Once relegated to the margins of the system, Éric Duhaime’s party is carving out a place for itself in the political landscape. Meeting with candidates and activists to understand their motivations.
“I’m surprised: you’re not toothless! says a voter to a Conservative candidate and his campaign manager who came door-to-door in a well-to-do neighborhood of Longueuil.
Candidate Pierre-Marc Boyer, a 42-year-old lawyer, has a ready answer: “You are not the first to tell me that. But I looked at the photos of the 125 Conservative candidates and we all have teeth. »
We are in the riding of Taillon, a former PQ castle won by the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) in 2018. The duty spent part of the day with the Conservative candidate in this independence bastion, formerly represented by René Lévesque (1976 to 1985) and Pauline Marois (1989 to 2006).
In a quiet street backed by the Le Parcours du Cerf golf club, the welcome from citizens is polite. Sometimes indifferent. Rarely hostile. Voters are surprised, when they open their door, to meet a smiling Conservative candidate (with beautiful teeth), presentable, who expresses himself well, ready to discuss in a courteous tone. As if they were rather expecting to see an angry man show up, brandishing his fist and shouting against the “dictatorship”.
People seem curious to know more about this party united by the anger of opponents of health measures, which is making its way into the electoral campaign. The Conservative Party of Quebec (PCQ), once relegated to the margins of the system, is carving out a place for itself in the political landscape.
The candidate Pierre-Marc Boyer is more than satisfied with the progress of the campaign: he even seems relieved. Simply discussing the party platform with voters seems to free him of a burden. His political commitment gives meaning to his anger, transforms it into action.
“It’s not for nothing that many people went to demonstrate with the truckers in Ottawa: all other ways to be heard were blocked,” says the lawyer. He himself went to the demonstration in Ottawa last winter, even if he does not “endorse everything that was done” during these three weeks of occupation of the federal capital.
“It is true that anger was the locomotive that got our party started. But we channel discontent into a program that goes much further than sanitary measures, ”explains Pierre-Marc Boyer.
democracy first
Going door to door, the candidate for Éric Duhaime’s party recites the main lines of the Conservative platform: tax cuts, reduction in the size of the state, exploitation of Quebec oil, $200 bonds per week for childcare, openness to private health, but above all: freedom. “Less authoritarianism, more democracy”, including in health measures.
“It’s all very well what you say, but you attract a clientele that is not always frequentable”, underlines a voter, Caroline Delaney, by opening the door to the candidate Pierre-Marc Boyer.
She changes her mind: “Anyway, I got into this too… The absence of dissent during the pandemic scared me. It surprised me from Quebec. The vaccine passport, I couldn’t believe it: it was openly punitive. »
This translator supported Lionel Carmant of the CAQ in 2018, but she was disappointed by the Legault government. Not only because of the management of the pandemic. The green light given to the extension of a boulevard in the middle of the habitat of an endangered species, in Longueuil, scandalized her. “I’m not sure it would be any different with conservatives,” she said.
It is true that anger was the locomotive that got our party started. But we channel discontent into a program that goes much further than health measures.
The conversation turns to the Quebec model inherited from the Quiet Revolution. Pierre-Marc Boyer — a former activist of the CAQ and its ancestor, the Action Démocratique du Québec — denies seeking to liquidate the welfare state.
“We want to draw inspiration from what is good elsewhere. Take for example in health, all the other parties propose to continue to do what has not worked for forty years. We don’t want to eliminate universal coverage, we want to make it possible to take out private insurance to overcome waiting lists. Even in France and in the Scandinavian countries, they make room for the private sector,” he says.
The sad fate of the elderly
At the other end of the city of Longueuil, in the shadow of boulevard Taschereau, Evelyne Latreille is a Conservative candidate in the riding of Laporte. A patient attendant at the Pierre-Boucher hospital, figure skating trainer and psychology student, this 35-year-old woman is bursting with energy. She too got into politics in the wake of the pandemic.
“I worked in intensive care during the first two waves [de COVID-19]. I have seen people die alone because of the confinement. I was asked to hold the iPad for their family members to see. It’s unacceptable to treat seniors this way,” says Evelyne Latreille.
His figure skating club was also hit by confinement. Barely three skaters could be on the ice at the same time. Since then, the number of skaters has halved.
“However, we know how important sports activity is for physical and mental health. We will feel the effects of these confinements for the next three or four years, ”laments Mme Latreille.
From CAQ to PCQ
Claudine Rehel, a retired social worker, also decided to get involved rather than brood at home. She volunteers for the campaign of curator Evelyne Latreille. “I didn’t like the way seniors were treated for two years. I never want to go live in a residence under these conditions, ”she says.
This young retiree voted for the CAQ in 2018. But she did not like the way the Legault government handled the health crisis. “I’m not saying that we are in a dictatorship, but I think that democracy was broken down. It was decrees, decrees and decrees. »
Claudine Rehel takes a break. He is reminded of all the names that Conservative supporters are called. Conspirators. Toothless. Enraged. “I don’t let myself be affected by all this,” she says, smiling. I have all my teeth. His whole head, too. And rather good morale, noting the pace of the PCQ campaign.