Allison Hanes: The Legault authorities ought to have a look within the mirror

Article content material

A number of members of the Coalition Avenir Québec authorities lit into Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante Thursday — and laid it on thick.

Minister of the French Language, Jean-François Roberge, accused Plante of not being a robust sufficient “ally” with regards to defending French.

Article content material

“Montreal is the francophone metropolis of North America. This must be greater than a slogan,” Roberge fumed. “When the mayor positions herself because the defender of the rights of non-Quebecers to check in Montreal, I say, ‘non merci, no thanks,’ as she mentioned in English.”

Article content material

A pair of CAQ backbenchers arriving for query interval additionally joined the pile on, asking the assembled reporters if they may remark, in keeping with La Presse, as a result of Plante’s feedback have been so “unacceptable.”

“Does Valérie Plante need to put up a wall round to make sure Montreal’s anglicization with in 5 to 10 years?” huffed Valérie Schmaltz, a CAQ MNA from Laval’s Vimont using.

“There’s not Valérie Plante’s Quebec and the remainder of Quebec,” griped Stéphanie Lachance, the MNA from Bellechasse, exterior Quebec Metropolis. “I need us to guard French from one finish to the opposite, from the Ottawa River to the Magdalen Islands.”

After unleashing his assault canine, Premier François Legault characterised Plante’s remarks as “unhappy.”

“I don’t perceive why Valérie Plante or Denis Coderre don’t need to defend French in Montreal,” Legault mentioned later throughout a scrum (one in every of a number of occasions he talked about the previous mayor, who’s now contemplating a run for the Quebec Liberal Occasion management and polling nicely).

This over-the-top backlash got here a day after Plante sharpened her condemnation of the CAQ authorities’s tuition hike for out-of-province college students, saying it “instantly assaults Montreal” by undermining enrolment on the metropolis’s two English universities.

Article content material

Her remarks adopted an knowledgeable committee on increased training telling the Legault authorities in a report that upping charges to $12,000 from $9,000 is “unjustified, and dangers compromising entry to high quality training and depriving society of potential expertise.”

The CAQ is selecting to disregard the recommendation.

The committee is simply the most recent voice difficult the transfer, which has been denounced by most French universities, college students and the enterprise group.

With the CAQ authorities on the defensive over a harmful and indefensible coverage, Legault pulled out his dog-eared playbook. He doubled down on a nasty resolution and tried to whip up resentment towards Montreal.

Solely this time, Plante was the foil.

Plante and Legault have at all times been a political odd couple, with completely different visions, agendas and kinds. They’ve had disputes usually since she broke the glass ceiling at metropolis corridor in 2017 and he led the CAQ to a breakthrough victory that overturned the previous sovereignist-federalist dichotomy a 12 months later. They’ve differed on investments in public transit, funding for social housing and cash to deal with a altering local weather — amongst many points. However they’ve principally gritted their tooth and performed good.

Article content material

By no means has a confrontation erupted between Plante and Legault the place the criticism has been this barbed, the salvo so private.

Plante mentioned Friday she was “stunned” by the coordinated rebuke.

It’s an indication of Legault’s desperation because the Parti Québécois continues to rise within the polls and Coderre’s potential candidacy has given the Quebec Liberals a bump. In the meantime, cocktailgate — the rising political financing scandal Legault disdainfully dismissed as “mudslinging” — flared up when the grieving dad and mom of a lady killed by a drunk driver advised a committee listening to on street security they have been inspired to donate $100 every for “two minutes” with Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault at a CAQ fundraiser.

In the meantime, environmentalists are up in arms over the dearth of session surrounding the Northvolt electrical battery plant the CAQ authorities lured to Quebec to develop the inexperienced economic system, prompting paternalistic Legault to chide: “We’ve got to alter our angle in Quebec.”

Or change the bogeyman.

Enter Plante, who merely instructed the federal government observe its personal specialists’ recommendation. She lamented that the plan to boost tuition for college students from different provinces by 33 per cent not solely harms enrolment at McGill and Concordia, however hurts Montreal. It is going to put a damper on the vitality of downtown, erode Montreal’s standing as one of many world’s greatest cities for college students, undermine the economic system and make it harder to draw high expertise. You recognize, the sorts of issues a mayor — and a premier, for that matter — needs to be involved about.

Article content material

This isn’t mere hypothesis. A Convention Board of Canada report tasks Montreal’s financial progress will decline for the third straight 12 months in 2024, the worst efficiency amongst 13 cities. It warns the tutoring hike will make the “rocky experience” rockier.

For daring to face up for Montreal, Plante was branded by CAQists as anti-French, among the many worst epithets within the nationalist script.

The factor is, Plante wasn’t questioning the necessity to shield the language — a laudable goal — guarantee graduates of English universities be taught French, or bolster francophone universities.

She merely requested: “Do we’ve got to penalize anglophone universities for that? My reply is: No thanks.”

Roberge threw Plante’s phrases again in her face. One can simply do the identical with all of the scorn emanating from the CAQ.

Possibly Legault ought to attempt to be an “ally” to Montreal for as soon as. As a substitute of sacrificing the town’s pursuits for political acquire or to carry its energy in verify, he ought to attempt to harness the huge power and variety of the metropolis — possibly even specific just a little delight.

The Legault authorities is the one “constructing a wall” round Quebec, making college students from the remainder of Canada really feel unwelcome, curbing the rights of minorities, and isolating Montreal politically.

What’s “unacceptable” is attacking English establishments — after which ganging up on Montreal’s mayor, who fears the fallout on her metropolis.

If Legault thinks it’s time to “change our angle in Quebec,” he ought to begin by wanting within the mirror.

ahanes@postmedia.com

Article content material

Article content material