The Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) and the Liberal Party of Quebec (PLQ) won the prize for recruiting elected municipal officials this year in view of the election. It remains to be seen whether the strong presence of local politicians in the campaign will translate into real influence in Parliament.
This year, the CAQ is presenting a total of 18 candidates who have already served on a municipal council. François Legault’s party is also the one that has recruited the most mayors currently in office, including the well-known Suzanne Roy (ex-mayor of Sainte-Julie), Yves Montigny (Baie-Comeau) and Jonathan Lapierre (Îles-de-la -Madeleine).
On the other hand, half of the CAQ candidates with a municipal profile were already deputies in the last mandate, such as Mario Laframboise (outgoing deputy for Blainville) or Chantal Rouleau (Pointe-aux-Trembles).
With 15 “municipal” candidates, including 14 newcomers, the Liberal Party of Quebec (PLQ) has filled its ranks with former mayors and councillors, including Jean-Maurice Matte (Senneterre) and Vicki May-Hamm ( Magog).
The Conservative Party of Quebec (PCQ) is following the march, with 8 candidates, including the former mayor of La Tuque, Pierre-David Tremblay and the current mayor of Saint-Lambert-de-Lauzon, Olivier Dumais.
Far behind, the Parti québécois and Québec solidaire recruited 3 and 4 of them, including the mayor of Saint-Camille, Philippe Pagé (Québec solidaire) and the mayor of Sainte-Marie-Salomé, Véronique Venne (Parti québécois).
More or less influential?
The phenomenon is not new. But as reported The Journal of Quebec recently, the presence of municipal candidates has been on the rise since the last election. Should we conclude that the municipal world is gaining in influence? Conversely, isn’t a dynamic local elected official likely to have more influence than a backbencher?
This is certainly a concern, agrees Véronique Venne, who is seeking to take over the seat of PQ member Véronique Hivon in Joliette. “I thought about it a lot before embarking on this adventure,” she says. Elected for the first time in 2013, the young politician made her mark in Sainte-Marie-Salomé through her strong presence in the community life of the village. She sees in the career of Véronique Hivon the proof of the great influence that a single elected official can have. “I see it as a duty to serve,” she also mentions.
Liberal MP for Viau during the last mandate, Frantz Benjamin had been a municipal councilor for nine years in Montreal North before entering the National Assembly.
“We are elsewhere. At the municipal level, the fallout [de nos actions] on citizens, are almost instantaneous, whether cleaning an alley or clearing snow from the sidewalk. But when we are on the Quebec scene, we are a little further, and the benefits are slow to arrive. »
At the same time, he was able, as a deputy, to influence things over which he had no control at the municipal level because they were the responsibility of the Quebec government, he points out.
From the outset, opposition deputies often have more responsibilities than those of the government, underlines Mr. Benjamin, who played the role of spokesperson for the metropolis.
A point of view shared by Philippe Pagé, candidate of Quebec solidaire in Richmond. “We don’t have any backbenchers in Québec solidaire,” he says. In his eyes, the presence of former mayors or councilors is, more than ever, crucial. “What we do in the municipalities is land use planning, and I find that at the moment, Quebec is pretty bare in terms of vision on that. We no longer have a national policy on rurality…”
In the last government of the Coalition avenir Québec, two former elected municipal officials joined the Council of Ministers: Chantal Rouleau (former mayor of Pointe-aux-Trembles) and Jonatan Julien (elected to the City of Quebec). Éric Lefebvre and Mario Laframboise also inherited important responsibilities as Chief Whip and Caucus Chair.
According to Mario Laframboise, even without being ministers, government members can exert influence in caucus. “What is important is the competence and understanding of a file,” he says. The colleague who has skills in a file has an interest. From the outset, he said, the Prime Minister regularly consults the caucus to shed “light” on certain files. If a member knows about it, “the others tend to listen”, and “the whole cause is moving forward”.
The UMQ as a springboard
The member for Blainville worked literally at all political levels. First mayor of Notre-Dame-de-la-Paix in Outaouais, he was then federal deputy for the Bloc Québécois before being elected under the banner of the CAQ.
Mr. Laframboise was also president of the Union des municipalités du Québec (UMQ), the lobby that defends the interests of municipalities in Quebec, particularly large cities. During the legislature, the UMQ is a regular interlocutor of the government and takes position in practically all the parliamentary commissions.
In recent years, many of its presidents have made the leap into Quebec or federal politics. Éric Forest (president from 2010 to 2014) became a senator, Alexandre Cusson (2017-2019) took part in the PLQ leadership race and, more recently, Suzanne Roy (2014-2016) ran for the CAQ in Vercheres.
A finding that also applies to the Quebec Federation of Municipalities, the other major municipal lobby in Quebec, which is more associated with rural areas. Its penultimate president, Richard Lehoux (2014-2018), has been a federal deputy for the Conservative Party for four years and its current vice-president, Jonathan Lapierre, is also a candidate for the CAQ this year.
In recent years, we have also seen an increase in leaps in the other direction, deputies or ministers defeated or retired turning to the municipal. This was the case, for example, of the former Liberal Minister for the Family Luc Fortin, defeated candidate for mayor of Sherbrooke in the last election.
On the Centre-du-Québec side, former ADQ and Liberal MP Pierre-Michel Auger considered running for mayor of Bécancour, before retiring in the summer of 2021. Former PQ minister Louise Harel also tried to run for mayor of Montreal in 2009 after retiring from parliament.
Some even dared — and succeeded — to jump from one order to another twice. This is the case of Gilles Lehouillier, who was first a municipal councilor in Lévis and succeeded in being elected as an MP after his failure in the race for mayor of 2005. Defeated after a term as a Liberal MP (2008- 2012), he finally managed to become mayor in 2013 and is in his third term.
But as great as it may seem, this proximity is in no way comparable to what Quebec has already experienced. Thus, for a long time, it was possible to be both mayor and deputy, or even both mayor and prime minister. They were called “deputies-mayors”.
This was the case of Camillien Houde (mayor of Montreal and prime minister during the years 1920-1930) as well as the mayor of Quebec Simon Napoleon Parent, who combined the two functions at the turn of the 19e century. This practice has been illegal since the 1970s.