In politics, public correspondence between politicians is nothing new. After the 1995 referendum, let’s remember, among other things, the scathing letters from Stéphane Dion to Lucien Bouchard.
Mr Dion, then minister of intergovernmental affairs under Jean Chrétien, accused the popular Quebec premier of sowing confusion over the sovereign project.
In return, François Legault voluntarily distributed the letter he had sent to his federal colleague Justin Trudeau, imploring him to act on the sensitive Roxham Road affair.
The strategy is not original, but often, as with Mr. Legault, it turns out to be no less effective.
The main goal of writing is to occupy the media space while embarrassing an opponent with a device more permanent than a press conference. As we know, the words fly away, but the writing remains. Especially if the letter makes headlines…
Monday, something else for Paul St-Pierre Plamondon. In a letter addressed to François Legault, the leader of the Parti Québécois asks him to set up a new special commission on the future of Québec. Not less.
The challenge of existence
Faced with worrying political marginalization of Quebec within the federation, the PSPP is asking Premier Legault to take inspiration from his predecessor, Robert Bourassa.
After the failure of the Meech-Lake Agreement, Mr. Bourassa established the Bélanger-Campeau Commission on the Future of Quebec. Of course, the PQ leader knows that Mr. Legault won’t do anything about it. The quick cancellation reported by his spokesman confirmed this without surprise.
The PSPP is aware that the CAQ leader, who left the PQ to form a post-sovereign party, has no intention of opening Pandora’s box of Quebec’s constitutional status.
As the PSPP knows his letter will in no way scratch Mr Legault’s teflon within his constituency.
Rather, his letter aims to reinforce his message that Mr. Legault has no “plan B” with the federal government. Above all, it is part of the need for the PQ leader to be able to hold his own politically despite a faction of just under three MPs.
challenge accomplished
This has been their biggest challenge since the October 3 elections. From a well-run election campaign to the saga of the Oath on the King, PSPP and his team skilfully tackle the blow after blow.
So much so that, according to a Léger/Le Journal poll, the PQ has risen to second place in voting intentions among Francophones for the first time in five years. However, far behind the CAQ.
The PQ leader is also currently on a “European tour”, where he gives interviews and lectures, including at the University of Oxford.
In Scotland he met former Sovereignist Prime Minister Alex Salmond. A visit that seems to have gone much better than that of Pauline Marois in 2013. The Prime Minister at the time, her counterpart at the time, the same Alex Salmond, had refused to appear in public with her.
In short, the PSPP and its caucus continue to show that they intend to find any means possible to try and hold out until the 2026 elections.
