To find a place in Parliament, Éric Duhaime’s Conservative Party of Quebec (PCQ) must convert the frustration generated by health measures into votes. A significant challenge for a neophyte party whose militant base is from the outset refractory to institutions.
“I’ve never followed politics before…” This kind of phrase is commonly used in traditional lives by Éric Duhaime on Tuesday evenings. When he entered politics in November 2020, the former FM93 radio host created an equivalent of his show by chatting with his supporters for two hours on Zoom each week.
They are thousands to listen to it. But will they vote? Duhaime himself notes that among his supporters there are “many people who have never voted or who vote very little”. “My real challenge is getting out of the vote,” he confided in an interview with the To have to.
An opinion shared by more than one observer. “When you have a party that is anti-system, populist like the PCQ, there are a lot of supporters who don’t believe in institutions, in going to vote,” explains the professor of political science at Laval University Éric Montigny, who worked like Duhaime in the Action Démocratique du Québec 20 years ago.
Chauveau the essential
The leader of the PCQ dreams of a wave, like the one that elected eight federal Conservatives in the greater Quebec City region in 2006. “It’s like when you have a flood, you can close the doors in the house, when the water is rising, you have it everywhere. I think that if we enter the paying zone, particularly in Quebec and Chaudière-Appalaches, we will gain several ridings. »
The political landscape, he says, is changing, and he thinks he was the first to bet on what he calls “new dividing lines”. “The other parties are increasingly proposing to put the government in our lives, to frame our lives. We think we should do the opposite. We must give people more freedom, more freedom of choice, more respect for their individual rights. »
The parties on the starting line
But beware, by seeing too big, the PCQ could scatter, according to Yan Plante, a former adviser to Stephen Harper who is now vice-president of the TACT agency. The progress of the party in recent months “will not have been worth much if [le chef] does not get elected [comme député] he says. “If Éric Duhaime makes a Maxime Bernier of himself [qui n’a jamais fait élire de candidat de son parti], it could disappear from the political map within the next four years. »
The credibility test
And to dislodge the CAQ in the riding of Chauveau, Duhaime must expand his pool of supporters. And reassure those to whom he frightens. In interviews, he often repeats that we must “not scare the world”, that his model of privatization of health exists in Europe, and so on. Despite its calls for the revival of the oil industry, its program takes great care to specify that the PCQ recognizes the human origin of climate change.
However, he must not appear too moderate and disappoint his more right-wing supporters either. “His challenge is to keep his activist base mobilized while avoiding losing credibility,” says Éric Montigny.
Asked about the presence of conspirators, even “cuckoos”, among his supporters, he replies that some people “have been very shaken by the health crisis”, “have suffered a lot”. “You also have to understand where it comes from. The lack of transparency, the impression that they have been sacrificed [que François Legault les a lésés dans leurs droits en imposant certaines mesures sanitaires]. »
Renowned for his polarizing remarks on the air, the leader of the PCQ today insists on the need to bring people together, accusing Legault of having “divided” Quebecers during the pandemic. Éric Duhaime the politician pays much more attention to what he says than Éric Duhaime the radio host.