At each end-of-day gathering, it’s the same thing. The crowds that welcome Éric Duhaime are pumped up and shout his slogans at the top of their lungs. But with the approach of the vote, no one can know how this phenomenon will translate in the polls.
Is his vote overrated? Underestimated ? “The polls do not believe themselves,” quipped the Conservative leader Wednesday evening during a rally in a bar in the Lotbinière region.
The most important rallies have certainly taken place in Quebec and Lévis, but the enthusiasm for the Conservative discourse is palpable in the surrounding rural areas. On the road, there are countless trucks honking his horn, and polls credit him with more than 45% of voting intentions in Beauce-Nord.
But the Conservative leader is afraid that this will not be enough to get him elected in Chauveau, where a poll published on Friday places him in second position, behind the CAQ candidate. “I ask all younger Tories to talk to your parents, talk to your grandparents. Try to convince at least one, “he said Thursday morning during an interview with Radio X. His second in two days at the station. “It is a solemn call. I hope it will be heard. »
The progress of the party in recent months “will not have been worth much if [le chef] does not get elected [comme député] “, pointed out before the campaign Yan Plante, vice-president of the TACT agency.
But for the rest, Éric Duhaime has already won his campaign in more ways than one. His party went from 6% to 20% of the voting intentions, and by getting Claire Samson, he managed to establish himself as one of the five main players in the electoral campaign.
But above all, he succeeded in advancing his ideas.
“We had to normalize our ideas,” he remarked to host Jeff Fillion last Monday. “We have to talk about private health, [ce soit] socially acceptable and normal in a democratic society like Quebec. Talking about the exploitation of gas and then oil, it’s okay to do that on large plateaus. It’s not just on the radio in Quebec that we can talk about that. »