Are Quebecers naive and easily manipulated?
That’s what Premier Christine Fréchette and her entourage seem to believe.
As part of the ongoing offensive to purge our memories of the past eight years — of what many consider an incompetent governing administration that she now leads — the party officially changed its name recently to Équipe Christine Fréchette — Coalition Avenir Québec.
On its website, the CAQ brand is virtually invisible with Fréchette’s face everywhere. Don’t expect to see former premier François Legault, the party’s founder and only previous leader, anywhere on the hustings during the coming election campaign despite having given Fréchette the opportunity for her rise to prominence.
Will it work?
Will Fréchette be able to distinguish herself as a leader sufficiently enough to incarnate change and not be dragged down by the record of the governing party in which she was a key minister — and is still composed of many of the same individuals that were around the cabinet table?
So far during this pre-campaign period, benefiting from incumbency and an ability to draw the media wherever she goes, it seems to be working. Though we haven’t seen a recent opinion poll, the last Léger indicator in mid-June showed that her party numbers had climbed to 21 per cent from a low of nine per cent in March when Legault was still premier.
She has come across well as an energetic fresh face and has not made any real missteps. It is clear the party’s strategy will be riding all-in with Fréchette as she tries to carve her individual path.
Marking her first 100 days as premier, a fast-paced campaign-style video was just released boasting numerous achievements already. In the 56-second clip, she is shown confidently striding around her office, swivelling in a chair, reviewing documents, leaning against her desk, closing her laptop, and pointing at the camera.
In one long breath she goes on about, since becoming premier, her government’s accomplishments — modernizing our hospitals in the regions; announcing an extra million hours in home care for seniors; reimbursing the welcome tax for first-time homebuyers; launching a program accelerating construction of homes; subsidizing 5,000 daycare spaces to help families; lowering taxes for 75,000 small- and medium-sized businesses; reimbursing the carbon tax to 15,000 farmers; giving $200 to vulnerable Quebecers to help fight inflation; proposing two laws protecting French; and a new strategy to transfer Quebec culture to our children. There’s no partridge in a pear tree, though.
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Fréchette has also announced the government is reviving plans to redevelop a key stretch of Route 132 on the South Shore, an affordable housing project to be built in St-Lazare, millions invested to focus on family medicine and primary care. For hospitals, they’ve suddenly found $700 million to expand and upgrade Maisonneuve-Rosemont, $670 million for the expansion of Charles-Le Moyne in Longueuil and $488 million in Amos. She is also prepared to open the purse strings again for the Airbus A220 project. And so on.
Raining money on Quebecers now, or changing the party name, both reek of electoral manipulation. If Fréchette wants to offer genuine change to Quebecers and earn confidence, she must tell us how she will do things differently than her predecessor. Let her own some of the mistakes of the past and explain how she will ensure better due diligence to avoid bad investments like Northvolt or incompetent oversight like in the SAAQclic fiasco. How will this money shower be financed by an administration that rang up the highest deficit in Quebec history?
People talk about a difference in tone and openness with Fréchette. That alone will not cut it, if even true. Anglophones have already seen first-hand her disingenuity, when almost immediately after pledging a different tone with the community, she categorically rejected participating in any English-language leaders’ debate.
Quebecers should be more discerning than falling for a warmer smile, hyped-up promotional videos, expensive promises, and superficial name changes. Fréchette owes Quebecers a tangible explanation of how she will govern differently.
Robert Libman is an architect and planning consultant who has served as Equality Party leader and MNA, mayor of Côte-St-Luc and a member of the Montreal executive committee.