The leader of the Liberal Party of Quebec, Dominique Anglade, wants to precede a progressive turn that goes “beyond labels”: she even said she was ready on Tuesday to welcome former candidates from Quebec solidaire and the Parti Quebecois to the within his training.
“For me, what is important in our training is: beyond the labels, do people want to experience what we offer with us?, launched Ms. Anglade at the opening of his party’s caucus. Do they want to share this progressivism with us, this strong voice that we need to carry in Quebec? And if they are motivated by that and challenged by that, absolutely they can come and join us. Absolutely,” she continued.
She was answering questions about the reception she might reserve for supporters or former solidarity or PQ candidates. “The Liberal Party, she also argued, is a big tent. We are open. »
In his opinion, “all those” who believe in the importance of social and environmental issues, in addition to being concerned about mental health issues and access to front-line health services “have their place within our political formation.
“We will welcome them with open arms,” said the Liberal leader.
A platform to “unite progressives”
On Monday, the PLQ set up a candidate recruitment platform for the October 2022 election. Under the title “It’s time to unite all progressives”, the website offers Quebecers the opportunity to submit their own candidacy or that of another person.
The procedure is new to the party, confirmed Dominique Anglade on Tuesday. However, she denied having recruitment problems. “There are hundreds of people who have come forward and the reason why I wanted us to have a transparent process is to allow everyone to know how it was going to work, how we were going to govern ourselves for the applications,” she explained.
In his opinion, this new way of doing things is “necessary in the transformation of our political formation”. In interview at Duty in December, Ms. Anglade said she was banking on the support of the progressives who supported the Coalition avenir Québec in 2018. Her party estimates that this fringe represents a quarter of CAQ voters, and that their support could advance the PLQ by 14 points in polls. Currently, the PLQ collects about 20% of voting intentions in Quebec.
Another sign of renewal: other elected Liberals are due to announce the end of their political careers in the coming months.
“I am not going to confirm here who will leave and who will stay, but it is certain that there will be other departures,” said Ms. Anglade. Already, deputies Lise Thériault, Francine Charbonneau and Gaétan Barrette have announced that they will not be candidates in 2022. Pierre Arcand, Hélène David, Carlos Leitão and Kathleen Weil have meanwhile hinted that they are thinking of leaving politics. .
The PLQ caucus continues Tuesday and Wednesday, in virtual mode.