At a mere 18 per cent, Jean Charest's popularity rating in the latest public-opinion poll is, by historical standards, impressively low. But the premier has one big advantage: Quebecers can't find anybody they would like better for the job of running the Quebec government.
From opposition leader Pauline Marois to the senior cabinet ministers around Charest on the government side of the National Assembly, nobody at all seems capable of stimulating any political enthusiasm in Quebecers right now.
Of course it is August, and thinking about politicians ranks close to thinking about mosquitoes on most people's to-do lists. Perhaps that explains the illogic inherent in the new Leger poll results: 57 per cent of respondents think Charest should step down, but hardly anyone seems to have a clue who should replace him. And therein lies the premier's salvation.
As long as he holds onto his modest majority of seats in the Assembly, a party leader in Charest's position is, in a narrow sense, impervious to public disapproval. In a wider sense, however, a government that is scraping bottom in the opinion polls usually loses much of its moral authority, and can become paralyzed in the face of a more-popular opponent.
This is however not the situation facing Charest, because nobody else has supplanted him in the public mind. The approval rating for Marois stands at just 20 per cent, no lead at all over Charest considering the poll's margin of error. As to who should replace him as Liberal leader, his various front-bench cabinet ministers are all in the single-digit range, while former minister Philippe Couillard and federal Liberal MP Denis Coderre each barely reach 10 per cent.
So Charest seems fairly secure, for now, faute de mieux.
Another survey, reported yesterday in La Presse, suggests that Quebecers are much more inclined to believe maverick former minister Marc Bellemare than Charest himself on the matter of partisan meddling in judicial appointments. Considering Bellemare's erratic behaviour on this issue -and erratic is almost the kindest possible word - we can see that only as a measure of Charest's unpopularity. We'll find out this week what, if anything, Bellemare has to back up his claims.
Certainly there are plenty of reasons to feel fed up with Charest. But except for the absurd panacea of sovereignty, nobody on the political horizon has anything clearly better to offer by way of solutions. That's the best thing Charest has going for him.