There's a fascinating paradox at work in Quebec. On one hand, for a year and a half now, polls have shown that at least two thirds of Quebecers want a special public inquiry into the financing of political parties and allegations of collusion and corruption in the construction industry.
The same polls record a major gulf of trust between a large majority of the population and the premier and his government.
Thus, the paradox: Most Quebecers want this special inquiry set up by a premier they don't trust anymore and who's government they even suspect, rightly or wrongly, might be at the core of some of the allegations that have poisoned the political atmosphere of this province.
Again, yesterday, a CROP-La Presse poll showed that 65 per cent of respondents favour a public inquiry over relying solely on police investigations. But 81 per cent say they don't trust even their own premier to clean things up.
This means that the loss of confidence cuts across language, age, education, and income lines, including 27 per cent of those who vote Liberal.
It helps explain why a petition demanding the premier's resignation took off at warp speed last week when it was put on the National Assembly's website. As of yesterday afternoon, there were more than 235,000 signatures.
Still, this shows that even though there's a general distrust of the government and its leader, most Quebecers continue to believe an inquiry is essential and therefore that a real cleanup remains possible. Just not under this government.
In turn, this would tend to show that contrary to the cliche that Quebecers have grown hopelessly cynical, what they are mostly is angry.
They're not equally angry at the whole political class. Not quite, anyway.
Yesterday's CROP-La Presse poll showed that while 81 per cent said they didn't trust the premier to fix the troubling state of the construction industry, 36 per cent said they trusted that Marois could.
Mind you, 36 per cent isn't exactly a stellar endorsement. But in the current sour public mood, it does show some promise for the PQ.
This might have something to do with the fact that Marois has committed her party to set up that special inquiry if the PQ wins the next election.
For the Liberal Party, this means it will be facing a PQ election platform with no promise to hold a referendum in the first mandate, but with a commitment to create a public inquiry into the ethical issues that have been dogging the Charest government almost since its re-election in 2008.
This leaves Liberals with the hope that voters will be satisfied with Charest's announcement before the non-confidence motion, that permanent control measures would be imposed on the construction industry.
But Charest gave no details, only saying that the measures would be employed on "as -needed" basis."
Another problem for the Liberals is Charest's decision to rely on Operation Marteau -the special police squad investigating allegations of corruption. Even if Marteau succeeds in making a couple spectacular arrests, for many Quebecers this will only confirm the need for a special inquiry -the best way to find out whether corruption and collusion have become systemic.
The demand for an inquiry will also be fed every time investigative reporters reveal more stories about the construction industry, envelopes of cash to candidates (as was alleged by Serge Menard, Vincent Auclair and David Gregoire), and so on.
Even yesterday's surprise announcement lowering the annual limit on party donations to $1,000 risks being read as an admission that the illegal use of stand-ins by some companies to make generous donations to the Liberal Party had got out of control.
On Monday, if the Liberals manage to retain Claude Bechard's riding in the Kamouraska-Temiscouata by-election, Charest might get some relief. But it is bound to be short-lived because by-elections make good headlines in the short-term but hardly ever turn around an overall political trend.
And so the paradox of expecting remedies from a government that's no longer trusted by most Quebecers is bound to endure for some time.