Quebec has confounded Doug Ford ever since he became premier.
asserted
he → confound → Ford
This week, the province become ever more confusing, complicated and complex.
Time for our excitable, mercurial and unpredictable premier to take a deep breath, exhale slowly and speak softly.
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premier → become → breath
Ford has made a meal of national unity, champing at the bit whenever Donald Trump mouths off about making Canada the 51st state.
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Canada → make → bit
He unfurls his Captain Canada cape, unleashes his emotive rhetoric and rallies the troops to the cause — not to mention voters to the polls.
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He → unfurl → polls
The premier returned to power last year after triggering an early election on the pretext of pushing back against America.
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premier → return → America
The ploy paid off, yielding a thumping majority at a time when Justin Trudeau was our lame duck prime minister.
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Trudeau → pay → time
But what worked then won’t work now.
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worked → work → ?
Mark Carney has assumed the mantle and mandate of national leadership, leaving less room for Ford — and others.
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Carney → assume → Ford
For example, after taking over as Quebec’s premier last April, Christine Fréchette attempted a similar anti-American gambit ahead of the Oct. 5 election.
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Fréchette → take → election
It didn’t sell.
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It → sell → ?
Her CAQ party was shut out as the rival Parti Québécois stormed — er, stumbled — back to power with a historically unprecedented 28 per cent of a remarkably splintered vote.
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Québécois → shut → vote
The anti-American strategy is also flopping in B.C., where an NDP government called an early election on the pretence of protecting voters from Trump’s depredations.
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government → flop → depredations
All of which leaves Ford less margin of manoeuvre at the national level.
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All → leave → level
To be sure, he’ll still wade in at every opportunity — most recently when Trump tried to rename Lake Ontario — with colourful language.
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Trump → wade → language
Ford’s bluntness works well enough when he’s taunting Trump, or, say, hectoring Alberta’s premier over her tortuous strategy on sovereignty in the province’s Oct. 19 referendum.
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he → work → referendum
But playing the national unity card only goes so far when péquistes are at the table.
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péquistes → play → table
Where Ford can carp about the hostility of America or the recklessness of Alberta, he can’t shoot his mouth off about Quebec with impunity.
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he → carp → impunity
Ford’s problem is that he fancies himself wildly popular in Quebec.
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himself → fancy → Quebec
Thanks to his celebrity status, he is indeed recognized by Quebecers on the street, many of whom tell him he’s doing a fine job, or should even seek the PM’s job.
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he → recognize → job
They tell him all this in English, because of course he can’t understand their language.
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he → tell → language
Nor, it might be added, does he have a grasp of their culture, history and politics.
uncertain
he → add → culture
Given those blind spots, I’ve never believed Ford’s ambitions to be prime minister would ever come to pass.
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ambitions → give → pass
But those same blinkers also leave me worried about Ford’s lack of inhibitions.
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blinkers → leave → inhibitions
It’s one thing to meddle or muse about Alberta’s rough and tumble politics.
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It → ’ → politics
It’s quite another to wade into Quebec’s political landscape, freighted with nationalist, sovereigntist, cultural complexities.
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It → ’ → complexities
Ford needs to hold his fire and guard his tongue, lest he blunder with blunderbuss or fall into traps laid by the wily provocateurs in the Parti Québécois, who will pick a fight on every file.
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who → need → file
The era of friendly and fruitful collaboration between Canada’s two biggest provinces over shared long-term goals is going on hiatus.
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era → share → hiatus
Historically, Upper Canada and Lower Canada were once conjoined, then confederated.
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Canada → conjoin → ?
More recently, premiers Dalton McGuinty and Kathleen Wynne clicked with their Quebec counterparts, Jean Charest and Philippe Couillard.
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McGuinty → click → counterparts
The two provinces revived their historical co-operation by entering into energy-sharing agreements and talked up a high-speed rail line.
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provinces → revive → line
So too, Ford found a familiar soul in François Legault, the former airline executive with whom he could do business — even if they failed to consummate the removal of interprovincial trade barriers that Ontario achieved with most other provinces.
uncertain
Ontario → find → provinces
But Legault quit this year before his CAQ went down to defeat.
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CAQ → quit → defeat
Now, with the PQ back in power, the erstwhile Ontario-Quebec axis has lost its allure.
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axis → lose → allure
The federal government has adopted the high-speed rail concept as its own, but it’s hard to fathom such a massive, multibillion-dollar investment in taxpayer funds at a time when Quebec is flirting anew with separating.
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Quebec → adopt → separating
Incoming PQ premier Paul St-Pierre Plamondon has already said he plans to review a recently signed power deal between Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador.
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he → income → Quebec
If such long term investments can be reconsidered on a whim, why put down more money in the short term?
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investments → reconsider → term
This is not to say that Quebec and Ontario cannot co-operate on matters of shared interest.
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Quebec → say → interest
Geography has made us neighbours and history has made us family, but politics has made it more perilous.
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it → make → ?
Quebec is not an island, and even the most avowed separatists have always understood the need for economic integration.
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separatists → understand → integration
Ford should learn the lessons that his predecessors mastered when dealing with previous PQ governments, by focusing more on economics and less on politics.
asserted
predecessors → learn → politics
…and 1 more, not listed.
The Aporia
