Les péripéties politiques d'une pianiste

With Francois Legault gone, two Quebec parties will be choosing new leaders for this fall’s election, offering Québécois a unique opportunity to make a new choice for our collective future. 

Every election is a chance to shuffle the deck – but not every election carries the same potential for real change. François Legault’s surprise announcement yesterday that he is stepping down as party leader was greeted as (variously) “seismic” “a shake-up” or “a shock” depending on who you happened to catch during yesterday’s all-day media blitz of political commentary. 

Read more: Québec’s Change Moment

With no incumbent premier, and no obvious successor in view, suddenly anything seems possible again. Short days ago, it looked as though Parti québécois leader Paul Saint-Pierre Plamondon (PSPP) dominated centre court, standing alone amid the shambles of parties in various states of decline or reconstruction as he readied his team for a third referendum, veux, veux pas. 

Today, the playing field looks very different as our horizon of options has suddenly opened up. The PLQ managed to quickly turn the page on their pre-holiday debacle and can thank Pablo Rodriguez for having the good graces to not allow his bogged-down leadership drag on into the new year. And now the CAQ, which had been barely polling as still having a pulse, will launch their own leadership race — meaning that not just one but two major Quebec parties will be choosing a new leader and with them, a new direction.  

Mission Drift

It’s worthy of note that the CAQ was a thinktank before it was a party, founded as an alternative to the federalist-sovereignist stalemate. They proposed a new way forward, focusing on five main objectives: education, access to healthcare, reduction of the wealth gap with our Ontario neighbours, preservation of Québec language and culture, and public integrity. 

We’ve had a chance over the past few days to rehash how several of these objectives fell to the wayside. There was of course a pandemic that pushed all other considerations temporarily aside, simultaneously revealing the weaknesses of our health care system and the strengths of the individuals who do their best to hold it together through sheer effort and dedication.  

But more than anything else, it was the party’s obsession over identity issues and its dogged pursuit of tenuous vanity projects (Northvolt is one, Québec’s “troisième lien” is another) that caused the party to drift, reflecting in their performance in the polls and personally on François Legault’s leadership. 

Leadership transition is challenging for any organization hoping to outlive its founder, but especially when, as with the CAQ, that founder has left an indelible mark after decades as leader. It will be difficult for the next leader to emerge from Legault’s shadow and revitalize the party in the short time remaining before the election in the absence of a Carney-like “savior” waiting in the wings. 

It is of note that Legault’s departure as leader is yet another element signalling the final years of the reign of the Baby Boomers (although they don’t like to hear it). His departure from the political scene underscores a generational shift in Québec to the Gen X’s and Y’s, and with them a very different type of leadership. 

Turn of the wheel

The main reason this could be a capital-m Moment in Québec politics has to do with epoch. The social, economic, environmental and geopolitical context in which François Legault and Charles Sirois founded the CAQ in 2011 is very different from that of today. And while the foundational idea of superseding the federalist/sovereignist divide still resonates, it’s no longer the CAQ’s sole domain; other parties now offer their versions for a vision of territorial, cultural, and linguistic pride, a strong economy, robust and efficient health services and education system.

The CAQ’s political moment was crucial for proposing a new and neutral option posited on its unique brand of cultural nationalism; that moment has passed, replaced by another, marked by new opportunities and new challenges. Today, the Québécois nation faces threats to Canada’s sovereignty and an increasingly unstable geopolitical situation; the risk of collapse of our public institutions due to system overwhelm; the accelerating impacts of catastrophic climate change; and a decline in public trust which, along with growing social divisions, is jeopardizing our social model.

A party mired in identity debates is poorly positioned to offer solutions to these issues and a vision of hope to Quebecers in these uncertain times. What is needed now is a leader who understands the challenges of our time and is ready to propose a way forward. Now is a turning point, our change moment when Quebec has the opportunity to make a new choice for our collective future. 

Welcome to the era of speed politics, where every event, from resignations to rebirths seems to happen in a flash.

If you’re coming into 2026 feeling that this past year was unusually frenzied, you’re not alone. Anyone involved in, or following, the political scene can’t help but to note the accelerated pace in 2025 at which scandals, like bubbles in New Year’s Eve champagne, formed and broke, and political careers took abrupt turns, ended, or were brought back from the brink. 

Welcome to the era of speed politics, where every event, from resignations to rebirths seems to happen in a flash —perhaps best exemplified by Conservative MP Michael Ma suiting up for a photo op with Pierre Poilievre at the Conservative’s Christmas party one night to being the literal toast of the Liberal Christmas party the next. Our heads are spinning trying to keep up with the pace of it all.

Read more: Get ready for speed politics

As we wind down 2025 and warily gear up for 2026, we pause briefly to catch our breath and ask: Why so fast? First, a look back over some recent key events.

