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Beryl Wajsman: François Legault, Canada's defender of western values

Quebec's premier set an example for Ottawa to mirror

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History will not judge governments solely by quarterly economic data, polling swings or even administrative missteps. It judges them by whether they reshaped the moral and civic architecture of society. By that standard, the legacy of Quebec Premier François Legault will endure long after today’s headlines fade.

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Legault’s government anchored itself in a defining principle: that Quebec is a lay, secular democracy whose public institutions must reflect universal civic values rather than religious particularism or submission to theocratic extremism. A critical principle at a time when the West is menaced by Islamism.

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This conviction found expression most notably in Bill 21, the Act respecting the laicity of the State, which affirmed in 2019 the religious neutrality of the state and restricted the wearing of religious symbols by certain public officials in positions of authority. It was not an act of exclusion but of clarity — an affirmation that the state belongs equally to all citizens precisely because it stands apart from religious expression which is an unrestricted private matter.

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That same commitment to institutional coherence informed Bill 9, passed in 2019, which restructured immigration processes to better align newcomers with Quebec’s linguistic and cultural framework. Integration, the government argued, must be meaningful, not rhetorical. A society cannot sustain itself if it lacks confidence in basic western, liberal values grounded in fundamental universal freedoms and labours under the yoke of — and submission to — particularist multiculturalism.

Last spring, the assent of Bill 84 continued this trajectory by reinforcing the expectation that immigrants adapt to Quebec’s democratic and secular character. Critics describe such measures as rigid. In fact, they are essential guardrails protecting the universal foundations of a liberal society which Ottawa would do well to mirror. The central reality is that Legault has enshrined in law that Quebec is not merely a geographic space but a national vision.

In this, Legault’s government echoed the spirit of the Quiet Revolution — not in its economic modernization, but in its insistence that the public sphere be emancipated from sectarian control. The Quiet Revolution disentangled church from state. Legault’s reforms sought to ensure that disentanglement remains intact in an era of globalization and rising identity politics.

That fidelity to universal principles was tested profoundly by a surge in antisemitism following October 7 and the war in Gaza. At a time when Jewish schools were targeted and synagogues firebombed, Quebec’s government did not equivocate. Prior to 2023, under the leadership of Premier Legault, then-Minister for the Fight Against Racism Benoit Charette got the National Assembly to formally adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism. This was not symbolic housekeeping. The IHRA definition provides a working framework to identify contemporary antisemitism, including when anti-Zionism crosses into demonization of the Jewish people.

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No other Canadian jurisdiction moved with such clarity. As for the federal government, it turned its back on a sister democracy, long-time ally and all Canadians — Jews in particular — through two prime ministers. Legault’s Quebec did not indulge in such expediency and opportunism by hiding behind the failed, but fashionable, federal multiculturalism mantra.

Even more striking was the decision to open a Quebec office in Israel during the height of the Gaza War. While some governments, including Canada’s, recalibrated or retreated diplomatically, Quebec deepened engagement with Israel and signalled that it would not allow geopolitical turbulence to dictate its principles and partnerships. In doing so, the government underscored that combating antisemitism requires more than statements; it demands institutional alignment and international consistency.

Critics will point, fairly, to failures. Among them, the collapse of the Northvolt battery project in 2025 represents a costly economic disappointment. Bill 2, passed in October, has drawn sustained criticism for exacerbating dysfunction within the health-care system with its increased centralization. These are serious matters affecting livelihoods and public services.

But they are not legacy-defining in the historical sense. Economic projects rise and fall. Administrative reforms are amended, repealed, replaced. Health-care systems evolve over decades. Such issues, while urgent, do not typically define the enduring civic identity of a society.

What does endure are constitutional understandings, civic norms and the parameters within which democratic life unfolds.

Legault also deserves recognition for what he did not do. Despite leading a party with considerable members from the sovereigntist movement — as he himself had been — he kept his word not to pursue a referendum on independence. He promoted and protected the French language and culture without reigniting separatist fervour or engaging in destabilizing rhetoric. Polls demonstrate that Francophone support for a referendum is at 32 per cent, according to Ipsos. In a province long marked by constitutional turbulence, that restraint mattered. In a province long marked by constitutional turbulence, that restraint mattered. It provided stability while still affirming Quebec’s distinctiveness.

This balance — assertive in cultural protection, restrained in constitutional agitation — may prove to be one of his most underappreciated contributions. Quebec can affirm its identity without threatening national fracture. That, too, reflects maturity.

In the end, Legault’s tenure will likely be remembered less for industrial subsidies or healthcare reorganization than for reinforcing Quebec as a confident, secular province secure in its language, firm in its democratic norms, and unafraid to defend universal western principles at home and abroad. Long after today’s controversies recede, that foundation may well be what endures.

Beryl P. Wajsman, B.C.L., LL.B., KCR, is the president of the Institute for Public Affairs of Montreal.

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