As Quebec election looms, Legault steps away from pandemic spotlight

After nearly two years as the public face of the province's COVID-19 response, François Legault has pulled a U-turn.

Since Feb. 1, the Quebec government has held a total of 15 news conferences about COVID-19. The premier has attended only two of them.

His last appearance at a standard COVID-19 news briefing was on Feb. 8, nearly three months ago. That's when he told Quebecers it was time to learn to live with the virus.

"The population is fed up. I'm fed up. We're all fed up," the premier said that day. "Right now, we can take a calculated risk and finally turn the page."

Since then, not only has he turned the page on strict public health restrictions, he's also relinquished the province's pandemic spotlight, after months of having it pretty much to himself. 

Experts CBC News spoke to agree on one of the major reasons why. 

"We have elections coming in Quebec in early October," said Prof. Daniel Béland, a political scientist and director of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada.

"They don't want this coming election in Quebec to be about the pandemic."

WATCH | Legault has plenty to gain from staying away from COVID-19 topic, says Daniel Béland:

Now you're more likely to find the premier discussing wind and renewable-energy projects and Quebec City's future tramway than the pandemic.

But the virus hasn't disappeared. At least 3,000 Quebecers have died from COVID-19 so far, this year alone.

There are nearly 2,300 people in Quebec hospitals with the virus, and the daily case count clocks in at about 2,000, although the actual number is likely much higher: since so few people have access to PCR tests now, the province's ability to track the spread isn't nearly what it once was. 

So even though COVID-19 is still very much present, two years into the pandemic, the once-daily briefings have a different feel now.

It is an unelected official, Dr. Luc Boileau, the interim public health director, who meets reporters, either alone or flanked by other unelected health experts.