Hero to Zero in 6 Months Flat

From the time Rodriguez was chosen June 14th to lead the PLQ to the first hint that something had gone wrong with the firing of chief of staff Genevieve Hinse November 17th, five months had elapsed. It was his first crisis as party leader. 

As we followed the breadcrumb trail from mysterious (and, let it be said, atrociously ungrammatical) text messages referencing “brownies” in exchange for votes, to a garden party where envelopes were distributed to reimburse guests’ donations, an unrelenting cumulative body of fact and public speculation took hold. Like rubber-necking drivers stopping to gawk at a roadside pileup, we watched Rodriguez’ leadership unravel, waiting for the moment when, backed into a corner, he would shout “Enough!,” lay down his arms, and agree to deliver his resignation. 

Although to some it seemed to drag on forever (especially for those within the PLQ) the entire unravelling took only four weeks. The politico-media system hasn’t the patience to wait for the results of an investigation — the mere whiff of one demands decisive action, at the risk of the party’s reputation. 

Similar, But Not the Same

The Charbonneau commission was launched in October of 2011, and it was over a year later, on November 5th 2012 that Montreal Mayor Gérald Tremblay announced his resignation, while continuing to deny knowledge of the corruption schemes within his administration. 

As he addressed Montrealers, Tremblay harkened back to a warning from his father: “When I was a young man, my father told me never to get into politics because it was dirty and would destroy me.” 

Pablo Rodriguez had shared a similar early warning from his father in a video posted on his leadership campaign website. “My son, Canada is a land of opportunity, you can do whatever you want. But please – no politics.” 

In both cases, each man’s love of country and zeal for public life drove them to ignore fatherly advice. At the time of their resignation, both recalled the fateful words of warning.  

Did Pablo Rodriguez deserve to carry the blame for the financial misdemeanors and ethical wrong-doings of some of the people connected to his campaign? In politics, “deserving” and “undeserving” are irrelevant criteria by which to judge a politician; only public perception and party ambition matter. As party leader, Rodriguez was responsible to ensure that the former would not hinder the latter as Québec moves into an election year in 2026. 

The difference is the lightning speed with which his leadership scandal breached, broke and concluded, carrying off in its wake the budding prospects of an otherwise talented politician. 

Bye-Bye Steven, Bye-Bye Christian

Two other major pillars of Québec politics didn’t wait for the Christmas break to take a walk in the snow. 

Federal minister Steven Guilbeault left cabinet (while still remaining a member of the Liberal caucus) in protest over the Canada-Alberta Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which promises to increase production of Alberta oil and gas and build a new pipeline to the Pacific. Provincial minister Christian Dubé went one step further, walking away from his role as Health Minister while also leaving his party to sit as an independent over the CAQ’s inability to achieve the health system reforms laid out in Bill 2.   

Both men were living under the strain of disappointment and the cognitive dissonance that comes with towing a party line that goes against one’s principles — and is in contradiction with the mission with which they had been charged in their respective ministerial roles.

But here’s the rub: both Dubé and Guilbeault are seasoned politicians who have weathered their fair share of political storms. As Environment Minister under Justin Trudeau, Steven Guilbeault bore the brunt of criticism for the Trans-Mountain expansion, a project in contradiction with Canada’s ambitious carbon-reduction targets. Christian Dubé struggled and survived the many hardships of a Health Minister during the pandemic period —the Heron hecatomb, vaccine supply chain hurdles and unpopular curfews. 

Having made it this far, why throw in the towel now? Many will be tempted to point to the impetuous on-again off-again temperaments of our Southern neighbour, who seems to have single-handedly thrown global geopolitics into a panic. However, Trump’s Presidency is a consequence, not a cause, of the accelerating political climate. 

It’s not the change, it’s the pace of change

Change is a constant in all aspects of life, not just politics. The second law of thermodynamics states that all systems are constantly changing (increasing in entropy) and that no system stays static. Governments rise and fall, as do countries and fortunes, and it is part of our collective curiosity to follow these adventures. 

Sociologist Hartmut Rosa introduced the concept of “social acceleration,” to describe the phenomenon of the increasing pace of change that is both felt and observed in all spheres of modern life. Advances in technology and communications have made possible increases in productivity and information dissemination; this in turn has impacted our perception of time and space, making us simultaneously both more impatient and more haggard by all previous standards. 

If we feel things are going too fast it’s because they are, Rosa postulates— at least in terms of what we as humans are wired to be able to adapt to. Rodriguez, Guilbeault and Dubé are on the leading edge of our amped-up era of political churn, one in which new narratives are pushed at the speed of 15 second reels on a teenager’s Instagram feed. 

