{"id":840374,"date":"2026-08-01T12:46:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T12:46:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/840374\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T12:46:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T12:46:13","slug":"libman-will-frechettes-money-shower-pay-election-dividends-for-caq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/840374\/","title":{"rendered":"Libman:\u00a0Will Fr\u00e9chette&#8217;s money shower pay election dividends for CAQ?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Are Quebecers naive and easily manipulated?<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s what Premier Christine Fr\u00e9chette and her entourage seem to believe.<\/p>\n<p>As part of the ongoing offensive to purge our memories of the past eight years \u2014 of what many consider an incompetent governing administration that she now leads \u2014 the party officially changed its name recently to \u00c9quipe Christine Fr\u00e9chette \u2014 Coalition Avenir Qu\u00e9bec.<\/p>\n<p>On <a rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/coalitionavenirquebec.org\/fr\/\">its website<\/a>, the CAQ brand is virtually invisible with Fr\u00e9chette\u2019s face everywhere. Don\u2019t expect to see former premier Fran\u00e7ois Legault, the party\u2019s founder and only previous leader, anywhere on the hustings during the coming election campaign despite having given Fr\u00e9chette the opportunity for her rise to prominence.<\/p>\n<p>Will it work?<\/p>\n<p>Will Fr\u00e9chette 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 \u2014 and is still composed of many of the same individuals that were around the cabinet table?<\/p>\n<p>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\u2019t seen a recent opinion poll, the last L\u00e9ger indicator in mid-June showed that her party numbers had climbed to 21 per cent from a <a href=\"https:\/\/leger360.com\/fr\/dernieres-nouvelles-intentions-de-vote-au-quebec-le-pq-reste-en-tete-mais-rien-nest-encore-joue\/\" id=\"https:\/\/leger360.com\/fr\/dernieres-nouvelles-intentions-de-vote-au-quebec-le-pq-reste-en-tete-mais-rien-nest-encore-joue\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">low of nine per cent in March when Legault was still premier.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>She has come across well as an energetic fresh face and has not made any real missteps. It is clear the party\u2019s strategy will be riding all-in with Fr\u00e9chette as she tries to carve her individual path.<\/p>\n<p>Marking her first 100 days as premier, a fast-paced campaign-style video was just released boasting numerous achievements already. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/watch\/?v=1722950985514289\" id=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/watch\/?v=1722950985514289\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">In the 56-second clip,<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n<p>In one long breath she goes on about, since becoming premier, her government\u2019s accomplishments \u2014 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\u2019s no partridge in a pear tree, though.<\/p>\n<p>\t\tEditor\u2019s Picks\t<\/p>\n<p>Fr\u00e9chette has also announced the government is reviving plans to <a href=\"https:\/\/montrealgazette.com\/news\/provincial-news\/provincial-politics\/quebec-relaunches-route-132-improvement-project-on-montreals-south-shore\/\" id=\"https:\/\/montrealgazette.com\/news\/provincial-news\/provincial-politics\/quebec-relaunches-route-132-improvement-project-on-montreals-south-shore\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">redevelop a key stretch of Route 132 on the South Shore<\/a>, an affordable housing project to be built in St-Lazare, millions invested to focus on family medicine and primary care. For hospitals, they\u2019ve 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.<\/p>\n<p>Raining money on Quebecers now, or changing the party name, both reek of electoral manipulation. If Fr\u00e9chette 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 <a href=\"https:\/\/montrealgazette.com\/news\/provincial-news\/quebec-electric-battery-champions-northvolt-taiga-lion\/\" id=\"https:\/\/montrealgazette.com\/news\/provincial-news\/quebec-electric-battery-champions-northvolt-taiga-lion\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">bad investments like Northvolt<\/a> 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?<\/p>\n<p>People talk about a difference in tone and openness with Fr\u00e9chette. 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 <a href=\"https:\/\/montrealgazette.com\/opinion\/columnists\/melancon-quebec-liberals-misplay-english-debate-invite\/\" id=\"https:\/\/montrealgazette.com\/opinion\/columnists\/melancon-quebec-liberals-misplay-english-debate-invite\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">rejected participating in any English-language leaders\u2019 debate.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Quebecers should be more discerning than falling for a warmer smile, hyped-up promotional videos, expensive promises, and superficial name changes.  Fr\u00e9chette owes Quebecers a tangible explanation of how she will govern differently.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/urldefense.com\/v3\/__http:\/x.com\/robert.libman__;!!MtWvt2UVEQ!DkQSsUUy-sMgTUv2vA5OPpQ_LlxiRR4trH25xOReZgyi3HOnKnCCO5IFCZGeDdk3fcDTtdGAMX6SJqN4K4nIL21QK1bGdw%24\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">x.com\/robert.libman<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/montrealgazette.com\/author\/robert-libman-special-to-montreal-gazette\/\" class=\"postmedia-author-card__image-link\" rel=\"author image nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"96\" height=\"96\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/9999-col-libman_97252049.jpg\" class=\"avatar avatar-96 photo wp-post-image\" alt=\"Profile image of Robert Libman\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\tRobert Libman is an architect and planning consultant who has served as Equality Party leader and MNA, mayor of C\u00f4te-St-Luc and a member of the Montreal executive committee.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Are Quebecers naive and easily manipulated? That\u2019s what Premier Christine Fr\u00e9chette and her entourage seem to believe. As&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":840375,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,2338],"class_list":["post-840374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-montreal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=840374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/840375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=840374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=840374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=840374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}