The story behind François Legault’s leap into politics in 1998 begins in a schoolyard.
The courtyard of the Externat Mont-Jésus-Marie attended by his sons Xavier and Victor.
Two other little guys wear out the chairs at this private school in Outremont: Alexandre and Simon Bouchard, son of Lucien Bouchard, then Prime Minister of Quebec.
Legault and Bouchard do not yet know each other. It was their wives who first became friends: Isabelle Brais and Audrey Best, who died of cancer in 2011.
They exchange a few words during the parents’ daily ritual, when picking up the children after school. They cross paths during activities. Polite expressions give way to confidences.
One fine day, Isabelle Brais tells Audrey Best that her husband “sold his business” and “is in a period of reorientation, of reflection”.
She is not testing the waters for her husband with a view to a career in politics, far from it. She has no idea what happens next, which will soon make her cry.
PHOTO BERNARD BRAULT, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Lucien Bouchard and his wife Audrey Best, in 2000
But these words spoken that day are, so to speak, the trigger for François Legault’s political adventure, says Lucien Bouchard in an interview.
“Vachon cupcakes”
François Legault is in “reorientation” following a sudden and controversial decision he took in 1997.
In disagreement with his partners, he left Air Transat and sold his shares without warning.
The native of Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, from a modest background, achieved his goal of being independent by the age of 40. He is 39. The Press wrote at the time that the sale of his shares would have allowed him to pocket approximately $14 million.
François Legault sits on eight boards of directors – including Provigo, Culinar, Bestar and Sico – but he is ripe for a new challenge.
“I was looking at the possibility, with the Caisse de dépôt, of buying a Quebec company,” says François Legault during a brief interview with The Press THURSDAY. Which company ? “I can tell you today… It was Culinar, so the Vachon cupcakes,” he reveals. The now century-old company passed to Mexican interests in 2014 after many steps over the years to maintain Quebec ownership.
PHOTO EDOUARD PLANTE-FRÉCHETTE, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
François Legault did not publicly display his sovereignist faith before entering politics.
But François Legault also has an interest in public affairs. It’s known. His sovereignist faith is, however, less so at this moment; he only communicates it privately to certain people. He hid it during his years at Air Transat out of respect for his employees, he would later say.
“I didn’t chase politics, except that it was clear in my head, when I left Air Transat, that I was not going to play golf until the end of my life,” added Mr. Legault.
“Enrich” the PQ team
Audrey Best reports to her husband what Isabelle Brais has just confided to him. Lucien Bouchard said to himself that “perhaps there is someone there available for politics”.
“His profile was interesting,” explains the former prime minister.
“He is an HEC graduate, an accountant by training who has had a successful business career. And he’s still young. I thought it was a great acquisition. »
There is an alignment of the stars. Lucien Bouchard is precisely looking to “enrich” his team in anticipation of the general elections. He wants to recruit business people, a rare commodity in the Parti Québécois.
The former prime minister does not remember the exact moment and circumstances of his team’s first contact with François Legault. But he remembers that at the same moment, “Jean-François Lisée enters the scene”.