There is no time to wait out the results of an inquiry, nor to negotiate through long stretches of uncomfortable confrontation before reaching a hard-won but satisfying compromise. Inquiry and negotiation: these are the tools of another time and another pace. The politician of the future is learning, or perhaps she already knows, how to navigate at the fever-pace of polls, riding with the fickle hubris of algorithms. 

Our democratic system, which relies on the plodding human pace of consultation, debate and voting, will undoubtedly suffer new pressures and strain as we enter the era of speed-politics where the pace is set not by what we can reasonably manage but by what our advancing technological capabilities will impose.  

J’ai l’habitude de marcher pour me rendre en studio les mardis après-midi, jour de ma chronique hebdomadaire à l’émission Le 15-18 à Radio-Canada. Cela m’aide à réfléchir autrement, et à un autre rythme que celui qu’on a assis derrière son écran d’ordinateur.

C’est une marche de 45 minutes (à pas rapide) qui me permet aussi d’observer la ville, ma ville, celle que j’habite avec tous ces autres citadins. 

Je marchais donc à pas rapide sur la rue Ontario direction ouest cet après-midi, en tournant des idées dans ma tête quand je vois venir vers moi un individu clairement en crise. Il marche la tête penchée en avant. Il bave abondamment, tout en hurlant. La morve coule de son nez en longs filaments qui se balancent dans le vent. J’aperçois à sa main droite un objet brillant. 

C’est une lame de couteau. 

Read more: Si tu vois quelque chose, dis quelque chose

Je fige. Mon corps de glace, j’essaie de me faire toute petite, de me rendre invisible, mon seul super-pouvoir. Fight or flight, vu ma taille diminutive, mon instinct me commande de fuir.  C’est là que je réalise qu’il ne me voit pas – il regarde dans le vide, saisi dans une lutte contre ses démons.  

Je le contourne telle une petite souris et poursuis mon chemin en hâtant le pas au cas où il déciderait de se revirer vers moi. 

Je signale le 911 et donne sa description, son allure, la direction dans laquelle il marchait, et je décris le couteau (six pouces de long, une lame large et dorée, on dirait un couteau ornemental de combat, ou de chasse). 

Trois heures plus tard, je reçois un appel d’un agent policier. L’individu a été retrouvé, clairement en détresse, et amené à l’hôpital où il sera, on l’espère, soigné. L’agent me remercie d’avoir appelé en notant que malgré la rue très fréquentée par des piétons, personne d’autre n’a signalé la présence d’un individu en crise. 

Heille ! Il avait un couteau à la main en plein jour et personne d’autre n’a fait le saut ? 

Ce qui me fait réfléchir. 

On m’a appris à être proactive, à ne pas rester neutre en situation où quelqu’un a clairement besoin d’aide. If you see something, say something.

Avons-nous perdu ce réflexe social, celui de se soucier de l’autre, et de la sécurité publique au sens large ?

Si j’ai été épargnée d’un potentiel geste violent de la part d’un individu en crise, rien ne garantit la sécurité du prochain passant qui croisera son regard. N’ai-je pas alors l’obligation morale d’agir ?

Ou encore, serions-nous si captivés, désensibilisés par nos petits appareils que nous n’observons plus ce qui se passe réellement autour de nous ? Du plus profond de nos bulles, la réalité qui nous entoure ne nous atteindrait plus ? Une réalité souvent lourde à côtoyer, dépendamment du quartier dans lequel on vit. C’est peut-être encore plus choquant. 

Je suis à la fois touchée et bouleversée par cet appel de l’agent policier – qu’il me remercie, moi, pour un geste si normal, si attendu de la part d’un membre de toute société fonctionnelle. Et aussi qu’il prenne le temps de m’informer que la personne va recevoir, on l’espère encore (connaissant l’état de notre système de santé) les soins dont il en a besoin. Je sentais qu’on partageait un sentiment d’avoir évité le drame qui aurait pu se produire. 

Et j’ai envie de dire merci. Merci à l’agente du 911. Merci aux agents policiers pour votre service. Merci à tous ceux et celles qui se soucient les uns des autres. Merci à tous ceux et celles qui ramassent la misère au quotidien et qui font de leur mieux pour venir en aide en toute circonstance. Merci. 

Soyons généreux, et soucieux les uns envers les autres. Les fondements de notre société reposent sur cette bienveillance. 

_: Si tu vois quelque chose, dis quelque chose

Comme la petite Alice, au long des derniers mois, j’ai eu la curieuse sensation de ne plus toucher à terre, de devoir courir simplement pour rester en place. Autour de moi, des expressions revenaient souvent dans les conversations entre amis et collègues, des mots comme « à la course », « maintenir le rythme » et « essoufflée », me faisaient comprendre que je n’étais peut-être pas seule à me sentir ainsi. Y aurait-il un phénomène plus large en cause? 

