It is indeed a mystery. Why is it that polls show that more than 80 per cent of Quebecers want Jean Charest to set up a commission of inquiry into the construction industry, but that only slightly more than 30,000 of them, as of yesterday afternoon, have signed the online petition demanding the same thing?
It boggles the mind considering that the Charest government is embarking on a $42- billion spending spree on infrastructure. Which means that if costs here are presumed to be at least 30 per cent higher than in the rest of Canada, more than $12 billion of tax dollars could be heading straight into the wrong hands.
This alone should have had Quebecers signing this petition in droves.
The mystery thickens when you compare these 30,000 signatures with the more than 210,000 Canadians who, even with the attention focused on the terrible events in Haiti, signed an online petition condemning Stephen Harper's second prorogation of Parliament. Add to that all of the people who marched against the prorogation last weekend in more than 50 Canadian cities and even some in the United States.
So why is it that so few Quebecers, so far anyway, have signed the petition, and there has not been even the tiniest of protest marches?
Considering the overall level of cynicism about the political class, could it be because the anti-prorogation petition was born of a non partisan, grassroots movement, while the petition demanding a public inquiry was launched by a political party - the Parti Québécois?
Could it also be because it's one thing to ask for an inquiry when a polling firm calls, but it's another when it comes to making the effort to put one's name on an actual petition?
Or could it be because most Quebecers have lost faith in the ability of any commission of inquiry to find the culprits and of the government then to implement real change?
In other words, could it be that deep down inside, most Quebecers, while they might like to have this inquiry, really believe that nothing much would change afterward? Or, if you prefer, that the alleged collusion, corruption and outrageous cost overruns in the construction industry wouldn't really go away?
If that's the case, it would indicate that on this specific topic, most Quebecers might have given up hope that this can be cleaned up for good.
In fact, Quebecers show up when they feel - rightly or wrongly - that their voice can make a difference. As La Presse pointed out this week, since Jean Charest was elected premier in 2003, a number of other petitions garnered many more signatures than this one. One petition asking the government not to raise the fees of daycare centres got 107,324 signatures. Another on safeguarding Mount Orford garnered 76,124 names. Even a 2006 petition to save Quebec City's zoo got double the number of signatures raised so far for this one.
During their special two-day caucus this week, PQ leader Pauline Marois promised that questions of "ethics and integrity" would be at the centre of the next National Assembly session, which begins Feb. 9.
But if the petition doesn't get more names, look for the premier to point to it as proof that "police investigations" are doing their job, a line he likes to repeat. And expect him to answer the opposition's first question on the subject by pointing to yesterday's searches of the headquarters of a handful of well-known construction companies, staged by the police's "Opération marteau."
On Wednesday, PQ MNA Bernard Drainville got impatient: "I am saying to Quebecers, there is a time to complain and there is a time to act. Now is the time to take a stand."
Because this is, in fact, an issue that rises above partisan lines and touches on critical issues such as ethics, integrity, and billions of public funds, it is important that those numbers on that petition go seriously upward before the Feb. 4 closing date.
Quebecers would do better to take their inspiration from the anti-prorogation movement than to remain silent.