closed and this refusal should not obscure the gains made by the CAQ in recent years, counter the authors.

As a good teacher, Éric Montigny explains to me that since the CAQ has been in power, three “different areas of autonomy have been targeted”. He affirms that they each allowed them to reap victories.

First: the protection of the powers of the National Assembly. “We saw it with the asymmetrical health agreement,” says the professor, since Ottawa increased federal transfers unconditionally.

Second: there is a desire “to claim new powers for Quebec”. For example, the CAQ signed an agreement with Ottawa which allows Quebec to participate in the process of appointing three judges of the Supreme Court of Canada from the province.

Finally, “there is a desire to make maximum use of the powers that Quebec has,” adds Éric Montigny. Examples ? Unilateral recognition of the Quebec nation in the Canadian Constitution. Using the notwithstanding provision to protect the Law on State Secularism.

Pascal Mailhot restarts it. “You forgot one!” The application of Bill 101 to federally chartered businesses. »

Those who believe that the CAQ’s approach does not work, “it is often the sovereignists, who want us to return to the knife-to-the-throat approach, that is to say brandishing the threat of sovereignty,” he maintains.

“But we don’t have that card,” notes the man who was a PQ advisor before joining the CAQ. This is not credible today with sovereignty at 36% and which is not at all a priority. »

So much so that this threat, in his eyes, today takes the form of a “little white plastic knife”. And that he judges that the third way remains “the only one applicable in the context of Quebec”.

The fact remains that today, things are going very bad for the CAQ. According to a recent poll, François Legault’s government obtains barely 22% support.

There are “controversies which mark and which bring premature wear and tear. We wouldn’t need too many like that,” says Pascal Mailhot when I talk to him about the party’s difficulties.

And “the CAQ perhaps imposes too rapid a pace of change”. Between now and the end of the mandate, “there may be reason to modulate this pace a little,” he suggests.

The multiplication of errors and controversies since last year… Major reforms which have not yet given the promised results… Could the future of the third way be compromised in the short term?

Éric Montigny underlines that among the factors which enabled the success of the CAQ – and the third way – over the last decade, there is also the fact that the national question is no longer the only issue which structures the vote in Quebec.

New issues concern voters and divide the population.

“There are more divisions in Quebec than there were before. For example, the electorate is composed on the left-right axis, on the environmental axis (growth-decline), on the identity axis linked to the issues of immigration and living together. , points out the professor.

“Will these divisions on other issues disappear and bring back Yes-No polarization? That’s the big question! »

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