(Ottawa) The political lieutenant in Quebec of the new Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, MP Pierre Paul-Hus, says he is convinced that the agreement reached between the Trudeau government and the NDP, supposed to ensure the survival of the minority Liberals in the Commons until June 2025, will not last.
Posted at 12:00 a.m.
According to him, the New Democratic Party (NDP) has been increasingly marginalized since it reached this agreement in March, while the Liberals of Justin Trudeau, guided by the thirst for power, will not hesitate to provoke elections if they believe it is to their advantage and the polls are in their favor at all.
Result: Pierre Paul-Hus will soon start looking for candidates likely to carry the Conservative Party banner in the next election, he said in an interview with The Press.
“We have to start preparing now. We can’t wait. The agreement between the NDP and the Liberals could fall at any time. We have no choice, ”said Mr. Paul-Hus, who was a member of the reserve force for 22 years and who was a lieutenant-colonel of a regiment from 2003 to 2007.
Under the agreement, the NDP undertakes to support the minority Liberal government in the House of Commons during votes of confidence, which relate in particular to budgets. In return, the Trudeau government has undertaken to implement certain measures dear to Jagmeet Singh’s party, in particular the creation of a national dental care program for less fortunate families.
PHOTO PATRICE LAROCHE, LE SOLEIL ARCHIVES
Pierre Poilievre and Pierre Paul-Hus at a rally in Lévis as part of the Conservative Party of Canada leadership race last May
In anticipation of the next campaign, the coffers of the Conservative Party are already well stocked after a leadership race which made it possible to recruit some 670,000 members – a record for a political party on the federal scene.
Economy, economy and economy
In addition to recruiting candidates, Mr. Paul-Hus plans to launch a campaign with cultural communities in the Montreal region in the coming months to convince them that the Conservative Party is the best option to replace the Liberal government.
He also wants to shatter the perception that he believes remains west of Trois-Rivières that the Conservative Party is a simple reincarnation of the Reform Party.
“Since the Conservative Party is very concentrated in the Quebec region, my job as a political lieutenant will be to reach out to the business world, cultural communities and other regions of Quebec. With my experience of the last few years, I realized that east of Trois-Rivières, voting Conservative is natural. But west of Trois-Rivières, people have the impression that it’s a party from the west of the country à la Reform Party,” explained Mr. Paul-Hus.
“In the region of Quebec, in Beauce or in Lac-Mégantic, we vote conservative, and it is natural, he points out. We have to get the message across that the Conservative Party of Canada is a right-wing party. »
We are responsible curators. We are a coalition of different types of conservatism. There are progressives, libertarians, social conservatives. But all together, our absolute priority — and this is particularly true in the case of Pierre Poilievre — is the economy, the economy and the economy.
Pierre Paul Hus
According to Mr. Paul-Hus, who will also advise Mr. Poilievre on national security and defense issues, when his leader said during the leadership race that he wanted to make Canada “the freest country in the world”, it especially encompasses “economic freedom”.
“Ensuring that young adults have the freedom to do what they want with their money, to live, to buy a house, for example, is what is missing at the moment. This economic freedom, it is accessible only to people who have money at the moment. It is not accessible to those who do not have a penny,” he said.
In the immediate future, the priority of Mr. Paul-Hus, who was first elected in 2015 when the Conservatives were relegated to the benches of the official opposition, will be to ensure the unity of the Quebec caucus. .
In an interview, Mr. Paul-Hus returned to the resignation of Alain Rayes. He wanted to thank his former colleague for the work he did when he was a political lieutenant.
“I thank Alain for what he did for the Conservative Party when he was a lieutenant. He did an excellent job. Today, he decided to take another path. I respect his decision. It was an event that was boring for everyone, both for him and for us,” he said.
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- 9
- Total number of Conservative MPs in Quebec following Alain Rayes’ decision to walk out of the party this week
Source: HOUSE OF COMMONS