A defiant François Legault took a fighting stance as he entered a party convention last weekendaccompanied by the theme song from Rocky III.
The Quebec premier threw a few mock punches and paraphrased an aging Sylvester Stallone to a roomful of supporters in GatineauQue.
“It’s not the force of the blows that countsit’s the ability to take them and keep moving forward,” the Quebec premier said.
“I’m ready to keep taking hits.”
Once considered a benevolent father figure who shepherded his people through the COVID-19 pandemic and steered his party to two decisive majority winsLegault has since suffered a dramatic fall from grace.
He returns to Quebec’s national assembly this week with an eleventh-hour promise to pull his party back from the brink. With polls suggesting the Coalition Avenir Québec could be wiped off the electoral mapthis fall legislative session may be the premier’s final opportunity to prove he deserves to lead the party he founded into a third election – ifindeedit’s not already too late.
“This is François Legault’s last-chance session,” said Émilie Fostera former CAQ member of the legislature. Stillshe doubted whether his badly damaged brand can recover. “Once the goose is cookedit’s cooked.”
With the next Quebec election scheduled for October 2026Legault has signalled what some political observers are calling a shift to the rightwith promises to make cuts to the public servicecrack down on crime and speed up approvals for major projects. He will give an inaugural speech Tuesday after proroguing the provincial legislature earlier this month.
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Legault is long past the point of denying that public opinion has turned against him. According to one recent pollhe is now the least popular premier in the country. Poll aggregator Qc125.com suggests his party would lose every one of its 83 seats if an election were held today.
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Legault’s government has been tarnished by scandalincluding an ongoing fiasco involving massive cost overruns at the province’s auto insurance board. He has also failed to deliver on some of the commitments that helped propel him to power in 2018. Back thenhe promised to cut the size of the bureaucracy. Seven years onit has grown considerably.
NowLegault is offering mea culpas and pledging to correct course. He has promised a “shock treatment” in the form of deep cuts to the public serviceand to present a “new economic vision for Quebec.”
Although his latest overtures have been cast as a rightward shiftDimitri Soudasa political analyst and former director of communications for prime minister Stephen Harpersaid the party is simply “going back to the basics.”
“These are their principles,” he said. “They just lost their way.”
During a cabinet shuffle earlier this monthLegault made a former Montreal police officer his minister of public securitypromising a new focus on law and order. He also gave his new environment ministerBernard Drainvilleinstructions to carry out a “major cleanup” of red tape to speed up regulatory approvals.
Legault has said his government will table a new bill that mirrors Bill C-5Prime Minister Mark Carney’s signature legislation meant to fast-track projects deemed to be in the national interest. He has also mused about pausing environmental measures. Drainville last week announced Quebec would lift its plan to ban the sale of gas-powered cars by 2035.
Fosternow an adjunct professor of political management at Carleton Universitysaid Legault is taking cues from Carney in moving his party to the right. “He’s following the dominant trend,” she said.
The Coalition Avenir Québec will also continue efforts to strengthen secularism in the provinceincluding by tabling a bill to ban prayer in public places. Such legislation will likely appeal to the party’s nationalist baseas will promises to adopt a Quebec constitution.
All this may not be enoughhoweverand Legault may not have another chance to right his sinking ship. “Have Quebecers already turned the page?” Soudas said. “If polls don’t change by December or Januaryit’s going to be very difficult to climb that hill afterwards.”
Michelle Setlakweparliamentary leader of Quebec’s Liberal oppositionsaid Legault’s promises are “too littletoo late.” But she said it’s unclear what will happen to the coalition that Legault founded nearly 14 years ago once his days are over.
“It’s normal that he’s protecting his party,” she said. “I can only imagine how unhappy he is and the internal struggles that he is going through right now.”
Rumblings of dissatisfaction from within Legault’s caucus have grown louder in recent weeks. One of his former ministersMaïté Blanchette Vézinarecently quit his caucus after being shuffled out of cabinet earlier this monthsaying she had lost faith in Legault.
Doubts about Legault’s leadership also made their way onto the convention floor last weekendwhere one party member publicly called on him to step aside.
The premier has dismissed Blanchette Vézina’s criticism as sour grapesand says he has the support of the “vast majority” of his caucus. He has insisted he will lead the party into next year’s election.
Despite the grumblingFoster said she doesn’t believe Legault’s caucus will revolt against the man who ended nearly 50 years of Liberal and Parti Québécois dominance in Quebec politics.
“No one in the CAQ is going to orchestrate a coup; that won’t happen,” she said. “Ultimatelyit will always be his decision.”
The problemhoweveris that Legault may not make the decision that those around him privately believe he shouldSoudas said. “People in a position of leadership almost never say‘It’s time for me to go,’” he said. “They feel they are eternal.”
Legault is not the first politician to turn to a certain fictional boxer for inspiration when times get tough. When things were looking bad for then-prime minister Justin Trudeau last yearthe Toronto Star reported that his office played clips from Rocky Balboa to boost morale during a caucus retreat.
“It ain’t about how hard you hit,” Stallone says in the 2006 film – the quote Legault evoked on Sunday. “It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.”
Trudeau announced his resignation less than four months later.
– With files from Caroline Plante in GatineauQue.