The expulsion of MP Marie-Claude Nichols from the Liberal caucus has not finished making waves, causing disappointment and anger in the Liberal ranks. In the background, it is the leadership of the leader of the Quebec Liberal Party (PLQ), Dominique Anglade, who risks coming out weakened.
The MP for Vaudreuil was expelled from the Liberal caucus on Thursday after refusing to be the team’s spokesperson on transportation-related issues. She will therefore have to sit as an independent.
Mme Nichols refused interview requests, but she indicated in a press release her intention to remain an MP and to continue to adhere to the values of the PLQ. No question of her becoming a defector. “My values do not change, they remain liberal,” she said in her brief statement, without going back to the facts that changed her life in the short term.
The decision to exclude Mme Nichols of the caucus will leave his mark, according to some liberals who are puzzled and worried about the consequences for the leadership of the leader, while accepting for the first time to criticize her face openly.
Former Minister Lise Thériault, who sat in the Liberal caucus until recently, was still in shock on Friday.
With “the Nichols affair”, Dominique Anglade “created chaos” in the Liberal Party of Quebec (PLQ), she summarized, in a telephone interview, Friday afternoon.
Known for her outspokenness, Ms.me Thériault believes that this expulsion was the straw “too many” after the bitter defeat of October 3, believing that the leader had “crossed a line”, by her totally “unfair” show of force towards a deputy who did not deserve it.
A caucus “is not a dictatorship!” “, she commented, claiming for the deputies “the right to say no”, by refusing to occupy functions which do not correspond to their capacities or their ambitions. She adds that it has happened many times in the past that an MP refuses a position proposed by the leader, without suffering the ultimate disavowal.
It should be remembered that, for a deputy, the exclusion of the caucus is the equivalent of “the death penalty”, added in a telephone interview the former minister Gaétan Barrette, who also judges the sanction imposed on Mme Nichols “completely disproportionate” and unjustified. Mme Anglade should, according to him, reverse this bad decision, but he is convinced that she will not back down.
Marie-Claude Nichols Nichols was “the sacrificed sheep”, deplores Mme Thériault, despite an excellent record of service, and despite the fact that since 2014 she has been “a good soldier” for the party and the caucus, whereas today we take the liberty of sullying her reputation.
Thursday, to justify his exclusion, the president of the caucus, the deputy of Marquette, Enrico Ciccone, had said that Mme Nichols was not a “team player”, according to him, each elected member must do his part, by accepting the roles of spokespersons entrusted to them within the shadow cabinet of the official opposition.
Thursday and Friday, Mr. Ciccone declined any request for an interview, aimed at allowing him to explain his gesture. The leader of the party, M.me Anglade, also refused all interview requests, having made no comment on the subject.
But one thing is certain, according to Mr. Barrette and Mr.me Thériault, the decision does not come from the caucus, but from the leader herself. “There is no exclusion that can be done without the authorization of the chief”, slice the former Minister of Health.
A decision with serious consequences?
After twenty years of political life, Lise Thériault claims to have never seen a member excluded from a caucus for such a questionable reason, and in such a “clumsy” and “inelegant” way, when there was no hurry. . “Why have you rushed a decision” so heavy with consequences? she wonders.
The leadership of Dominique Anglade can only emerge weakened, according to Mme Theriault. It’s as if she were saying to the deputies: “if you don’t think like me”, it won’t work. We are witnessing the reign of “believe or die”, also concludes Gaétan Barrette.
“I no longer recognize my party”, concludes Mme Thériault, convinced, because of the many phone calls she receives, that her frustration is shared by many other former elected officials and activists, still active like her in the party.
The former MP for Bourassa-Sauvé from 2018 to 2022, Paule Robitaille, echoed her former colleagues, criticizing on Twitter the party’s choice to show the door to the MP for Vaudreuil: “This caucus has Can he really afford to deprive himself of a member who is as sincere, competent and committed? Purge time? “.
Former ally of M.me Anglade, the former Liberal minister Serge Simard came out publicly on Friday to withdraw his confidence in the chef, on the airwaves of TVA.
“Dominique Anglade’s job is to get organized so that it works with his deputies. She has a serious stake in how she judges her caucus,” said former Liberal MP Marie Montpetit, who was herself expelled from the Liberal caucus last November, at the following allegations of psychological harassment which were not the subject of formal complaints.
On October 3, Mr.me Nichols was elected for a third term in Vaudreuil. When composing the shadow cabinet, she had told her leader that she wanted him to be given the post of vice-president of the National Assembly, which is reserved for a member of the official opposition. Butme Anglade refused, preferring the member for Viau, Frantz Benjamin, who also coveted him.
“The Nichols affair” can only invite Liberal activists to ask questions about the leadership of the party, because all “it points to the leader”, says Mr. Barrette, former deputy for La Pinière. Members will have to ask themselves, for the good of the party, if they have “the right salesman”. He says he hopes that the vote of confidence in the leader will be as late as possible in 2023.
“The Liberal Party is definitely, politically, in peril”, not in terms of survival, but in terms of voting intentions, when we look at the disastrous results of October 3, according to him. “In the current situation, I don’t see how he can go up” and see his popularity rating increase. Despite everything, he remains convinced that the PLQ remains the only opposition political party with “the intrinsic capacity” to regain power in parliament.