The Prime Minister of Quebec is a huge sports fan. Every fall, François Legault carefully selects the players in his ice hockey pool, a friendly competition in which he competes against his advisors over several years – he too is at the top of the rankings and likes to remind those around him of it. In another ice hockey competition in which he takes part, the very difficult one organized by the daily La Presse, he is currently in 74th place out of… 18,729 participants. So it’s not all bad.
It’s not the only sport that catches his attention. If there was a tennis pool, François Legault would be there. This sport is at the top of his list. Despite his Premier League schedule, he still practices it regularly and rarely misses a final or semifinal at the National Bank Open in Montreal in early August.
We often compare politics to hockey and say that it is a team sport, with the parliamentary group, the council of ministers, the advisers… We play, we win and we lose as a group. It is not wrong. Team composition and performance are important.
But in many ways being prime minister is more of a lonely sport, like tennis. The feature allows you to acknowledge good plays and forces you to take responsibility for bad decisions. He must master all files. Get involved in all the controversies. The Prime Minister is constantly in the spotlight and sometimes feels very alone when things are going badly on the ground.
Unlike ice hockey, tennis produces a telling statistic for every game: unforced errors. Self-inflicted errors that are not caused by a good shot from the opponent.
The ball is in the middle of the court and is easy to hit back, but lack of concentration or impatience in movement, even minimal, will result in a foul.
Tennis, like politics, is a sport that is mostly played between the ears. A mental battle. An exercise in discipline. All actors, all governments make unprovoked mistakes. The challenge is to avoid the accumulation of unforced errors. To limit the damage.
Otherwise the nervousness increases. The player begins to grip his racket a little too tightly. He loses his bearings, tries to regain his bearings, to catch up, but he rushes his actions and ends up exacerbating his difficulties.
You see me coming. François Legault’s unforced errors have been piling up for several months.
Here are some examples of unprovoked errors
MPs had not been consulted or warned, the explanations were uncertain, the reasons for the U-turn appeared to be changing according to the elected officials interviewed, the Prime Minister did not deign to appear alongside his Transport Minister to take responsibility for his decision take over. … In short, voters in Greater Quebec felt betrayed and discredited.
A proposal that the Prime Minister and government ministers have not publicly defended, other than paying lip service. This came at a time when citizens were having to tighten their belts due to inflation, without having the privilege of voting for a generous salary increase. This increase is a drop in the bucket of the state’s public finances ($4.4 million), but it still concerns the government. The equivalent of a double fault when it comes to the first sentence…
François Legault simply had to show his remorse and reiterate that he would take the time to reflect, consult his group on the causes of the defeat and listen to the people of Quebec. But he goes further.
Your MPs are just as surprised as they were at the announcement in April, your Council of Ministers is in shock and the population is puzzled. “It really wasn’t necessary,” a government member summarized to me a few days later. The ball is offline and far away.
Everything is going well… until Paul St-Pierre Plamondon’s question in the House of Representatives, to which François Legault answers by talking about the jobs in the federal government. “At the same time, could he say how many Quebecers would lose their jobs as a result of the $8 billion in cuts? »
This is the fear argument that the Federalist camp has used for decades, but in the mouth of the former PQ in a hurry who became head of the CAQ, it rings false. The many separatists within the Avenir Québec coalition swallowed incorrectly.
Then, as if to make amends, five days later he replied sharply to Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, who accused him of repeating Jean Charest’s arguments: “Being called Jean Charest is something wrong with you? More offensive than being.” called Jean Charest? » says the Prime Minister (New Window) and briefly answers a journalist after leaving the Blue Room. In any case, he even said Jean Chrétien!
The CAQ is a coalition of voters who have voted for other parties in the recent past. Even within his ministerial team and among cabinet staff, all political colors clash. It is a strength but also a fragility.
In public opinion, the slap in the face of the separatists and then the former Liberals in less than a week caused a grimace among former supporters of both camps. We began to bleed at both ends… whispers a government policy advisor to me.
