Political leaders should come with a “Best Before” label, a bit like on yogurt containers.
This is what we are currently seeing in the figures from the latest Léger survey. Our prime ministers have passed this date.
With 21% of voting intentions, the CAQ today has the same score as in spring 2016, two years before coming to power.
Justin Trudeau has also lost his feathers. At 22%, its score in Quebec now resembles that in the rest of the country!
Yes, there are many factors to explain their decline.
Let’s think about the cost of living crisis. Throughout the West, it accentuates discontent with leaders.
We could also talk about the inability of governments to deliver the goods. We are still waiting for results in health, immigration, the environment, public safety and especially housing!
We could also say that the untimely exits and broken promises of the Legault government do not help!
Voters are tired of being fooled.
In the first term, voters accept, tolerate and forgive! They are willing to give a second chance!
Let’s remember all of Justin Trudeau’s missteps that have been forgiven!
But over time, these negative events take up more and more space. Voters are getting tired.
Hence the comparison with a frying pan.
The first few years, the Teflon works, nothing sticks. But the more time passes, the more you use it, the more the food ends up sticking.
Consume before…
The concept of an expiration date is not absurd. One might think that for good leaders who take power, the time limit hovers around 8 to 10 years. In modern history, only Pierre Elliott Trudeau (15 years and 164 days) and Jean Chrétien (10 years and 38 days) have exceeded this threshold!
François Legault himself said he did not want to hang on beyond a second term.
In an interview with The Canadian Press in 2019, he said he was not a career politician obsessed with “the pleasure of power” and that he did not want to be like those “who get a taste for power [et qui restent] in power to stay in power.
He rightly judged that in two terms he had ample time to accomplish his plan.
In the United States, presidents cannot serve more than two terms, for a maximum of eight years.
In France, it is a consecutive limit of 10 years. You have to take a one-term break before you can run again!
A healthy break
This break after 10 years is essential. First of all, having power is tiring and tiring. And this fatigue inhibits creativity. Over time, politicians have fewer new ideas to offer voters.
And unfortunately, it’s rare that a ministerial reshuffle fixes things… For voters, we need to change the pot instead of stirring it.