→ Poursuivre la lecture sur Vaste programme

Je partage ici mon travail de fin de session dans le cadre du programme de Maîtrise en Management et développement durable à HEC-Montréal. Il fait un petit 16 pages sans compter la bibliographie – mais ne vous inquiétez pas, il y a beaucoup d’illustrations aussi! Car je suis d’accord avec Alice au pays des merveilles: « What is the use of a book without pictures or conversations? »

Continue reading “Le transport en milieux péri-urbains et banlieues : défaire les barrières à la transition”

Since Melanie Joly’s meteoric run for the mayoralty in the 2013 municipal elections, Montrealers have been wondering who will fill the “third way” position − in French: “la 3e voie”.

(Disclaimer: I was elected in 2013 thanks to Joly’s magnetic pull, especially in the outer, mainly anglophone boroughs of Montreal.) 

Each election is a whole new deck of cards – some of the players have been shuffled out, new ones have been shuffled in. The electorate too has undoubtedly changed, due to shifts in opinion; and after four years, there are new concerns and fresh issues to tackle. Whatever tactics may have worked the last time around are unlikely to work again. 

Continue reading “Holness rekindles the politics of division”

Cet article fut publié le 15 août 2021 dans la section «Opinions» du journal La Presse: https://www.lapresse.ca/debats/opinions/2021-08-15/changements-climatiques/qu-attendons-nous-pour-agir.php

Lundi, le Groupe d’experts intergouvernemental sur l’évolution du climat (GIEC) a sorti son 6e et plus récent rapport sur les changements climatiques. Pour les environnementalistes et les éco-anxieux, la seule chose qui est pire d’avoir tort c’est d’avoir raison; ce rapport a donné raison à tous ceux et celles qui s’inquiètent de l’avancement, encore plus rapide que prévu, de la dégradation climatique.   

Rappelons que le premier rapport d’évaluation du GIEC date de 1990 et que ses conclusions, quoique exprimées avec une certitude et une urgence toujours grandissantes, n’ont pas changé en substance.

Si la science est là, claire et limpide devant nous, qu’attendons-nous pour agir ?

Continue reading “6e rapport du GIEC sur le climat : Qu’attendons-nous pour agir ?”

En vertu de la Loi sur les produits antiparasitaires, l’Agence de réglementation de la lutte antiparasitaire (ARLA) de Santé Canada propose de fixer des limites maximales de résidus (LMR) pour le glyphosate (mieux connu par son nom commercial «RoundUp») sur diverses denrées de manière à permettre l’importation et la vente d’aliments contenant ces résidus.

Pour certains aliments, cette limite sera haussée jusqu’à trois fois la limite permise actuellement (voir l’article de Thomas Gerbet), avec comme conséquence, plus de résidus se retrouvant dans nos assiettes.

Tout regroupement, organisme et individu canadien peut soumettre un commentaire dans le cadre de la consultation en cours, sur le site: http://lutte-antiparasitaire.canada.ca/fr/portail-participation-public/formulaires/commentaire-dans-cadre-consultation.

La date limite pour soumettre votre opinion est le mardi 20 juillet 2021. Je partage ci-dessous mon commentaire.

Continue reading “Réponse citoyenne: Limites maximales de résidus proposées PMRL2021-10, Glyphosate”

Photo: David Boily, Archives La Presse

Cet article a été publié dans La Presse « Opinions » le 27 juin 2021

La semaine dernière, j’ai commencé un premier mandat avec ICI Première en tant que chroniqueuse de politique municipale pour la grande région montréalaise. Je peux difficilement vous décrire mon enthousiasme autrement qu’en vous confiant que j’ai accepté l’offre sur-le-champ, avant de sauter assez fort dans notre salon pour faire surgir mon conjoint, qui me demandait si je me sentais bien. J’ai l’impression qu’enfin les grandes portes de la culture montréalaise et radio-canadienne s’ouvrent à moi.

Continue reading “Il est d’où, votre petit accent ?”

Observer la scène politique municipale est un peu comme observer le SARS-CoV-2 sous microscope.

Normalement, en année électorale, la fièvre commence à monter 9 mois avant l’élection, une période de gestation pour celle ou celui qui sera le nouveau représentant en chef de Montréal. Cette personne a décidé depuis un moment déjà qu’elle se lance; sa garde rapprochée est formée, sa stratégie est tracée, les rondes d’appels de recrutement ont commencé. 

Or, si on a appris quelque chose depuis un an, c’est que la pandémie bouscule tout; pourquoi donc la politique serait-elle épargnée? 

Continue reading “Des municipales pandémiques”