Analysis: CAQ haunted by third link promise even in leadership race
QUEBEC — With the opposition parties saying the government is adrift, the
race to replace Premier François
took an early nasty tone this week with candidate Bernard Drainville questioning his opponent’s leadership abilities and her saying he is showing a “lack of elegance.”
And ironically, the source of the first major spat between Drainville and candidate Christine Fréchette has been over the same issue that was the start of the Coalition Avenir Québec government’s own undoing with voters two years ago: the proposed bridge and tunnel link between Quebec City and Lévis.
Only a week after
Drainville
and
Fréchette
announced they were running, the leadership race — the first in the party’s history — spilled into the halls of the legislature this week as it resumed sitting.
Despite Legault’s statement that his
government will not be put on pause
during the race, the disarray in the ranks over key issues sparked by the race — from the Quebec constitution to immigration to the timing and content of Finance Minister Eric Girard’s spring budget — is becoming obvious.
It was the intensity of the squabbling over the tunnel project that made the biggest headlines, prompting interim Liberal leader Marc Tanguay to say Thursday that it’s as if the CAQ has forgotten they are there to govern.
Legault,
who announced in January he was stepping down
, has no more authority over his team, Tanguay added.
“I think they (the clans) need to look at each other and remind themselves that they are still in government and not in the schoolyard,” Tanguay said. “What Quebecers are seeing is a sad spectacle.
“What happened was not too chic. In my time at the National Assembly I have never seen such disorder in a government team. Never.”
“They (in the CAQ) need to get a grip,” added Parti Québécois MNA Pascal Bérubé. “We are here to work.”
Tanguay said Legault’s decision Wednesday to play the peacemaker was a sign things are not going well. As the debate raged, Legault tried to smooth the waters over the third link debate saying: “We are all for the third link, including the two candidates.”
Legault, the CAQ party founder, added the discussions taking place between candidates are healthy for the CAQ.
But the
tunnel-bridge debate has indeed come back to haunt the CAQ
at the worst possible time: just as it hopes to put its past gaffes and costly political flip-flops behind it via the election of a new leader.
It was Transport Minister Jonatan Julien who set the cat among the pigeons when he said in an interview with Le Soleil Wednesday that he could not move to the next step in the highway project — setting a budget and issuing a call for tenders — if there was no consensus in the CAQ ranks.
A week earlier, at a party caucus in Trois-Rivières, Julien had told reporters he was ready to announce the route the project would take and how much it would cost this winter. He estimated the total cost as somewhere between $7 billion and $11 billion.
Drainville, who represents the riding of Lévis and knows his electorate, has been all in on the project from the get go. When the CAQ cancelled it in April 2023, breaking a 2018 election promise, a
tearful Drainville apologized to his voters
in public and vowed to bring it back.
But perhaps recognizing the political price the CAQ has paid for its waffling over the project, Fréchette has been more cautious before making any commitment. Polls show Quebec City region voters do not believe the CAQ government will ever proceed with the project.
“It’s a complex issue,” Fréchette said Wednesday standing in the hall of the legislature. “I want to analyze (the project) rigorously and without emotion.”
She said she is in the process of consulting the players affected and would deliver her position later. She noted not all the local mayors including Quebec City Mayor Bruno Marchand support the project because the roadway and tunnel would rip through densely populated neighbourhoods.
The City of Lévis would prefer it be built further east than proposed.
Trailing Fréchette badly in both of the leadership polls that have been conducted so far, Drainville seized the opening, aggressively calling on his opponent to take a stand for the project.
“Being in the CAQ is being in favour of the third link,” Drainville told reporters reading a prepared statement. “This is a test of her leadership.
“The ambivalence and hesitation of Mme. Fréchette does not send a good signal on this file as is the case on other issues where she is unable to make a decision. Indecision is the worst decision.”
That was all it took for two clans to pour into the hallways and argue about the link over the course of two days. The pro-third-link MNAs, some of whom back Drainville, were the most vocal.
Charlevoix—Côte-de-Beaupré CAQ MNA Kariane Bourassa, who says the project would be an economic boost to her region northeast of Quebec City, had trouble containing her frustration at the renewed waffling.
“We cannot back up, we cannot back up,” Bourassa said. “We made a promise to citizens, The credibility of our party and government is at stake.”
“We have been analyzing this for seven years,” added Bellechasse CAQ MNA Stéphanie Lachance. “I think the analysis has been done. I think it would be irresponsible to delay it.”
Beauce MNA Luc Provençal said he feared the issue will become a “Montreal-Quebec confrontation,” since all of the province’s taxpayers would foot the bill.
“That’s the last thing we want,” he said. “It’s time we delivered.”
“Everyone knew, in entering the coalition (CAQ) that the third link would be built,” said Samuel Poulin, the only sitting cabinet minister to endorse Drainville.
The Fréchette camp fired back both days. Cybersecurity Minister Gilles Bélanger, the first minister to announce his support for Fréchette, defended her saying it’s time for some rational thinking on the question.
“Emotion is good, emotionality is less good,” Bélanger said. “It (the Drainville line) was not very elegant.”
Two other ministers, Treasury Board President France-Élaine Duranceau and Environment Minister Benoit Charette did not want to say whether they back the third link project.
Fréchette was not present at the legislature Thursday but Drainville was, showing no signs of backing down.
“It’s part of the necessary debate that we must have in this campaign,” Drainville said. “We are in a debate of ideas and it was done very respectfully.”
Drainville this week also launched a campaign to have more than the two debates with Fréchette that the party has announced.
But interviewed by TVA later Thursday while in the Eastern Townships, Fréchette repeated that she thinks the two debates suffice. One is March 21, the other March 28. The leaded will be elected April 12.
Asked to respond herself to Drainville’s comment that she is not able to make decisions, Fréchette had one line.
“I would have expected a bit more elegance,” Fréchette said.