(Quebec) The leaders of the Liberal Party of Quebec (PLQ) have made a stormy autopsy of the electoral campaign at a time when voices are added to challenge or question the leadership of Dominique Anglade.
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
The meeting of the executive council of the PLQ on Friday evening was the occasion of a general release for the participants. For four hours, party leaders “expressed the frustrations felt during the campaign”, confides one of the participants.
Chef Dominique Anglade, who was ending a trying week after the expulsion of MP Marie-Claude Nichols, “was in listening mode”, it is said.
From the outset, and without much surprise, the chief organizer Jean-François Helms announced his departure to the ten people around the table, gathered at the QLP office on Queen Street, in Montreal. In particular, the representative of the caucus on this select committee, the deputy Filomena Rotiroti, as well as the chief of staff of Ms.me Anglade, Valerie Rodrigue.
Jean-François Helms was at the origin of the short-lived nationalist turn of the PLQ. Avid of polls, he had observed that the population was rather in agreement with the position of the Legault government on the subject of law 21 on the secularism of the State. Same reading with respect to Bill 96 on the defense of French. This explains why the Liberals were able to support the initiative for a while, going for controversial amendments. But the party leadership backed down in the face of the outcry among militants in the west of Montreal. Net result, the Liberals who were rather in favor of Bill 96 were struck by this about-face and those who should have been satisfied with the change of course questioned the good faith of their party’s strategists, we explain. .
Another source of irritation is the low number of nomination races in the ridings, which normally provide opportunities to increase party membership.
Nine nominations were “open,” but there was only a real race in three ridings, where representatives of visible minorities were vying for the position of Liberal candidate. Someone argued that with less than 15% voter support in many ridings, there was little appetite for these Liberal nomination races.
Critics have also been harsh on the leader’s campaign tour. It is difficult to explain the first days spent in the Quebec region, where hopes were very slim and where there were still no candidates in the running in certain ridings. This added to painstaking announcements, modest rallies and controversies around candidates.
We heard the same message from the Liberals during the campaign: you never get a second chance to make a good first impression. The hill was becoming difficult to climb.
Dominique Anglade and his entourage did not make it easy for Rafael Primo-Ferraro to become party president. The Montreal lawyer was a known supporter of Pierre Moreau during the 2013 leadership campaign; this one had had as minister important frictions with his colleague Anglade. The party had received no fewer than 20 applications for this position, including a few defeated candidates in Sherbrooke and Laval, as well as an organizer from MP Marwah Rizqy. The Primo-Ferraro candidate had to be approved by a select committee of the Liberal executive, a test that had not been imposed on his predecessor Linda Caron, who had become president when Pierre Arcand was acting leader. Mme Caron was elected MP for La Pinière on October 3.
“She no longer has my confidence”
Meanwhile, the crisis caused by the expulsion of Mme Nichols does not calm down. Under cover of anonymity, many former deputies criticize the decision of the leader and no longer have confidence in her. Others speak openly, as did Paule Robitaille and Lise Thériault.
For former deputy Richard Merlini, the time has come for Dominique Anglade to find “an honorable way out”. “It may be very embarrassing for her” to undergo a vote of confidence at the party congress which must take place within a year. “She no longer has my confidence”, affirms Mr. Merlini, a support of Mme Anglade during the failed leadership race.
Despite the electoral defeat, the former elected official in Chambly was still ready to “give the runner a chance”. The start of the campaign was painful, but “Dominique Anglade recovered” after the Radio-Canada debate, according to him. “And with 21 deputies, I thought that the furniture is saved and that Dominique Anglade could exert a new leadership. »
“But we couldn’t afford to expel an experienced MP with very little valid reasons! he added. It’s not like [Marie-Claude Nichols] had done wrong! It could have been settled otherwise. »
A real chef or a real chef would have found a compromise solution.
Richard Merlini, former Liberal MP, on the expulsion of Marie-Claude Nichols from caucus
By the fault of Dominique Anglade, who is immured in silence, “there is a crisis which is found in the public square, whereas it is not in the habit of the party to do things like that. We keep it in-house normally”.
This story is thus “very harmful” to the party, in his eyes. ” I’m sorry, but it’s over. Mme Anglade must assume its responsibilities,” said Richard Merlini.
Former Minister Jean D’Amour never thought he would “see an episode like that in the Liberal Party”. “It’s really sad to see such a big party put on a show like that,” said the former president of the PLQ (2008-2009). It is hard to understand why an experienced member of parliament is expelled so quickly. A member who won her riding of Vaudreuil, in Montérégie, “against all odds”, when it was threatened by the Coalition avenir Québec.
“There are a lot of people who are beginning to ask questions” about Dominique Anglade’s leadership, adds Mr. D’Amour, who participated in a Dominique Anglade campaign activity in Montmagny. Does he still maintain his confidence in the chef? “We’ll see what she has to say. The next week will be important. »