A year ago, the question that came up sooner or later in any discussion of Quebec politics was the following: yeah, things are going bad for the CAQ and François Legault, but will they end up coming back later?
I answered in the affirmative, without any real doubt: yeah, they will climb back up, they have time, they control the agenda, the PQ rose very high very quickly…
A year later, I’m starting to doubt my answer.
The Legault government has had bad weeks. Even when immigration and secularism are at the heart of the news, we feel them tossed around by events, in reaction.
And it must be said: it is not simply the government that seems overwhelmed, it is also and first of all Prime Minister François Legault himself.
The CAQ’s strategy of making it rarer – of hiding it from the media, in other words – is the symptom of this.
This is all the more worrying.
Immigration
In 2022, the PM affirmed that it would be “a little suicidal” to exceed the permanent immigration threshold of more than 50,0000 immigrants per year. And that without new federal powers, it was the louisianisation who was watching us.
Ultimately, approximately 64,000 immigrants in 2024 were admitted. There will be 67,000 in 2025.
Friendly advice: You should consider signing up for Cajun cooking classes and banjo lessons now.
As an alibi, the Legault government blames the popularity of the fast track for temporary students to permanent immigration – what is called the Quebec Experience Program (PEQ) – for this increase.
However, it is the CAQ itself which uncapped the PEQ admissions ceiling in 2022!
This program was reformed the first time by Simon Jolin-Barrette in 2019, another time in 2020 again by Jolin-Barrette, was then revised without a ceiling by Christine Fréchette in 2023, and now, Jean-François Roberge announces a moratorium .
Don’t worry, I’m dizzy too.
Dizziness, yes, but also a stiff neck because of the distance between the PM’s speech and promises and his actions, the result of which is an increase in thresholds compared to the Couillard and Charest governments.
And it is now Marc Miller and Justin Trudeau who are asking the Legault government for its plan to reduce temporary immigration.
To the dizziness and stiff neck, we must add embarrassment.
Secularism, DPJ, Francisation
Even on secularism, we feel a loss of steam on the part of the PM. However, the opportunity is there if they want to strengthen Law 21, establish new secular ramparts, and review public funding of private religious schools, which a secular state and a truly coherent PM would tackle.
Then in reaction to the scandals of dysfunction of the DPJ, the PM first mentioned a demand which exceeds the supply, praised the historic investments of his government, and ended up making a lame link between asylum seekers and problems at the DPJ, the little finger as the only guide.
What can we also say about the closure of French classes? The CAQ is defending itself as with the DPJ: the budgets are more imposing than ever.
The fact remains that the demand is there, and that we cannot deplore an anglicization by cutting into the francization classes.
Not only are we taking more of it, but we are not taking care of it in this case.
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