Quebec Liberal Leader Philippe Couillard, flanked by his wife Suzanne Pilote, right, and local candidate Paul Busque, Sept. 27, 2018.Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press
Canadians hadn’t seen a Quebec leader quite like Philippe Couillard when he won the premier’s job four years ago. For one thing, Mr. Couillard campaigned as an unabashed Canadian patriot for a job with a longstanding requirement that Quebec nationalism come first and fealty to the Maple Leaf stay understated, if stated at all.
This week as his campaign bus rumbled through the rolling farm country and wooded lands of the Beauce region, Mr. Couillard faced the strong possibility of defeat or being reduced to a minority government. He was still willing to express his patriotic leanings.
“It’s important for me to say I’m a very proud Quebecker, but I love my country too and my country is Canada,” Mr. Couillard said in an interview. Contrary to seeing risk in such a confession, Mr. Couillard said he’s confident that he’s in sync with a new generation. An Ipsos poll in August showed 70 per cent of Quebeckers aged 18-25 prefer to stay in Canada. “I’m happy to be both. If you look at young Quebeckers, you can see this is exactly how they see the country.”
Quebeckers vote Monday and polls indicate they will be choosing between Mr. Couillard’s Quebec Liberal Party, which has governed for all but 18 months of the past 15½ years, and the six-year-old Coalition Avenir Québec, which has never governed.
The re-election trail has been uphill for Mr. Couillard, who is ending his first term as premier. His poll numbers have barely budged during the 39-day campaign while his adversaries have ridden a roller coaster of changing fortunes, leaving a near tie at the top between Liberals and the CAQ.
Mr. Couillard, 61, said he is prepared for any outcome.
“I believe I will have a majority but I’ve seen a minority government before, in 2007 [when he was health minister], and you find common ground depending on the subject,” Mr. Couillard said. “The job is to compromise.”
On the surface it’s hard to see why Mr. Couillard is having such a hard time convincing voters he deserves another mandate: The Quebec budget is in surplus and the economy is breaking 30-year records for overall growth and employment. The province is at peace on national unity. Even his critics admit he’s run a mostly scandal-free government.
Many voters believe the Liberals were punished insufficiently with 18 months in opposition after the corruption scandals that plagued Jean Charest’s government from 2003 to 2012. Mr. Couillard doesn’t point fingers at the past, but recognizes voter fatigue is an issue. “Some of it I would put on incumbent syndrome,” Mr. Couillard said. “It’s harder and harder for incumbents everywhere, and it’s true we have been in office many years.”
Mr. Couillard’s troubles can also be traced to 2014 when he was elected on a promise to give the languid Quebec economy an adrenalin boost. His Liberals quickly made the familiar new-government announcement that their PQ predecessors had left the books a shambles.
With little other advance groundwork, he severely restrained spending for two years – critics called it austerity, Mr. Couillard prefers “budgetary effort” – producing surpluses but inflicting political injury from which the Liberals have not recovered.
“I would say it was a shock. The previous PQ government hadn’t released a lot of numbers. We were threatened by ratings agencies with a downgrade and I had to get on the phone with one of them to convince them to trust us that we would clean up the fiscal house,” he said. “And we did.”
Critics and allies alike say Mr. Couillard often comes across as aloof – an impression that didn’t help as the public heard about deteriorating food quality and reduced baths in seniors homes amid other cutback horror stories.
“It’s true I’m kind of an intellectual type,” Mr. Couillard said, “but I think I take more pleasure in meeting people than I did in my first time in politics in 2003. I think it comes across now.”
The 2018 campaign trail has provided glimpses of passion from Mr. Couillard, who lights up when he discusses fishing and turns forlorn talking about the small boat he inherited from and renamed for his deceased brother-in-law, the Lucien Henry. The boat sank this summer in the marina not far from his Lac-Saint-Jean home after a pump broke down. It was a dark omen for the start of the campaign, the Premier concedes.
Mr. Couillard was livid this week after he released a financial statement with his net worth – $442,000 – and CAQ Leader François Legault suggested Mr. Couillard must be hiding money overseas – an allegation for which he provided no evidence and later backed away from.
Mr. Couillard declined to get into a deeper explanation of his finances, but his first marriage ended 20 years ago and he has three grown children. He went into politics in 2003 and dipped into savings to live during his 2012-13 leadership bid. “I’m not complaining, but nobody gets rich in politics. Over the years there were always these remarks, ‘He’s a neurosurgeon, he’s been to the Middle East, he must be a millionaire, blah, blah, blah.’ I’m much better off than the average Canadian but I’m not as affluent as many people thought. Many things happened to make it so.”
The Liberal Leader makes sure to point out that while Mr. Legault has turned to federalism after being a committed separatist for decades, he doesn’t appear to have a Maple Leaf tattooed on his chest. “He’s never said he loves the country,” Mr. Couillard says. “He got used to the country. He accepts it. He’s not very positive about it and if there’s ever a conflict I’m not really sure how he’ll conduct himself.
“I’m a leader who made it clear I’m very proud to be a Canadian too.”