Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre rises during Question Period on Sept. 25, in Ottawa.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press

Quebec Premier François Legault denied he was endorsing the federal Conservative Party when he last month called on the Bloc Québécois to vote for a Tory confidence motion to bring down Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government.

No one in the Quebec media seemed to believe him.

After all, Mr. Legault had tried to put his thumb on the scales during the 2021 federal election campaign by rejecting the Liberals and New Democrats as “too centralizing,” and all but explicitly backing Erin O’Toole’s Conservatives. The paternalistically inclined Premier seemed last week to be once again telling Quebeckers how to vote at the federal level – just like his idol Maurice Duplessis did in the 1950s.

Despite being at the height of his popularity in 2021, Mr. Legault could not persuade Quebec voters to get behind the Tories. And with his personal poll numbers now tanking, his powers of political persuasion have likely only grown weaker.

This may go some way toward explaining why current Tory Leader Pierre Poilievre has so far proved only marginally more successful than Mr. O’Toole at winning over........

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