The PLQ withdraws a candidate who made controversial remarks

The Liberal Party of Quebec withdrew the candidacy of Anne DeBlois in the riding of Charlesbourg, in Quebec, the day after her announcement, because of remarks published in the past.

Vincent Larin
The Press

Tweets published over the years that have been able to consult The Press show that Anne DeBlois has repeatedly expressed positions contrary to those defended by the PLQ.

On Twitter, Anne DeBlois said in particular against the tramway project in the Capitale-Nationale, for that of the third Quebec-Lévis link and against coercive measures to force political parties to achieve gender parity, in particular.

She had also previously called Islam a “totalitarian” religion and accused Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and “junk environmentalists” of wanting to “kill Canada”.

“A day will come when the French will have to choose between Islam and death … and Canadians too,” read Thursday among her approximately 369,500 tweets, a tweet she had published in November 2015.

More recently, she directly challenged Liberal MP Enrico Chicone on Twitter: “Enrico, I like you, but it’s been 50 years since a 3^e link had to be built and its need is, among other things, for redundancy in the event of major work. »

A mea culpa

Contacted in the evening, Anne DeBlois admitted having already made these remarks when she “was campaigning for people who were very right [et qu’elle] adopted positions that were very radical”.

In the past, Anne DeBlois ran under the banner of the Conservative Party of Quebec in 2018, in the neighboring riding of Jean-Lesage, and in 2014, in Taschereau. Since 2016, she has also served as a member of the executive committee of the conservative association of Charlesbourg–Haute-Saint-Charles, according to her profile on the LinkedIn website.

Anne DeBlois also confided to being “passed very close to falling into conspiracy theories, following September 11”, “all cases in which I have done a lot of cleaning in recent years”. “There are things for which I am retracting today”, concluded the candidate, specifying “that the pandemic has allowed me to question a lot of things”.

Did the PLQ know?

According to Anne DeBlois, the PLQ had been informed of its past positions, arguing that “only crazy people don’t change their minds”. “Normally they are supposed to have seen everything before accepting me,” she added.

The fallen candidate became a member of the party during the race to succeed Philippe Couillard in 2020, after which she became involved in the local body of the party in the riding of Charlesbourg, where she says she was welcomed ” with open arms “.

A graduate of Laval University in biochemistry and computer management, Anne DeBlois has 22 years of experience in the public and private fields of information technology, could we still read on the website of the PLQ, Thursday evening.

She says she met “a few times” the liberal leader Dominique Anglade, who was not present at the announcement of her candidacy last Wednesday.

“Unacceptable and incompatible” positions

Informed Thursday evening of comments made in the past by Anne DeBlois, the Liberal Party of Quebec was quick to withdraw its candidacy.

“The comments made by Anne DeBlois are unacceptable and incompatible with liberal values. She will therefore not be a candidate in the 2022 elections for our political party ”, quickly reacted the director of communications in the cabinet of the liberal leader, Jérémy Ghio.

“We will announce a new candidacy to represent the people of Charlesbourg quickly,” he added. The Party declined to comment on the background checks of its candidates.

Even if the riding elected a member of the Coalition avenir Québec in 2018, the current Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Jonatan Julien, it has often brought to power representatives of the PLQ. Thus, in 2014, the Liberal François Blais was elected there.

Remember that the PLQ is lagging behind in recruitment with less than 80 confirmed candidates as of August 11.

By way of comparison, the Coalition avenir Québec, Québec solidaire and the Conservative Party of Québec all have more than 110 candidates each, while the Parti Québécois had only around sixty candidates at the start of the week, and this, before announcing 22 new Thursday.