Marois deepens Quebec-ottawa divide

MONTREAL— If there is just one feature that federal strategists should note as they pore over the first sovereigntist Quebec cabinet in a decade, it is that on balance and with the notable exception of Premier Pauline Marois herself, it is more streetwise in the ways of the federal capital than Jean Charest’s outgoing federalist team.

Two of its members — public safety and culture ministers Stéphane Bergeron and Maka Kotto — once served with the Bloc Québécois in the House of Commons.

The first sat alongside the Reform/Alliance caucus in opposition for a decade. The second was on hand for the Conservative crossing to the government side.

Together the two know more about what makes Stephen Harper’s Conservatives tick than the average Quebec MNA.

There is also little that is average in the federal-provincial knowledge that some of their other colleagues bring to the fore of this cabinet.

Take finance. Harper’s Jim Flaherty need not worry about having to use his rusty French with his Quebec counterpart. Nicolas Marceau holds his PhD from Queen’s University.

Prior to running in politics for the first time in 2009, he served on the Quebec committee that looked into the fiscal imbalance between the two levels of government.

Its work provided part of the foundation for Flaherty’s 2007 budget.

The PQ is expected to pick up the legal battles that currently pit Quebec against Harper’s government where Charest left off. As it happens, Marois’ intergovernmental affairs minister Alexandre Cloutier articled at the Supreme Court, as clerk to retired Justice Charles Gonthier. Quebec’s new minister of the environment is more connected to Canada’s environmental networks than any of his predecessors. A man of many political seasons, Daniel Breton was a star candidate in Jack Layton’s 2008 NDP lineup. Before that, he co-founded the Quebec Green Party.

There is precious little common ground between the federal government and left-leaning Quebec

It is not rare for a premier to hand the environment portfolio to an activist but it is unheard of for one to also appoint a green advocate as minister of natural resources. In one of her most telling opening moves, Marois has done just that. Martine Ouellet once led a coalition that was a moving force behind Quebec’s policy on water. She is a McGill engineering graduate. In a previous professional life, she played a leading role in Hydro- Quebec’s failed bid to take over New Brunswick’s electricity utility. Canada’s diplomats are about to see a lot of international relations minister Jean-François Lisée. A past senior adviser to premiers Jacques Parizeau and Lucien Bouchard, he also served as a journalist in Washington and knows the mechanics of U.S. politics inside out. The responsibility for international trade has been added to his brief. As a result, the top file on his desk will be the trade deal in-themaking between Canada and the European Union. From Ottawa’s perspective that should keep Lisée’s name close to the top of the Quebec to-watch list. When all is said and done, Charest’s defeat is probably nowhere a greater loss to Harper than on the trade front. The former Quebec premier pushed hard for the Canada-EU initiative and it has become a central plank of the Conservative agenda. In its previous governing incarnations, the PQ was unabashed- ly pro-free trade.

But for reasons that are ultimately divorced from her sovereigntist agenda, all bets may be off under Marois.

For decades, the battlefront between sovereigntist governments and the prime minister of the day has run along the fault line of an irreconcilable difference over the political future of the province.

That conflict is intact but it may also be a side show. Marois campaigned on the left and, based on the makeup of her cabinet, plans to govern accordingly.

She is poised to lead the most left-leaning government in modern Quebec history at a time when the most conservative federal government in living memory is at the helm in Parliament.

Even if the PQ was not devoted to achieving sovereignty, there would be precious little common ground between the two governments.

The Quebec-Ottawa chasm has never been deeper. Chantal Hébert is a national affairs writer. Her column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.