While Pauline Marois is busy wooing Parti Quebecois members on the way to their first convention in six years, Jean Charest prepares for what promises to be a make-or-break year for his government, his party and his own political career.
He knows it. Every Quebecer knows it, too. So the premier started off the new year dishing out a bunch of announcements and nominations, including that of former PQ minister Diane Lemieux as the head of the Commission de construction du Quebec.
Then this week, Charest got himself a new chief of staff and proceeded to a surprise mini cabinet shuffle yesterday.
His main strategy appears to be twofold:
Focus on the economy and his "Plan Nord" to take attention away from all those pesky ethics-related stories that explain why most Quebecers keep demanding a public inquiry on corruption and collusion in the construction industry, party financing and patronage.
Attack Marois over her recent statement that passively waiting for "winning conditions" is now over. So get used to hearing Charest repeatedly pull out one of his classic lines: A PQ government equals a referendum. Yup, it's back. Big time.
In other words, although he's stuck with devastating polls that just won't budge, Charest has chosen to fight.
Convinced that time is on his side, he went out of his way yesterday at his press conference to say that a government mandate lasts for five years.
But the real question is: will his actions be enough to help his government dodge the iceberg it has been heading straight toward almost since its re-election back in December 2008? Or will most Quebecers see the premier's new hyperactive mode as just a classic exercise of shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic?
Take yesterday's mini cabinet shuffle. Beside bringing the well-respected Geoffrey Kelley back to cabinet as minister of aboriginal affairs, which is sure to be seen as good news by the anglophone community, not much changed.
As for getting a new chief of staff, Charest's problem is that Luc Bastien resigned in 2005 as the justice minister's chief of staff after he was named at the Gomery Commission over allegations that he received $10,000 from the sponsorship program to work on the Quebec Liberals' campaign in 1998.
Reminding people of the sponsorship scandal isn't the wisest decision when integrity is such a central theme for Quebec voters.
Charest is also hoping that Lucien Bouchard's recent appointment as president by the gas industry's main lobby group -the Association petroliere et gaziere du Quebec -will have a soothing effect on calls for a moratorium on the exploration of shale gas.
In La Presse, former Liberal minister Benoit Pelletier even went as far as to say that the government was probably not surprised by Bouchard's nomination.
But as I first reported Jan. 27 on my blog at Voir, Bouchard was actually recruited by Calgary-based Talisman Energy Inc., which will also be paying for his services. Chances are that this won't go over too well with the public.
Charest seems to think that his problems are mainly due to bad communications and that therefore getting a few new faces in cabinet and new allies among former pequistes will suffice.
But the time also comes when voter dissatisfaction is no longer only about the message; it's also about the messenger.
The next few months will tell soon enough if such a time has come for Charest and the Liberal Party. As Robert Bourassa said, six months in politics are an eternity.