François Legault demands additional powers from Ottawa in the field of immigration.

Undoubtedly, obtaining them is necessary if one seriously cares about the future of French.

But what interests me here is the political calculation behind this very clever maneuver.

The CAQ knows that his re-election is assured.

The only danger is that the certainty of a landslide victory will lead too many voters to shun the ballot box or indulge themselves by voting for another party.

Raison

So that its potential pool of support does not crumble, the CAQ must therefore offer a strong reason to vote for it.

This reason must be stronger than: despite our faults, reward us for having governed relatively well in ultra-complicated circumstances.

With this request, François Legault brings the debate to a field that is favorable to him.

On the one hand, it is difficult to find a more consensual demand than that in Quebec.

Only a fringe of the business world and the hardest supporters of Canadian multiculturalism are firmly opposed to it.

On the other hand, the theme embarrasses the other parties.

It diminishes the value of a card that the PQ would have certainly played. The CAQ will be able to say: it is not only the PQ who are worried about the future of the nation.

He also drives a stake in the belly of the PLQ.

Ms. Anglade, who no longer knows where to turn, wanted to reconnect the PLQ with the French-speaking electorate.

The anglophones and allophones who control the PLQ have pulled on its leash, and Ms. Anglade is now resuming their delirious refrain about Quebec's lack of "openness".

The CAQ also sees the embarrassment that immigration and, more broadly, questions of identity cause at QS, as seen in the debates on secularism and language.

QS is indeed a strange grouping of federalist multiculturalists and pseudo-sovereignists whose nationalism suffers from erectile dysfunction.

It may be objected that this strong mandate that François Legault claims, he already has it.

But immigration was not at the heart of his electoral speech in 2018.

Getting elected on this theme would allow François Legault to say to Ottawa: when I speak, it is a large part of the Quebec people who speak with me.

Plan B

So far, Ottawa has said no to all the demands of the CAQ government with a casualness that shows that we no longer fear Quebec.

Quebec has no balance of power because its government has no alternative plan.

A power struggle is when you have to be given something because you can't be denied it, because it would be very dangerous to say no to you.

For the moment, after each refusal, François Legault is chomping at the bit until the next rebuff.

The CAQ, a bit like QS, is also a coalition. Impatience is rising in its nationalist wing.

The moment of truth is approaching for her. Serious things will begin after his re-election.