MP Marie-Claude Nichols refused Tuesday to rejoin the Liberal caucus, after being excluded last Thursday. The elected representative of Vaudreuil justifies her decision by her lack of confidence in the leader of the official opposition Dominique Anglade.
“I neither want to be at the center of this distraction nor to be the lifeline of a leadership that gets lost in unexplained, thoughtless and hasty decisions,” said Ms. Nichols in a letter sent to the caucus of the Liberal Party of Quebec. (PLQ). It was first relayed on the social network Twitter by Jonathan Trudeau, host on the airwaves of FM93.
After her ejection from the party, Marie-Claude Nichols said that her confidence in Dominique Anglade was “heavily shaken”. “It will be impossible for me to sit in a caucus led by a leader in whom I do not fully trust,” wrote the politician elected for a third term on October 3. She will therefore sit as an independent MNA.
On Monday, Ms. Anglade had done an about-face, saying that the caucus door remained “open” for Ms. Nichols. “I did realize at some point that things had probably been done in a rush,” Ms. Anglade told the To have to, after meeting with the MP earlier in the day.
On October 27, Ms. Nichols was expelled from the Liberal ranks after refusing transport-related files in Ms. Anglade’s new shadow cabinet. She coveted the third vice-presidency – a position reserved for the official opposition – but the leader instead gave her support to Frantz Benjamin, re-elected in Viau.
On the day of the ejection of the MP for Vaudreuil, caucus chairman Enrico Ciccone said that a member of the Liberal team must agree to participate in parliamentary work, “and not demand a particular position”. “This way of thinking is not part of our values,” he said.
Further details will follow.