(Lévis) Target of internal criticism, the leader of the Conservative Party of Quebec, Éric Duhaime, promised his activists to “do much better in the future”. He had to settle for the support of 77.48% of them following a vote of confidence at his party’s congress on Sunday.
Mr. Duhaime had lowered expectations in recent days, predicting a “correct” result, nothing more. He said he did not expect the massive support received by the CAQ François Legault (98.6%) and the PQ Paul St-Pierre Plamondon (98.5%) earlier this year. Those around him expected a score between 75% and 85%.
“You have raised healthy criticisms of the party’s organization and, as leader, I am committed to doing much better in the future,” said the Conservative leader in his closing speech at the convention in Lévis. He received polite applause.
PHOTO JACQUES BOISSINOT, THE CANADIAN PRESS
The leader of the Conservative Party of Quebec, Éric Duhaime, Sunday
At a press conference, Éric Duhaime maintained that it is “normal” that almost a quarter of the members have withdrawn their confidence in him, because “we are coming out of an election which was disappointing for many people”. The conservatives are “rebels”, and “we are not the party of the docile and obedient, we leave that to Mr. Legault”, he added.
A year ago, the Conservative Party received 12.9% of the votes, but did not elect any MPs. Members blamed the leader and his campaign strategy.
On Saturday, before the start of the vote of confidence, Éric Duhaime reminded his activists that the party had collected only 1.5% in 2018 and that it had experienced strong growth since his arrival in 2021.
Éric Duhaime mobilized opponents of health measures behind him at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic by denouncing the government’s “authoritarian drift” and “liberticidal”. This is a subject that was once again at the center of several of the proposals adopted at the congress. The party grew from 500 to 60,000 members last year, but it has lost 40,000 since then, according to former candidates.
To “do much better”, Éric Duhaime intends to decentralize the management of the party. This is no coincidence: criticism has been heard about its influence on training.
Elected on Sunday, the new president of the party, the former candidate Chantal Dauphinais, also campaigned by pleading that the Conservative Party should not be the party of one man. During the congress, the leader suggested removing the words “Équipe Éric Duhaime” from the official name of the party, a proposal which was adopted on Saturday.
PHOTO JACQUES BOISSINOT, THE CANADIAN PRESS
Chantal Dauphinais and Éric Duhaime, Sunday
Éric Duhaime says he is taking a “great risk” by agreeing to give a stronger voice to activists and to form new regional committees – one of the changes made to the party structure on Sunday.
“It is certain that the counterbalance of decentralizing and having a very active activist base creates clashes of ideas, frictions that are perhaps a little more significant. But I’m ready to live with that,” he replied.
In his speech to the activists, he took care to launch a call for unity. “We have to get out of here 100% with each other because our real opponents are not in the room, they are with the CAQ. And we will continue to fight shoulder to shoulder, regardless of what happened during the weekend,” he said.