The leader of the Conservative Party of Quebec, Éric Duhaime, opposes the decision to put the brakes on the planned redistribution of the electoral map. “The Liberal-Solidarity-Pequist Coalition has just decided to put democracy on hold again,” he complained on Thursday.
At a press conference a stone’s throw from parliament, the conservative leader accused the four political parties represented in the National Assembly of “fueling democratic distortion” by stopping the reshuffling of the electoral map planned until last week by the Electoral Representation Commission (CRE).
“It makes no sense, the way it was done,” thundered Mr. Duhaime on Thursday.
A week ago, the Minister responsible for Democratic Institutions, Jean-François Roberge, announced along with his colleagues from the Liberal Party of Quebec, Quebec Solidaire and the Parti Québécois that he was preparing to table a bill to postpone the next electoral redistribution to 2030. He will then present a second bill to review the criteria for delimiting Quebec constituencies.
The CRE, which is chaired by the Director General of Elections, Jean-François Blanchet, planned to review the electoral map in 2026 to remove constituencies in Gaspésie and Montreal, and add some in Centre-du-Québec and the Laurentians.
Upon learning of the minister’s intentions last week, the three commissioners sitting on the CRE said they were “concerned”. “A stoppage of work would compromise the fair and equitable representation of voters for the next elections,” they argued in a press release.
According to Éric Duhaime, the independence of Quebec’s democratic institutions is at stake. The possibility of adding constituencies — a possibility to which Minister Roberge opened the door — does not rejoice him any more. “We are $11 billion in the hole this year. The last thing to do is to send the signal that the political class wants to spend even more taxpayers’ money,” he said.
Further details will follow.