Charest’s leap of faith

Quebecers are used to getting battered every time a finance minister buys a new pair of shoes, either in Ottawa or Quebec City, but this time the news from the National Assembly was actually good. For once, we were going to benefit from an array of tax cuts.

But in an unexpected twist to the usual procedure, the good news did not last long. Both of the other major parties, whose combined seats give them the balance of power, immediately condemned the new budget and called for another election — a strategy designed to rid Quebec of the reigning Liberals once and for all.

There is no shortage of political theories in Canada — especially here in the wildly unpredictable province of Quebec — and a situation like this invites a diverse array of possible explanations and second guesses. One of the favourites, which was modestly refuted by the Liberals, is that they deliberately set out to table a ‘great news’ budget which, while financially impractical and totally unrealistic in its ambition, would appeal to that massive portion of the population known as the middle class.

Then, counting on the ADQ and PQ to jump out of their seats and attack the budget — calling for a new election in the process — the Liberals would find themselves in the rather enviable position of going back on the campaign trail with their recent budget as a powerful selling point. After all, most people would not think twice about voting for the party that tabled a budget with significant tax cuts — not the parties that came out vehemently against it. If that happened, the Liberals might be able to reclaim their majority status.

Was this all a shrewd, calculated move to beef up the government’s current minority status to a majority, or was it merely a terrible mistake — a muddled attempt to curry favour with the many disgruntled voters who shifted their allegiance to other parties on March 26? We may never know.

But if this really was a giant leap of faith on Jean Charest’s part, he is still in mid-air — and it will be interesting to see where he lands.