(Québec) Christian Dubé confirmed on Friday that he will be a candidate in the next election, on October 3. The Minister of Health, a heavyweight in the Legault government, has been raising suspense for several weeks. He informed the Prime Minister of his decision on Monday.
Posted at 7:47 a.m.
Updated at 9:53 a.m.
Minister Christian Dubé first confirmed the news at the microphone of Louis Lacroix, at 98.5 FM, then in several media as he commented on Friday on Coroner Géhane Kamel’s inquest report on the first wave of the pandemic. in CHSLDs and certain residences for the elderly (RPA).
“I took the time to think it through because I thought it was an important decision with personal consequences for my family and also with my colleagues, but after careful consideration, I decided that it was the decision to make. I feel very good this morning,” said Minister Dubé in an interview with The Press.
Christian Dubé informed the Prime Minister, François Legault, Monday during the day that he was once again a candidate in La Prairie in the October 3 elections. “I wanted to be sure that we understood the height of the mountain, of the commitment that I had to make,” he said. He communicated the news to his teams on Thursday evening.
Whether he sees himself as Minister of Health in a second term, he recalls that it will “always be the decision of the Prime Minister” and that he must above all be re-elected in his constituency. “We don’t know how things will go, but I told Mr. Legault that I was running in La Prairie as a candidate. […] The Prime Minister will have to make his choices based on the support we will have,” he said.
It is not because Parliament stops on June 11 that we are going to stop. Me, until October 3, I will continue to advance health issues and we will see after the elections.
Christian Dubé, Minister of Health and Social Services
The heavyweight of the Legault government has left the suspense hanging over his return to politics for several weeks. Minister Dubé made no secret that the fifth wave, the Omicron tsunami, was particularly difficult on a personal level. He mentioned it during a long interview with The Pressin March.
At the time, he said he wanted to measure the adhesion of the population and the health network to his plan of refoundation – the Health Plan – before confirming his return to Quebec politics. Until recently, his entourage indicated that he was continuing his reflection.
“What I wanted was for all Quebecers to understand where we are at [dans le réseau]. For the change to work, people have to be aware of what we have to do, and I think that Quebeckers have fully understood this since the presentation of the [Plan santé], the vision and the state of the network too,” he continued. On Monday, Mr. Dubé also unveiled a dashboard on the state of health of the network.
During the unveiling of his interactive dashboard, on which there are several red lights, Christian Dubé stated in an interview with The Press that “Quebecers are ripe for being told the real things”. This new dashboard should in particular make it possible to “measure” the recovery promised by the Legault government, after a first term marked by the pandemic.
François Legault entrusted the helm of the Ministry of Health and Social Services to Christian Dubé, who was then President of the Treasury Board, in the midst of a pandemic, at the end of the first wave which was particularly deadly in CHSLDs. The prime minister then knocked out minister Danielle McCann and her deputy minister, Yvan Gendron.
Christian Dubé is one of the most popular ministers in the Legault government. A recent Léger poll published in the Quebecor media revealed that 61% of Quebecers have a good opinion of the minister, compared to 20% who have a bad one. Mr. Dubé notably distinguished himself in the implementation of the massive vaccination campaign against COVID-19.