Quebec Premier Jean Charest responds to opposition questions on March 18, 2010, in the national assembly.Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press
This has not been a good week for Jean Charest. In fact, this has not been a good month, or even couple of months for that matter. From anger over his handling of reasonable accommodation issues, to calls for a public inquiry into corruption and collusion in the province's construction industry, to a recent fight over religious instruction in provincially-funded daycares, the Premier has been taking it from all sides in the Quebec press for some time now. But this past week was especially bad.
Mr. Charest's " worst week since he regained a majority in December, 2008" (as Le Soleil's Pierre-Paul Noreau dubbed it) began on Monday, March 15, when Le Devoir released a Léger Marketing poll that put Quebeckers' r ate of dissatisfaction with the Premier at 7O per cent. In terms of voting intentions, the Liberals had dropped to 32 per cent, six points behind the Parti Québécois, who sit stable at 38 per cent. Le Devoir quoted pollster Christian Bourque, who observed, "we haven't seen a rate of public dissatisfaction so high since 2003."
In his editorial in Le Devoir the next day, Bernard Descôteaux opined that the Liberals' weak polling numbers could be traced to the government's "passivity" on a number of key issues. Mr. Descôteaux criticized the Charest government for allowing ongoing debates - over reasonable accommodation, health care, ethics and the construction industry - to "drag on" and contended that the nearly seven-year-old government was showing signs of "fatigue."
In his Le Journal de Montreal column Wednesday, Léger Marketing president Jean-Marc Léger declared that "the bond of trust between the Liberal Party and the population is crumbling" and went on to argue that "if the Liberals do not quickly get rid of these ambiguities surrounding government ethics, their re-election will be in jeopardy."
In his La Presse column Friday, Vincent Marissal marvelled at how Mr. Charest appears "completely paralyzed" as he "gets bogged down a little deeper each day" in allegations of scandal and bad governance. "This government is in such spasm that it doesn't even have the reflex to create a diversion by making a few spectacular announcements," Mr. Marissal wrote. "Mr. Charest wanted to have 'two hands on the wheel,' but lately he's been driving with two feet on the brakes." Mr. Marissal suggested that the best way for the Premier to get back on track and "calm things down" would be to agree to call for a public inquiry into the construction industry.
Le Soleil's Gilbert Lavoie has reason to believe that Mr. Charest might take some kind of action soon. Mr. Lavoie was keeping a close eye on the Premier last week at the National Assembly. "Mr. Charest is usually relaxed during Question Period. He jokes with his colleagues and has fun deriding his adversaries, [but]that is not the man we saw at work this week," Mr. Lavoie observed. Instead, Mr. Charest was "frustrated and furious." Mr. Lavoie took this as a sign that the Liberal government's passivity may soon be coming to an end. "When Jean Charest is furious, that is when he comes out of his torpor," he wrote.
Editorial of the week
In a La Presse editorial, André Pratte opines that the most striking results of last week's Leger poll were the responses to the question of who would make the best premier: Twenty four per cent of respondents chose Pauline Marois, 20 per cent chose Jean Charest and 41 per cent refused or were unable to respond. He observes that, although the electorate is disappointed with Mr. Charest, "a large number of voters are not any more impressed by the leader of the official opposition." Mr. Pratte explains that this leaves "a huge leadership void that the current political parties are incapable of filling."
According to Mr. Pratte, "there has recently been a lot of talk about the emergence of a third way. Rumours are circulating, names have come up, but nothing concrete." Mr. Pratte admits that it is unlikely that this "alternative way" will actually emerge, but concludes that "one thing is sure, a lot of people have a thirst for a renewal of Quebec political life."