Joseph Facal - Out of The Legislature

Out of The Legislature

PQ leadership politics

Bernard Landry faced criticisms over his leadership after the 2003 election, and in August 2004 Pauline Marois challenged him to hold a leadership contest. Facal supported this, saying that the party needed a leadership contest to update its platform.

Landry resigned as party leader in June 2005 after receiving only 76.2% support at a party convention. There were rumours that Facal would be a candidate in the leadership contest that followed, although he was not given strong odds of winning. He eventually decided to support Pauline Marois, who finished second to André Boisclair.

Boisclair resigned as party leader following a poor performance in the 2007 general election. Facal was again considered as possible leadership candidate, but he again chose not to run and was still generally regarded as an ally of Marois, who won the leadership on her third attempt. During this period, Facal worked with former cabinet colleague François Legault to propose a new PQ policy agenda focused on economic growth and the more gradual promotion of sovereignty.

Support for the lucide manifesto and shift away from the PQ

Facal was one of several public notables, also including Lucien Bouchard, who endorsed the manifesto Pour un Québec lucide in October 2005. The manifesto generally promoted conservative ideas such as increased privatization, though it also called for government re-investment in some areas. Its specific recommendations included debt reduction, a substantial increase to Quebec's electricity rates (reflecting what the signatories described as real market values), significant new financial support for education, a lifting of Quebec's long-standing tuition freeze, and a guaranteed minimum wage.

In late 2007, Facal was appointed to a commission established by the Charest government to examine public service fees in Quebec. The commission's report recommended higher electricity prices (with safeguards for low-income earners), an end to the province's university tuition freeze, and mandatory water meters to reduce wastage. Some journalists noted similarities between the report and the lucide manifesto. Monique Jérôme-Forget, the minister who commissioned the study, did not commit to following through with its proposals and specifically rejected the call for higher electricity rates.

Rumours circulated in late 2010 that Facal would join François Legault to launch a new right-of-centre political movement seeking to bypass Quebec's traditional dichotomy of federalism and sovereigntism. He ultimately decided not to do so, although he acknowledged in a November 2010 blog posting that he was no longer a member of any political party.

Federal Canadian politics

After leaving the Quebec legislature, Facal sometimes represented the Bloc Québécois on all-party panel discussions in Canada's English-language media. He was a strategist for the party in the 2006 federal election. He later criticized the BQ's decision to offer parliamentary support to a proposed coalition government of the Liberal Party of Canada and the New Democratic Party in late 2008, on the grounds that the coalition would be detrimental to sovereigntist interests. In the event, the coalition dissolved before it could assume office.

Facal identified Lester Pearson as Canada's greatest prime minister in September 2005, describing him as "a throwback to the good old days when there were still some English-speaking Canadians committed to understanding Quebec." Facal also praised Brian Mulroney, while describing Pierre Trudeau and Jean Chrétien as Canada's worst leaders.

Other political writings

Facal co-authored an article in 2005 criticizing Jean Charest's proposal to introduce a form of proportional representation to Quebec's electoral system. One argument raised in this piece was that the change would reduce the power of Quebec's francophone majority in relation to the predominantly anglophone areas in Montreal, where Liberal candidates are often elected with huge majorities.

Facal has criticized multiculturalist aspects of the Charest government's course in ethics and religious culture, which is taught to all students at the elementary and high school level.

His book, Quelque chose comme un grand peuple, was a best-seller in Quebec in 2010.