Certain words have marked our political year 2024, sometimes by their frequency, sometimes by their novelty.
PODIUM
Based on a non-scientific survey of elected officials and colleagues, we conclude that the three words that most marked the year 2024 in Quebec politics are:
- TOP GUN: reveals a central idea of the Legault government. Thanks to “top guns”, “private managers”, the new Santé Québec agency will resolve the problems in our system. In the same logic aimed at “depoliticizing” files, the government created the Mobilité Québec agency. Its “top guns” will be named in 2025.
- ENTRISM: in the crisis around the Bedford school, the PQ leader, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, accused “religious entryism”, or the fact, for fundamentalist believers, of interfering in an environment, here the public school, to transform it from the inside. Other cases of “entryism” in 17 schools abruptly brought the issue of secularism to the forefront in 2024.
- WOKISMS: shortly after Trump's re-election in the United States, the PQ leader, PSPP, wanted to become the spokesperson for “fed up” with this extreme left current, in his opinion a of the foundations of Québec solidaire. One of the characteristics of Wokism, according to him: “distorting the words of others, distorting reality to organize trials of intent”.
“There is no one in Ottawa who considers me woke.”
–Pablo Rodriguez, December 9, QUBradio
PUBLIC FINANCES
DEFICIT
The announcement of a huge deficit on March 12 changed the situation in Quebec politics. Looking contrite, Finance Minister Eric Girard revealed the fateful figure: $11 billion. Since then, all the decisions of the Legault government seem conditioned by the need to absorb excess spending. He is accused of falling into “austerity”, which has become a sort of “a-word” for the Legault government… as in the Couillard era.
KING
The $7 million subsidy to the Los Angeles Kings, announced in November 2023, sparked an outcry. In 2024, the official liberal opposition has used this word in almost every way.
“The captain of the deficit team, of the King of deficits, is François Legault.”
–Marc Tanguay, October 3
TRANSPORTS
QUESER
Annoyed by the perpetual dissatisfaction of mayors with the financing of public transport, the Prime Minister announced, at the end of April, that it was “always easier [pour eux] to beg in Quebec than to clean up their expenses.” During the UMQ meetings in May, François Legault attempted reconciliation through humor: “I am not here to seek applause.”
FERN
When it comes to public transport, everyone “must manage their own fern and then find their own solutions,” said Minister Geneviève Guilbault on April 27.
CLUTTER
“When I arrived [en poste] Two years ago, it was a bit of a mess, the matter of financing public transport,” said Geneviève Guilbault on December 3.
ECONOMIC SECURITY
For at least 10 years, the third link has always managed to impose itself in political news. This year, the government justified it with a new concept, “economic security”, because CDPQ Infra had, in its report submitted in June, concluded that “the mobility gains do not justify, for any of the corridors, the construction of a road link.
HEALTH
FLYING TEAM
Minister Christian Dubé's “flying teams”, which were supposed to save furniture in the regions (on the North Shore in particular), never really took off. Due, according to him, to a lack of “flexibility” on the part of nurses.
FLEXIBILITY
Despite the December 2023 agreement with the Common Front of Unions, labor relations continued to disrupt 2024. Particularly because of nurses, with whom the government had difficulty reaching an agreement. He was inflexible in his demand for “flexibility” in the face of unions which showed little “flexibility”.
ECLIPSE
The eclipse of April 8 brought to the fore the contemporary difficulties of scientific culture in our schools, which reacted very differently, some closing their doors, others increasing educational activities. François Legault quipped: establishments “have not found a way to have glasses for everyone, so in 82 years, I am certain that we will be better equipped!”
CODERRERIES
Linguistically, the funniest politician of the year was PLQ leadership candidate Denis Coderre. Like ex-coach Jean Perron, he misused several expressions: “We have to put our bread and butter into it!” He also renamed his colleague Madwa-Nika Cadet “Madwa Godette”.
