The political stars are just about perfectly aligned for Quebec Premier François Legault as he opens the latest chapter in the province’s controversial secularism debate.

The introduction on Thursday of the Coalition Avenir Québec’s most contentious piece of legislation to date comes at a time when the rookie government is riding high in voting intentions.

According to a Mainstreet poll published on Tuesday, the CAQ enjoys the backing of 45 per cent of Quebecers, up eight points from last fall. If an election were held this month, it would have the support of one in two francophone voters.

Legault is currently Canada’s most popular provincial premier. At 60 per cent on Angus Reid’s scale, his approval rating stands 22 points higher than that of Ontario Premier Doug Ford. The two were elected within a few months of each other.

Now, Legault is poised to put his considerable political capital behind a bill that will put his government on a collision course not only with the prime minister but also with those who are hoping to replace Justin Trudeau in the fall.

This is Quebec’s third kick at the secularism can over the course of as many successive governments.

The Parti Québécois’s charter would have imposed a secular dress code on all public sector employees — from child care and hospital workers to teachers and Crown prosecutors. The list of banned objects or vestments was exhaustive, ranging from hijabs and kirpans to crucifixes and kippas.

The legislation passed under Philippe Couillard’s Liberal government prescribed that all public services — municipal and provincial — be rendered and obtained with one’s face uncovered. Its focus was the face-covering Muslim veil.

Neither of those parties was in government long enough to see its legislation implemented.

By all indications, the CAQ’s bill is destined to a longer life.

It imposes a secular dress code on public officials in so-called positions of authority. The list includes police officers, prison guards, gamekeepers but also elementary and high school teachers as well as public school principals.

Its prescriptions would apply to all future hires but not to workers already employed in one of those categories.

It comes with an additional twist. To short-circuit foreseeable court challenges, Legault’s government is attaching a clause that overrides Charter rights. It is renewable every five years.

The notwithstanding clause of the Constitution has been used on multiple occasions in Quebec, but this would be the first time it is invoked to take away some existing rights.

Quebec’s latest secularism bid is expected to have an immediate impact on the federal pre-election debate. It will, at least for a time, cool the ardour of the federal leaders in their courtship of Legault’s government.

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer had planned to lay out his party’s CAQ-friendly agenda in a speech in Quebec City on Thursday.

But the last thing Scheer needs is to be talking up his party’s respect for Quebec nationalism against the backdrop of a provincial bid to suspend the religious freedoms of some of its citizens.

Given the timing, he may stick to boilerplate remarks and keep his major pre-election address to Quebecers for some other day.

The introduction of the secularism bill comes at a time when Quebec and Ottawa are engaged in intense negotiations over Legault’s bid for more control over the province’s immigration. The two governments had hoped to come to an agreement by the end of the month.

But that too was before it was known that the secularism bill was coming this week. It is hard to think of worse optics for the federal Liberals than to have them meet some of Legault’s immigration demands on the very week when his government is moving to curtail the religious rights of part of the province’s workforce

Trudeau’s stance on the issue is well-known. He has always maintained that religious freedom does not interfere with or diminish the secular character of Quebec’s public institutions. He is also not a fan of the notwithstanding clause.

But in contrast with the two previous legislative instalments of the long-lasting Quebec secularism debate, Trudeau cannot look to an inevitable court challenge or an upcoming provincial election to moot Legault’s bill.

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For the most part, the notwithstanding clause will shelter the legislation from the former, and the prime minister will be going to the polls long before his Quebec vis-à-vis has to face voters again.

When all is said and done, the only person with the means to stop the latest Quebec secularism train of measures in its tracks is Trudeau himself, through the use of rarely used constitutional powers vested in the federal government.

There is a reason why such powers have been allowed to fall into relative disuse. In federal-provincial terms, they amount to nuclear weapons.

Chantal Hébert is a columnist based in Ottawa covering politics. Follow her on Twitter: @ChantalHbert

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