François Legault has just written to Justin Trudeau.
He wants Ottawa to reroute asylum seekers arriving via Roxham Road to other provinces, for the federal government to pay its share of the bill, and for Trudeau to openly address the issue with the United States.
Trudeau responded that this was all very complicated, that he couldn’t force the United States to do it, that Quebec had to do better, and that his own government was “working hard,” as always.
paralysis
We understand that François Legault is hardening the tone in the face of Quebecers’ growing desperation.
Quebec is completely powerless because it doesn’t control its borders.
Powerless but also cheated as he has to pick up a bill he didn’t agree to.
Let’s go back now.
The CAQ was founded in 2011 and swallowed up the ADQ in 2012. Six years later she took power.
She came at the right time with the right speech.
Many Quebecers were fed up with a PQ-PLQ change that had become sterile.
The PQ was undertaking a project they were unable to complete and the PLQ had become unconditionally Canadian on top of being worn out.
Many were waiting for “something different” without really knowing what that “something different” could actually mean.
Presenting itself as a coalition, the CAQ cast a wide net, attracting PQ members and Liberals hoping for a breakthrough, a fresh start, renewed energy.
The idea of a coalition also revived the mythical third way, which was always the preferred theoretical option of a majority of Quebecers: a more autonomous, stronger Quebec that would embrace its difference, but which would not go until it left Canada.
Science Fiction in Canada Today.
For CAQ, however, yesterday’s wealth has become today’s problem.
The fact that it is a coalition is now its Achilles heel.
What once made her attractive now condemns her to immobility.
If it were necessary to really confront Ottawa, the Federalists and the Sovereignists would clash within the CAQ, and the coalition would be in grave danger of falling apart.
Why not ? some will ask. But it would require a boldness, a grandeur, a sense of history that we scarcely feel.
So we remain calm and occasionally raise our voice to manage popular frustration.
The Federalists within the CAQ win by default.
Departure
François Legault is now talking about a commission of inquiry to document that the money is in Ottawa but the need is in the provinces.
It would be a new edition of the Séguin Commission, whose report dates back to 2002. Her conclusions were clear… and didn’t change anything.
During the election campaign, François Legault spoke of a referendum to reduce immigration powers. Since then not a word.
But these exercises only make sense if you’re willing to slam the door when you don’t get satisfaction.
Most likely, Mr Legault will leave politics shortly.
Our problem will remain whole and worsen.
