The Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) obtains a “respectable score” when it comes to fulfilling its electoral promises, but has failed on a series of flagship commitments over the past five years, according to the leader of the “Quebec Future Coalition” (CAQ). Polimeter”, Lisa Maureen Birch.
“François Legault, during his first mandate, said he was going to keep 100% of his promises. It wasn't there, but he still got a good score,” said the professor and executive director of the Center for Public Policy Analysis at Laval University, in an interview with Le Devoir< /i>.
Also read:
This text is published via our Perspectives section.
According to the Polimeter, this tool for calculating the ability of politicians to respect their promises, the government of François Legault fulfilled 55% of its commitments in its first mandate and broke 20% of them. Since the start of his second term, he has managed to achieve 12% of his promises, has partially achieved 19% and is on track to achieve 39%.
“In the case of the first term from Mr. Legault, there was the pandemic and, overall, he still had a respectable score in terms of respecting promises. He has had more “partially fulfilled” promises, but partly because the government cannot control certain factors, such as labor shortages,” emphasizes Ms. Birch.
Then, since his re-election, as expected, Mr. Legault has offered Quebecers an “anti-inflation shield” including a check for $600 and enhanced support for seniors. “He [had] promised to implement it quickly if he was brought to power and that is exactly what he did,” maintains Ms. Birch.
Not all promises are equal
In terms of broken promises, there was of course the reform of the voting system, the family doctor per capita or “respect for the major greenhouse gas reduction objectives adopted by the international community”. The creation of 4-year-old kindergartens is also slowed down. But “sometimes you can break an important promise,” says Ms. Birch.
For example, “Mr. Legault did not keep his entire promise regarding public finances during the pandemic, but no one held it against him because everyone understood that we were in a pandemic and that there was a health crisis which led to an economic crisis,” she says. On the other hand, everyone talks about the third link. »
The Quebec-Lévis tunnel project, a flagship promise in 2018 which had been watered down in view of the 2022 campaign, was abandoned in a large-scale press conference last spring. On the Polimeter website, the promise is marked red for “broken”.
François Legault's intentions to reassess its feasibility could cause this promise to return to yellow, but the first scrapping of the project tunnel left its mark on voters, notes Ms. Birch. Above all, she says, because among the population, respect for a promise is also linked to the “credibility” of the politician. “[In] the case of the third link, with all the speeches that emerge, which say that ultimately, even before the elections, we thought we would not keep the promise… This is what fuels a certain cynicism,” she continues.
With Marco Bélair-Cirino