Barely a year ago, François Legault was a celebrated prime minister with close ties to Quebecers. He was in the same tone as her. After the elections everything went wrong. And his popularity began to decline.
• Also read: Poll: Legault is Canada’s most unpopular prime minister
I have often explained why here: lack of vision, lack of nationalism, narrow vision of economic development. In his first term, François Legault knew how to grow with secularism and his defense of Quebec’s identity. He knew how to play his role as a good father even during the pandemic.
Separate
But we’re not there anymore. And François Legault seems disoriented.
Can François Legault reconnect with Quebecers?
It’s still possible. The man has real qualities.
But this requires more than a session of media self-flagellation in which the prime minister apologizes for disappointing Quebecers and regrets that they are angry with him.
This is another strategy that should be prescribed to him.
He should first invite Quebecers to a speech to the nation to publicly declare what he probably knows deep down: if nothing is done at the end of the century, the Quebec people will simply be assimilated – they will survive only as an ethnic minority its historical territory.
Against this background, he should declare that his mandate aims to reverse this destructive dynamic.
Speech to the nation
To achieve this, it should completely change its immigration policy, break with the principle of mass immigration and launch a major project to reclaim Montreal linguistically and culturally.
He should then call for a new Bélanger-Campeau Commission on Quebec’s political status and its place in Canada.
In other words: François Legault must become a real nationalist again.
Of course, if he does that, he’ll shock his friends at the boss’s boy club.
But he will reconnect with Quebecers.