Quebec Finance Minister Eric Girard never saw the mistake coming when he announced a $5 million to $7 million subsidy to Quebecor to encourage the Los Angeles Kings to come to the Videotron Center for two exhibition games in October 2024. His smile showed a man who was confident he was announcing good news. And yet.
The sum will be used to cover the expenses of the three competing teams – the Kings, the Florida Panthers and the Boston Bruins – as well as the losses in front of the gates of these teams, which will play far from their amphitheater, explained Eric Girard.
Nonsense for any hockey fan who pays even the slightest bit of attention. The Los Angeles Kings will have to vacate their arena next fall as it undergoes renovations (New Window). Far from being a favor, they were looking for a temporary home. The Florida Panthers play almost all of their offseason games on the road because their arena is empty because there aren’t enough fans to watch trivial hockey. This year the team competed in Kraft Hockeyville, Nova Scotia, as it was more profitable for them to play in Sydney than in their own arena. That means.
Every year, NHL teams play friendly games away from their hometown in order to expand into new markets without disappointing their fans, who would not like to see their team play important games on the road. And every time no public funds are spent (New Window).
“We tried to negotiate downwards,” Eric Girard said. And then it was this or nothing. The answer should have been nothing. Against the backdrop of deteriorating public finances, rising inflation and public sector negotiations, the message is disastrous, even if the amount is small compared to Quebec’s budget. This is evidenced by the latest poll on voting intentions (new window), which was carried out following the announcement. The CAQ is in retreat everywhere, including in Quebec.
However, keep in mind that even if the idea was Eric Girard’s, this grant to the Kings went through all the usual steps. The Council of Ministers agreed to this. Also the Prime Minister. Eric Girard didn’t hold a big press conference at the Videotron Center behind the backs of his colleagues.
Headwind
Five unforced errors in just a few months.
However, when you’re up against a strong opponent, every unprovoked mistake hurts twice as much.
All Western governments are currently facing a major adversary: a slowing economy, rising costs of living and post-pandemic popular discontent. Governments that were so powerful and agile during the health crisis suddenly appear powerless and struggling to address environmental crises, fueling despair.
The average citizen in a democracy feels like they are not getting enough for their money, whether at the supermarket, looking at their rent or mortgage bill, or using government services. The wars in Ukraine and the Middle East add to the gloom.
The world is going bad. Expectations are disappointed. The disgruntled voter has a lot to say, but feels like he or she is not being heard. He lets himself be vented in surveys and on social networks.
The popularity ratings of the ruling parties are suffering here, just as in the USA, France and Great Britain. Voters are looking elsewhere. Radical policy options are making progress in several countries. In the Netherlands, the extreme right won the elections this week.
In Quebec we need to improve the atmosphere through difficult negotiations with public sector unions. That’s almost 600,000 employees (and their families) who are not doing well these days.
A formidable opponent who is best faced with patience and iron discipline. Two qualities that François Legault does not possess.
The Prime Minister is authentic, open-hearted, hurried and sometimes heated. A recipe that made it possible to be successful during the pandemic and gain the trust of the population. But when the crisis subsides and it is necessary to govern with medium and long-term goals, the hasty temperament of the CEO who seeks immediate results will be tested.
However, the government and its boss seem to have been constantly in “crisis management” mode for months, looking at all costs for the decisive step to get back into the game as quickly as possible.
On the contrary, the errors keep coming. The message becomes confused.
To the point that the good moves, like hiring 5,000 to 7,000 people to complete accelerated training to enter the construction industry, are being undone. Or the sum of $1.8 billion to build thousands of affordable housing units in the coming years. The new fiscal compact with the cities has also not received the attention it deserves.
Was the player at the head of the government too confident? Has he gotten so used to good polls and overwhelming victories (90 MPs!) that he is losing his bearings?
The CAQ has just completed the first year of its second mandate. The behind-the-scenes slogan of the CAQ is to say that there are still three years until the next election, that the polls come and go, that the time has not come to hit the panic button…
That’s true, but it might be time to get our act together.
We’ve already seen players unable to recover from a poor start to a game.