At his best, Philippe Couillard is the no-drama Quebec Premier on a mission to repair his province's public finances and deliver it once and for all from the tyranny of identity politics.
At his worst, Mr. Couillard is the detached neurosurgeon whose impassivity in the face of public anger over political corruption and budget cuts comes off as a let-them-eat-cake empathy deficit.
As he marks the second anniversary of his election on Thursday, it's the latter characterization of Mr. Couillard that is dominating the news cycle, fuelling unflattering narratives of a government adrift and a Quebec Liberal Party in serious need of a long stint in opposition.
The 18-month purgatory that the Liberals spent on the opposition benches, following former premier Jean Charest's defeat in 2012, is increasingly looking like insufficient penance for the sins of the Charest era. Mr. Couillard has spent every Question Period answering for those sins, real or perceived, since corruption charges were laid last month against former deputy premier Nathalie Normandeau.
While the Premier insists the Liberals have made a clean break from the Charest years, his cabinet and caucus are filled with holdovers from that regime. One of them, Treasury Board president Sam Hamad, was forced to step down on Saturday pending separate investigations by the provincial ethics commissioner and chief electoral officer regarding alleged influence-peddling and potentially illegal political donations revealed by Radio-Canada.
A circus atmosphere has descended on the National Assembly this week as the opposition parties take turns ridiculing the Premier's flaccid response to "l'affaire Hamad," first by likening Mr. Hamad's departure to "sick leave" and then by allowing him to keep his minister's salary and limousine while his past activities are investigated, which could take several months.
After a local CBS affiliate captured weekend footage of Mr. Hamad outside his Florida condo, Parti Québécois MNA Agnès Maltais accused Mr. Couillard of "inventing a Club Med" for Liberal cabinet ministers. Though Mr. Hamad was indeed said to be in need of a break, the optics of his southern retreat were terrible for the Couillard government and he was set to return (on the Premier's orders?) to Quebec on Thursday to answer questions raised by the Radio-Canada story.
As if all this wasn't enough to ruin Mr. Couillard's anniversary, Mr. Charest surfaced on Monday to give a speech at McGill University. The topic? Restoring trust in Canada's public institutions. The former premier's intentions may have been honest, but as one of the leaders most responsible for the Quebec public's cynicism toward its politicians, he might have shown more sensitivity to his successor's plight by cancelling his speech in advance.
Instead, protesters forced Mr. Charest to cut short his presentation. But he could not leave without telling journalists that he "always had, and [continues] to have, confidence in Madame Normandeau." And he saluted Mr. Hamad for, "at his own initiative," calling in the ethics commissioner.
Whether or not Mr. Hamad is officially cleared of any ethics or financing breaches, the e-mails revealed by Radio-Canada portray a disturbing relationship between him and former Liberal cabinet minister-turned-engineering company executive Marc-Yvan Côté – who was also charged last month on seven counts of fraud, conspiracy and breach of trust involving the awarding of a municipal water-purification contract by Ms. Normadeau's ministry.
Former prime minister Paul Martin banned Mr. Côté for life from the Liberal Party of Canada in the wake of the sponsorship scandal, but the former cabinet minister under premier Robert Bourassa continued to be a mover and shaker in provincial Liberal circles throughout the Charest years. Mr. Couillard may indeed have read the riot act to his ministers, but the impression that he has not sufficiently purged the ranks of his party could do to him what the sponsorship scandal did to Mr. Martin.
The Quebec Liberals benefit from a divided opposition and lock on non-francophone voters, but there are growing signs of renewed Liberal fatigue. It comes as Parti Québécois Leader Pierre Karl Péladeau gets his act together, delivering more solid performances in Question Period, and as Coalition Avenir Québec Leader François Legault beefs up the CAQ's Third Way program between separation and status quo federalism.
Mr. Péladeau has a potential ace up his sleeve for the next election. His separtist convictions are strong enough that he can promise not to hold a referendum on sovereignty during a PQ mandate without the party base rebelling. Mr. Couillard must be praying he doesn't play that card.
Konrad Yakabuski