There are few more telling signs, for a politician who is closer to the end than the beginning of his career, than to see him try for the last time what has already served him well.
Published at 7:00 a.m.
This is what we saw last week when François Legault pulled out of his hat a “religious crisis” caused by Islamists praying in the street and which he will fight with the derogation provision, which has become the obligatory symbol of Quebec nationalism which protects the nation.
Protecting the nation, he will also do it against Donald Trump, his customs duties and his protectionism which threaten our economy. International trade negotiations are more the responsibility of the federal government, but that doesn’t matter, since Mr. Legault can show his photo shaking the hand of the president-elect of the United States.
The two problems are obviously not on the same footing. The prayer in the street that we saw in Montreal was essentially linked to demonstrations to denounce Israel’s military intervention in the Gaza Strip. At prayer time, some demonstrators did indeed pray in the street, but this was not a significant or widespread phenomenon. Nothing to threaten to use the notwithstanding clause unless it is part of an electoral strategy.
In fact, and several colleagues have already pointed out, Catholics are the first to use public roads for Corpus Christi processions (the Diocese of Montreal still organizes one every year) or the Pardon March on Friday. saint.
What is saddest in the return of this speech from the Coalition Avenir Québec government is that secularism, instead of becoming a value of unity, always results in prohibitions and therefore becomes, an exclusion factor.
But that’s not all. Once in Paris for the reopening of Notre-Dame Cathedral, Mr. Legault complicated the government speech by saying that Quebecers should never forget their Catholic traditions. A call to pride that only affects the majority.
By the way, when it comes to heritage, it seems that the priorities of the Quebec government lie elsewhere, since it will support a smaller number of religious heritage restoration initiatives this year, i.e. 37 fewer projects than in 2023. -2024, according to the Quebec Religious Heritage Council.
What we can conclude is that once again, the Prime Minister’s secularism is of very variable geometry. Catholics should be proud, other religions are a serious enough problem to suspend constitutional rights. This isn’t the first time we’ve noticed it.
Which brings us to the Legault government which wants to protect Quebecers against Donald Trump. It is true that even though Mr. Trump will only be sworn in in 40 days, he is already behaving as if he were the president of the United States, as shown by the announcement of a tariff war against his three main trading partners: China, Canada and Mexico.
The war is, for the moment, limited to symbols, but they serve to reinforce the idea that there is one partner who is bigger than the others.
When Mr. Trump talks about a 51e State of the Union and when he talks about “Governor Trudeau”, he is only stepping up his strategy of intimidation. Mr. Legault did have around ten minutes with the president, but the good news is that he did not (yet?) find a derogatory nickname for him.
Most of the trade negotiations will take place in the absence of Quebec, which will be informed rather than consulted on the position that the Canadian side intends to take. Mr. Legault will be part of Team Canada, but he will be neither its negotiator nor its leader.
That said, a trade war with the United States would have more repercussions on Quebec than a couple of prayers on the public highway. It should come as no surprise that if there is one subject on which Quebecers want to see their Prime Minister take action, it is this one.
Even before Mr. Trump’s election, we knew that in Quebec, everything is not rosy and that bad news is piling up, from Northvolt to the record budget deficit.
But all this becomes very relative when we compare it to the possibility of a tariff war with our powerful neighbor to the South, with a president as unpredictable as he is intransigent.
That Mr. Legault has the inclination to talk about a constitutional derogation to prevent prayers in the streets instead of economics is proof of impotence. In economic negotiations with Donald Trump, the Prime Minister will not be able to “protect Quebecers” much, even if he wants to, since he will be far from being the master of the game.
In the circumstances, we will not be surprised that he wants to bring back a subject that had already made him very popular at the start of his mandate. Even if it is far from being a priority.
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