(Quebec) Éric Duhaime will undergo his first vote of confidence as leader of the Conservative Party of Quebec on Sunday during his political party’s congress. Although former candidates maintain their support for the leader, there is an attempt at the same time to lower expectations on the score he could obtain.
The former candidate in Beauce-Sud, Jonathan Poulin, affirms that there are internal criticisms of Mr. Duhaime’s leadership. “I feel there is discontent,” he told La Presse Canadienne during the congress in Lévis, on the south shore of Quebec.
According to him, the leader runs the party too much alone. Despite this, Mr. Poulin thinks that Éric Duhaime is still the man for the job, at least for the moment.
“Mr. Duhaime still has my support, but I hope that he will listen to the complaints that are made to him, because they are serious and if they do not listen to them, he will not be able to complain if members ask for his departure or does not give him their confidence,” he explains.
The former candidate in Beauce-Nord, Olivier Dumais, is more optimistic. “I think the vote of confidence will be good, very good,” he assures.
But what is a good score? Mr. Dumais hesitates before responding. “That’s a great question. […] I think that above 70%, 80%… above 80%, I think it will be very good,” he finally says.
In May, the leader of the Coalition Avenir Québec, François Legault, obtained a score of 98.6%. Two months earlier, the leader of the Parti Québécois (PQ), Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, had reached 98.5%.
On Saturday, the Conservative leader did not want to comment on what he would do if he obtained a very low score. “I’m going to let the members vote,” he said.
At a press conference in Quebec on Friday, Éric Duhaime said he did not expect a stratospheric result like that of the Prime Minister. Instead, he thinks he gets a “fair” score.
A conservative source estimates the leader’s score could be between 75 and 85 percent. In 2005, Bernard Landry slammed the door of the PQ, humiliated by a score of 76%.
The former Conservative MP, Claire Samson, estimates that Éric Duhaime could obtain around 85% support. “I think the party is moving in the right direction,” she maintains.