Canada loses with Kenney's departure, Legault's big win
National Post, 09 October 2022
Bad news for religious liberty, Canada’s admirable record on immigration, and Canadian conservatism
Two of Canada’s most consequential premiers moved in opposite directions this past week. François Legault was re-elected to a thumping majority in Quebec while Jason Kenney gave way to his successor in Alberta.
That’s bad news for religious liberty and Canada’s admirable record on immigration, and it bodes ill for Canadian conservatism, if conservatism is what Legault understands himself to be advancing.
Moreover, given the number of rather mediocre first ministers now standing across the dominion, it may be that Legault will have an outsized influence. How will he use it?
In his victory speech Monday night, the Coalition Avenir Québec leader made a point of committing, in French and in English, to being the “premier of all Quebecers, from all regions, of all ages, of all origins.”
The Post’s André Pratte was not impressed, noting that this newfound magnanimity “is in flat contradiction to Legault’s actions and assertions during the campaign and his first mandate.”
“Why would he change what has been, unfortunately, a winning strategy of courting rural voters who are wary of strangers?”
Legault’s victory was generally considered a victory for the “centre-right” or “conservative” option in Quebec, but it is not clear what that means. Increased reliance on equalization payments, violations of human rights and hostility to immigration is not, say, Jason Kenney conservatism — or for that matter, Canada’s conservative tradition going back to John George Diefenbaker. Corporate tax cuts alone do not exhaust the conservative agenda.
The pandemic was “like a buzz saw that went through (our) coalition,” said Kenney in a farewell interview this week.
No other premier in Canada sought as much to preserve civil liberties, keep businesses open and kids in school as Kenney did. With lighter restrictions, Alberta had a lower per-capita COVID death rate than the national average. Quebec’s was the highest. Legault’s preferred, but ineffective, instrument was totalitarian, imposing a curfew that included outrageous penalties upon homeless people for being, well, homeless.
Except that there was little outrage. Legault remains, and Kenney departs. Other first ministers will take note.
On religious liberty during the pandemic, Legault refused even to consult with Quebec’s bishops. He shut down religious services and imposed a vaccine passport on houses of worship, an intolerable usurpation. But that, too, was tolerated.
How weak is support for religious liberty in Quebec? So weak that the clergy are not altogether bothered about it. During the recent papal visit, Quebec’s Cardinal Gérald Lacroix arranged for Legault — contrary to the demands of protocol — to have a friendly personal audience with Pope Francis. It was an odd reward for the government most hostile to religious liberty in recent Canadian history.
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