The interim leader of the Quebec Liberal Party, Marc Tanguay, advocates a return to the Robert Bourassa approach for his party, and he castigates the Legault government for its preemptive use of the disregard clause. However, the former prime minister invoked this clause no fewer than nineteen times.
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“I draw a lot of inspiration from Robert Bourassa and also from our caucus,” Marc Tanguay admitted on the sidelines of his party’s primary committee on Tuesday afternoon in Lac-Beauport.
When he was appointed interim leader, Mr Tanguay asked his team to get him the former Liberal Prime Minister’s speeches. He also suggested that Liberal MPs should read it.
The reason for this admiration is simply that he finds in Mr Bourassa’s mind what he believes to be the liberal ‘DNA’. “For Robert Bourassa, the strength of our Quebec economy is the best guarantee of the strength of our French-speaking nation,” he declared with some enthusiasm.
“Economic strength will be the best guarantee of what? The strength of your culture, the strength of your language, French, the strength of your ability to pay for our social services, and that’s exaggerated, it’s very Bourassa (…). This is the future of the Liberal Party of Quebec,” he continued.
When pointed out that the PLQ has evolved since the Bourassa years, Mr Tanguay pays lip service to the fact that the Liberal Party appears to have moved away from the approach that was the father of health insurance. He still believes it can be addressed today, and that is his party’s intention.
“We may not have insisted on that speech enough in recent years, but it was there and we will insist even more,” he said.
derogation clause
A few hours earlier, Mr. Tanguay castigated the Legault government for its preemptive use of the devaluation clause, particularly in Law 21 on secularism and in the reform of the French language charter.
In defense of the idea that the courts must place limits on this clause to avoid improper use of this clause, which allows the National Assembly to circumvent certain articles of the Canadian Charter or the Quebec Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Liberal appealed Guide also there the memory of Robert Bourassa.
“I have often cited the example of Robert Bourassa in 1988 with the language of ostentation that had allowed him not to infringe on all the rights and freedoms of everyone, and to come back five years later with a solution that is still in force today (. ..), namely the predominance of French. It’s a balance,” he said.
Bourassa, advocate of deviation
Using this example makes the law professor at the University of Sherbrooke, Guillaume Rousseau, chuckle. “We always give the example of the law issued, but all other times Robert Bourassa used the devaluation clause it was as a preventive measure,” he recalls.
Moreover, Robert Bourassa did not skimp on this provision. He used it 19 times, 18 of them preventively.
And he’s not the only Liberal PM to have used that clause. According to Mr. Rousseau, Jean Charest used it eight times and Philippe Couillard five times instead of once.
“The fact is that the exception clause has to be renewed every five years. That’s essentially what Jean Charest and Philippe Couillard did,” said the law professor.
“Furthermore, Marc Tanguay was an MP when Philippe Couillard’s majority government renewed the dissenting clause on five articles of a pension law. Does Marc Tanguay say today that he would not renew these uses of the clause? wonders Mr. Rousseau.