For once, anglophones are actually over-represented at one level of the Quebec government -and the highest level at that.
With the promotion last week of Geoffrey Kelley, all four English-speaking members of the National Assembly now are part of the cabinet, three as ministers and the fourth as chair of the government caucus.
So while people who most often speak English at home made up 11 per cent of the Quebec population at the last census, anglophones now occupy 14 per cent of the seats at the cabinet table.
While Premier Jean Charest isn't exactly bragging about it to francophones, his cabinet now has the strongest English-speaking representation of any Quebec cabinet in at least 20 years -at least in mathematical terms.
But, as Jacques Parizeau says, the proof of the pudding is in the eating.
The real test of anglophones' political clout is not the number of them sitting at the cabinet table, but the influence they have on what the government does.
The three anglophones already at the table last spring weren't enough to stop the government from proposing Bill 103.
That's the legislation that closed a loophole in the restrictions on admission to English schools.
In addition, Bill 103 would amend the Quebec Charter of Human Rights in a way that could weaken legal protection against linguistic discrimination in both the private and public sectors.
It would introduce into the preamble of the charter a reference to French as the official language of Quebec and "a fundamental aspect of its cultural patrimony and social cohesion."
And it would introduce a clause directing courts and tribunals interpreting the charter to "take into account both the fact that French is the official language of Quebec and the importance of ensuring its perpetuity."
Unlike the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Quebec charter applies to the private sector as well as the public one.
No one had been calling for the proposed amendments to the charter, but the government added them to Bill 103 as a concession to nationalists who said the legislation didn't go far enough in restricting admission to English schools.
The school provisions of Bill 103 were passed by the Liberal majority last October as a separate bill. But Bill 103 itself, including the proposed amendments to the charter, is still before the Assembly. And both the bill's sponsor, Culture Minister Christine St-Pierre, and the premier himself said after the school provisions were passed that the government still intends to pass the rest of Bill 103.
(St-Pierre also said in a television interview after the school provisions were passed that anglophone objections
to them had "no influence" on them.)
Last week, Charest confirmed that the current session of the Assembly, which resumes today after the winter recess, will be prorogued before the end of this month so he can deliver an opening speech outlining a new government program at the start of a new session.
Prorogation would kill any proposed legislation now before the Assembly, unless the government passes a motion carrying it over to the new session at the same stage of consideration.
Whether it includes Bill 103 in such a motion will be a test for the anglophone ministers -which they will probably fail, since the government can't allow the bill to die on the order paper at prorogation without being accused of retreating from the defence of French.
A more important test for them, however, will be whether the bill is then passed into legislation, or simply allowed to languish on the order paper until it is forgotten.
dmacpherson@montrealgazette.com