May 3, 2022
Since the last provincial elections, the Conservative Party of Quebec (PCQ) has succeeded in attracting a new cohort of donors to fill its coffers. The duty analyzed all of the contributions paid to Québec political entities over the past eight years. Among those who donated to the PCQ, 94% are new donors, i.e. citizens who made their very first donation since 2019.
With 7,438 donations collected since the beginning of the year, the PCQ has already collected 21 times more donations than in 2018. How did this party, whose formation was marginal in the last election, manage to woo this crowd of newcomers?
The election of Éric Duhaime as party leader, the notoriety he enjoys and his opposition to health measures in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic were certainly factors that contributed to the rise of the party, according to the experts consulted by The duty.
“What the PCQ lacked was to have a known figure, to have a leader with a certain charisma who is capable of seeking interest. Previously, leaders [du PCQ] were little known, whereas having a public figure is most certainly an asset,” said uOttawa political science professor Geneviève Tellier.
The political scientist adds that the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic should not be overlooked since the crisis has prompted several citizens to express their dissatisfaction. Éric Duhaime – elected leader in April 2021 – and his party then became a “mechanism” to do so.
The year 2021 was also marked by a substantial jump in the number of donations for the PCQ, with 7,162 contributions collected. This is more than 5 times more than the year before, and even 80 times more than two years before, in 2019.
The phenomenon is also observable among the other “right-wing” parties, underlines Professor Frédéric Boily. “They often succeed in mobilizing voters who believe that the political offer is insufficient, that [les autres partis] don’t say the real things, that they don’t fight the real battles. Consequently, political parties that are a little more on the margins of the traditional right sometimes manage to awaken and channel this feeling. »
Even if, with regard to the number of accumulated donations, the lead of the PCQ may decrease over the next few months, the hasty search for financing could well prove to be an asset for the party. “It’s still a good strategy because it puts them on the map. It shows that there is a certain seriousness, which is often the big problem with political formations, ”says Frédéric Boily.
It is clear that the party has indeed been “put on the map” since the arrival of Éric Duhaime. Last year, its membership grew from 500 to 37,000, according to a statement from the leader in October 2021. It is now believed to have 57,346 members as of April 17, 2022, again according to party figures.
The formation of Éric Duhaime today brings together more members than all the other parties – the CAQ had “around 50,000 members” at the start of 2022, and the PQ 42,665 as of March 9. The Liberal Party of Quebec (PLQ), which had reached a historic low of some 20,000 members at the start of 2020, did not want to confirm its most recent figures to the To have to.
52.25$
This is the average value of donations made to the Conservative Party of Quebec in 2022.
But the main asset for a party like the PCQ is to have its support concentrated in certain regions, according to the professor from the University of Alberta.
Having a large militant base in the Quebec region – where Éric Duhaime has also made himself known to the general public on the radio – could therefore be to the advantage of his party, believes Mr. Boily, who makes the comparison with the People’s Party of Maxime Bernier, at the federal level.
“That was precisely his big problem: [ses appuis] were too scattered throughout the country. It is better, in a first phase, to be concentrated in certain places to be able to draw electoral gains. »
Electoral gains, that will be the challenge for the party. Because if he succeeded in mobilizing new donors and recruiting thousands of new members, these new supporters still have to go to the polling station in October. Will they? The question arises, according to Geneviève Tellier of the University of Ottawa.
“These are people who are againstestablishment, against the current rules, they are therefore not inclined to participate in this system and to take the time to go and vote, since they denounce the institutions and the results of the elections”, she argues. However, it remains possible that the new leader will be able to seek out “cynical and dissatisfied” people and get them to vote, she adds.
Moreover, it is not just voters who oppose health measures who risk supporting the party: “[Éric Duhaime]began to change his speech. At first, it was very anti-sanitary measures, but lately, he’s been talking more about health issues, opening it up to the private sector… It’s more an attack on the state in general, it risks attracting people in the longer term,” observes Ms. Tellier.
For Frédéric Boily, the PCQ will now have to find good candidates to keep its “seriousness”. “It’s really a fundamental step, because if we manage to attract strong enough candidates, even if we don’t necessarily grant them victory, that will give the party even more strength, as it is in the process of s impose as possibly the true official opposition,” he concludes.