Before he left for the holidays, Jean Charest said he hoped that in 2011, he'd "wipe the slate clean" after his "annus horribilis."
With his government's enduring poor showing in the polls and his own record level of unpopularity, the royal expression was well chosen.
Although the premier will try again, as he did at the start of 2010, to turn the attention of voters to the economy, he knows the issue of integrity has become his party's Achilles heel.
So this week -eight years after he promised it -the first commissioner of ethics was sworn in alongside a new director-general of elections.
Armed with a code of ethics voted by all parties, Jacques Saint-Laurent was named by the National Assembly for a five-year mandate and can be removed only by a vote of at least two-thirds of MNAs.
This makes him politically independent of the government and the premier's office.
Saint-Laurent -who's the former president of the Commission of Access to Information -said he would be "a guide and a watchdog" for the members of the National Assembly.
The code of ethics gives him the power to advise MNAs, investigate complaints against any of them, and launch investigations of his own. His inquiries will be private but his reports will be tabled in the National Assembly.
Rules require MNAs, ministers and their close family members to produce detailed declarations of interests. These will be public. They'll also be forbidden to hold any interest in a company that does business with the government. This brings to mind David Whissell's circumstances when he quit as minister.
MNAs will be barred from getting any salary from their party. So the premier will no longer collect the controversial $75,000 a year from the Liberal Party that he's been getting for more than 10 years.
Various sanctions outlined in the code go as far as removing an MNA or a minister from his seat. These sanctions could be applied if recommended by the commissioner, subject to a two-thirds vote by MNAs.
Interestingly, Saint-Laurent spoke frankly about the "crisis of confidence" among Quebecers toward their institutions. He said he felt the pressure of public opinion.
Saint-Laurent said he wants to play a "very important pedagogical role" to show Quebecers these rules and the means to apply them are "very serious."
"Confidence is the keyword of my mandate," he added.
While Saint-Laurent obviously understands the sour mood of the electorate, this pedagogical part of his mission is one tall order -if only because this mood is mostly a political problem, stemming from the government's laissez-faire conduct in the ethics department for years. The fact that the government proved unable to police itself effectively for so long accounts in part for its dissatisfaction rate hovering near 80 per cent.
The premier, of course, hopes that the code of ethics will ease the pressure on him and his government -as would the New-York style permanent anti-corruption squad he promised to create.
Still, while an ethics commissioner and an anti-corruption squad are welcome, they also confirm that there are real integrity problems to be addressed.
As Charest stands well into his third mandate and eight years in power, what are the real chances that this will help clear the thick cloud of suspicion floating over not only the premier, but the government and the Liberal Party?
A scathing sketch in the year-end Bye Bye on Radio-Canada had another suggestion: removing the premier with a La Capitale movers' truck as a jingle played "Demenage donc de la Capitale!"
Which, with or without a new ethics czar, brings us to the political question of 2011: Will the premier be around at the end of the year should he fail to turn around his government's fortunes?