New Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre reached out Monday to his party’s Quebec MPs and senators, the vast majority of whom backed his opponent Jean Charest humiliated by a landslide defeat in the leadership race that ended this late week.
Before meeting his national caucus, he offered a surprise visit to his Quebec caucus in the morning.
“You might call it an olive branch, but [c’était] especially to demonstrate that the Quebec caucus is important to him, ”explained MP Pierre Paul-Hus in a press scrum.
The elected official, who is the only one among his colleagues from Quebec to have supported Mr. Poilievre in the race, affirmed that everyone had been “really impressed” to note that “Pierre Poilievre’s first gesture on this first day [a été] to meet with the Quebec caucus and have a discussion with everyone one by one”.
The president of this caucus, Bernard Généreux, indicated that the meeting lasted nearly three quarters of an hour. “He listened to us. He did the trick. He came to hear everyone”, he said, assuring that the morale of the troops was “very good”.
Alain Rayes, who was campaign chairman in Quebec for Mr. Charest, was absent from the Quebec caucus meeting as well as that of the national caucus, said Mr. Généreux.
“Alain needed a rest. I think he worked very, very hard and he needed to take a step back,” he said.
Mr. Poilievre, who did not explain to the media the reasons for his surprise visit, however declared in a speech before his national caucus to be “very grateful” for the contributions of all members of the national caucus “no matter which candidate you pressed during the leadership race or if you remained neutral”.
“We are all part of the big conservative family,” he summed up.
Quebec MP Dominique Vien, who was campaign co-chair for Mr. Charest and minister under his former Quebec government, said she was “pleased” with Mr. Poilievre’s visit.
“We’re going to give the runner a chance. We will let time do its work and the next meeting is an electoral meeting, ”she argued. Asked to clarify whether she would be a candidate in the next elections, she replied that she never revealed her intentions in advance of running for a vote or not.
Poilievre challenges Trudeau
Before the national caucus, Mr. Poilievre took advantage of his first speech after his election to issue “a challenge” to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
“If you understand the suffering of Canadians who can’t afford gas, who can’t buy a home, who pay more on their mortgage because of interest rate increases […]make a commitment today: no tax increases, no tax increases, let’s reduce the cost of living for Canadians,” he said.
The new leader, for his part, said he was ready to work with other political parties to advance the interests of Canadians, after calling the alliance between the Liberal government and the New Democratic Party a “radical ‘woke’ coalition”. “.
The longtime MP signaled in the same breath that the Conservatives would make “no compromise” under his watch on taxes.
“We will fight tooth and nail to prevent the coalition from initiating [toute augmentation] “, he added.
Mr. Poilievre told his colleagues that Canadians are “suffering” and that “it is our job to turn this pain into hope”. He added that it was “his mission”.
The leader was once again warmly applauded after saying he wanted to make Canada a country “where the government is the servant and the citizens are the masters”.
At the end of his party’s leadership race, the MP for Carleton won almost all of the country’s 338 ridings and approached the 70% mark of member support.
Mr Poilievre has already begun transitioning into his new role as leader, having just over a week to do so before the House of Commons resumes on September 20.
He enjoyed the support of 62 of the party’s 118 other MPs during the leadership race.
He will have to decide which of them will play a spokesperson role and reach out to those who did not support him, including most of the 10 Quebec Conservative MPs who supported former Quebec Premier Jean Charest.