Dominique Anglade will not even have had time to go for the proverbial walk in the snow. For the Quebec Liberal Party (PLQ) and for its leader herself, the sooner the better. Things could only get worse.
The expulsion of MP Marie-Claude Nichols from the Liberal caucus at the end of October was so incongruous that it appears in retrospect as an act of unconscious political suicide, as if Mme Anglade had wanted to spare himself an interminable ordeal. The “internal intrigues” that she modestly evoked were nothing more than a general challenge to her leadership.
His departure was spelled out in the results of the last elections. Since the resignation of Georges-Émile Lapalme in 1958, Jean Charest has been the only Liberal leader to have been given a second chance after an electoral defeat. In 1998, the PLQ won more votes than the Parti Québécois, enough to dissuade Lucien Bouchard from holding another referendum, while Ms.me Anglade led their team to the worst defeat in their history. This could not be forgiven him.
By announcing her resignation on Monday, she invited her party to remain faithful to its values. However, she herself has confused many with her repeated changes of course, and we would have easily forgiven her mistakes if the victory had been there, just as we had closed our eyes to certain very unliberal positions of Jean Charest. .
On the other hand, Claude Ryan, whose pamphlet on “liberal values” has become a veritable bible in the PLQ, was unceremoniously expelled after the 1981 defeat, despite his desperate efforts to cling to his post.
In reality, power is the first liberal value. From the moment it became clear that Mme Anglade would never be able to take him back, she had to leave. She should have understood that on election night.
Getting rid of her was the easiest. Finding him a successor capable of restoring the PLQ to the political force it has been since 1867 will be less of a challenge.
Everyone agrees that the party’s problems, first and foremost the disconnection with the French-speaking majority, predate the arrival of Mr.me Anglade and will not magically disappear with his departure.
In the past, the liberals had managed to maintain the difficult balance between individual and collective rights. Francophones felt that the Couillard government had broken it in favor of the former and they turned to the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ).
It will now be very difficult for the PLQ to restore this balance without alienating the non-French-speaking electorate, which saved it from being practically wiped off the map on October 3. Moreover, there is no guarantee that Francophones would be willing to trust him again. They will have to be convinced that this is not just a cosmetic shift, and that will take time.
The fight against independence had exempted the Liberals from real reflection on the means that would allow Quebec to protect its identity within a federation where its weight continues to diminish, while French is retreating on its own territory.
While the positions of the CAQ on identity issues appear to be a minimum in the eyes of a large number of Francophones, the PLQ sees it rather as a stubborn refusal of diversity. Reconciling these viewpoints is like squaring the circle.
With such a weakened authority, Dominique Anglade could not present himself to the National Assembly on November 29, thinking of offering credible opposition to François Legault. His departure nevertheless creates a void that the next interim leader of the QLP, whoever he is, will not be able to fill. By the time a new leader is chosen, the Liberals will effectively find themselves in limbo.
The treatment reserved for M.me Anglade is probably not likely to encourage candidates for his succession. Whoever replaces her can nevertheless hope to escape the fate that generally awaits the defeated in the PLQ, which will go so far in 2026 that expectations will be lower and progress less difficult.
Nothing is impossible in politics. Who knows, maybe the Liberals will find the rare pearl. The name of Sophie Brochu, CEO of Hydro-Québec, is on everyone’s lips. She has no political experience, but she certainly does not lack leadership. This very absence of a past that weighs so heavily on the PLQ can make it all the more attractive. Unfortunately, M.me Brochu seems to have no desire to embark on this mess.
In Quebec, no party since the National Union of Maurice Duplessis has succeeded in obtaining three majority mandates in a row. It is far from certain that François Legault will want to try to repeat this feat, and his eventual successor will have to deal with the wear and tear of long years of power. Placed in the same situation, the Johnson brothers and Bernard Landry bit the dust. They didn’t get a second chance either.