It’s that time of year: report card time.

So I thought I would hand out some grades to the people who at least say they work for us.  

The Couillard Liberals get a D and that is being generous.

The Liberals seem to lack direction. They flip, they flop and should indeed be a source of worry for their supporters.

Transport Quebec is a snake pit. There are serious allegations that the Liberals dumped Minister Robert Poeti because he wanted to uncover the dirt. 

The independent analyst hired to help clean up the department testified her emails disappeared. They had been on a USB key that was wiped before being handed to the anti-corruption squad. The missing 18-and-a-half minutes of Watergate tapes, Quebec style. Annie Trudel testified that Transport Quebec insiders were out to demolish her work and prevent her from being rehired. Obviously, what reigns at Transport Quebec is a culture of entitlement, greed and fear. The Liberals have managed it terribly.

Mishandling Uber, school boards

The Uber file is another example of amateur hour in Quebec City. 

Liberal Minister Jacques Daoust was steadfastly defending the vested interests of a small minority of petulant taxi drivers over what most Quebecers want. It took a dressing down from the Liberal youth wing for the government to at least entertain the thought of entering the 21st century.   

The Liberals showed the same indecision with school board governance. After dragging the boards through hell with Bill 86 the Liberals did an about-face and basically said, “Ah, forget about it.” That was a good thing, especially for the English minority, but again showed a lack of vision and focus.

Or, how about the rush to give a billion dollars of your money to Bombardier for the C series? Well to the Bombardier family, actually, because their ownership structure keeps the Beaudoin-Bombardier family in firm control. It’s little wonder Ottawa is taking a long hard look at doing the same thing.

So, summer can’t come soon enough for the Couillard Liberals. They have to be better in the fall because they can’t get much worse.  

The PQ

Now, over to the Parti Quebecois. We give them a shaky C.

Give them credit for making the Liberals backtrack on its odious hate bill, but the PQ is now more concerned with leadership and dreams of sugarplums and the next referendum. The youngsters in the race are tripping over each other, trying to position themselves for their winning conditions. It’s confusing.     

Only the doyen of the group, Jean Francois Lisee, has the common sense to say that a promise of referendum in a first mandate would doom the party.

I think every time the R word is used in Quebec, an undecided voter gets his federalist wings.

The CAQ

As for the CAQ, they’re the best of the bunch. They get a solid B+.

The Legault troops are making solid ground on education issues and the economy, and they have to take a big share of the credit for the government’s turnaround on Uber. Let’s hope they keep on track and become the real opposition to the Liberals as the PQ descends into irrelevance.

So, as the National Assembly rises until the fall, summer school is required for the Liberals to try to get back on track.

The PQ will no doubt spend a summer of referendum reflexation, navel gazing and searching for the next savior.

And the CAQ, if they keep working hard, could find themselves ready for prime time.