Even if he did not obtain any seat in the National Assembly, Éric Duhaime will try all the same to bring in his political party. The Conservative leader is hopeful of being able to seduce CAQ “stars” who would be “disappointed” not to be appointed to the Council of Ministers.
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“I did it and it worked with Claire Samson. I will try to find myself another Claire Samson, ”confessed the conservative leader, Tuesday, in an interview with The newspaperwhen asked if he intended to raid the imposing CAQ deputation.
For more than a year, Éric Duhaime has entered the National Assembly thanks to the passage of the former CAQ MP Claire Samson in the Conservative fold.
However, the situation is now very different, since his party failed to elect any candidate on Monday.
“There may be deputies (caquistes) who expect to receive a phone call, who already see themselves as ministers and who will be very disappointed in a few days, he anticipated. You always have to look for the dissatisfied. It’s not the satisfied who leave. »
According to him, “Mr. Legault presented a lot of stars. He’ll have to make room for them around the table. At the table, there won’t necessarily be more places. There are a few who are going to lose their limos”.
Formal request
Until then, Éric Duhaime is making a formal request to the CAQ and the three other opposition parties. According to him, the 530,000 votes (nearly 13% of the votes) of his party should allow him to access the Press Gallery, to have an office in the National Assembly and a research or communication budget. .
The Conservative leader says he is aware of the fact that the current rules do not allow him to form a parliamentary group since he is far from bringing together 12 deputies or 20% of the votes cast.
That said, he is calling for an “exception”, as has already been seen in the past, to take into account the fact that the Conservatives won 1/7th of the vote.
What would happen if the other parties decided not to grant him this exception? “If they choose to do that, there will be a political price to pay,” he warns. We will exercise our dissent by all possible peaceful means. We will demonstrate, we will speak out publicly, we will denounce and we will use all the forums at our disposal to put pressure. »
Don’t miss his interview with on the waves :
Third link and tramway
Asked about the third link, the Conservative leader admits that Monday’s sweep gives the caquists “the democratic legitimacy” to carry out their tunnel project between Quebec and Lévis. “Unless the studies tell us something else,” he nuances.
On the tram, Éric Duhaime declares “that we are not in a position to prevent” the megaproject.
That said, the Quebec tramway “is not legitimate insofar as the population is still against it. But they voted for the party that was for it. We are obliged to take note of it, ”he dropped.
No recount in Beauce … for now
For the moment, the Conservative Party of Quebec (PCQ) has not filed a formal request for the votes to be recounted in Beauce-Nord and Beauce-Sud.
In these two constituencies, the results of the Conservative candidates are very close to their CAQ rivals.
“Currently, there is a counting of the votes which takes place with the returning officer then the organizer of the local candidates. They are in the process of evaluating all the potential anomalies to see whether or not we will ask for a recount in both Beauce-Nord and Beauce-Sud, ”dropped party leader Éric Duhaime on Tuesday.
In Beauce-Nord, curator Olivier Dumais is 202 votes behind caquiste Luc Provençal.
In Beauce-Sud, Jonathan Poulin has 428 votes less than incumbent Samuel Poulin.
All ballot boxes have been counted.