On the entertainment side, the flip-flop of the Legault government on the third link is certainly a success.
It was a very strange burlesque theater that the CAQ offered us yesterday, where contrite souls rubbed shoulders with held back sobs.
Contrited caquis
Let’s start with Eric Caire, Ayatollah of the Third Link.
To the end of his blood would he fight for the third link, he said.
“If there is a decline in the CAQ, I resign,” he added.
Finally, here he is firmly in the saddle, nailed to his seat – as a minister. If only Mr. Cairo’s rift with his party was only about the third link. On the tram, Mr. Cairo also had to back down.
Formerly a supporter of the “Tramway No Way” and after having accused Mayor Marchand of “polluting the lives of motorists”, he now rallied to the tram.
Questions: when does a deputy no longer belong in a party? How many renunciations does it take to distance oneself from one’s party?
Geneviève Guilbault now invites us to “give up the car”.
What a change, all the same! A few months ago, it defended, with all its vigor, the third link project and the rights of motorists, and refused to affirm its firm support for the tramway.
Did an epiphany strike her down? Or is she just a good communicator who bends to the force of the wind for her personal ambitions?
Persimmon Vices
The CAQ has made the third link a political, quasi-identity issue.
From the “bridge per million”, to a “carbon neutral” link, to the “war on the car”, to the people of Montreal “looking down on the people of Quebec and Lévis”, if their about-face is embarrassing today today, it’s because the boomerang of grotesque arguments to defend it comes back to them. Quite simply.
Going back is good, but that does not justify all the nonsense that has been said to defend this project.
Coming to terms with reason is not political courage.
It’s just common sense, not worth the enthusiastic clapping of our hands.
