Towards the elections | The Freedoms of Eric Duhaime

They aspire to become Prime Minister. In a few days, they will travel across Quebec to convince voters to give them their confidence. The Press met them. Today, for the last part of this series, the leader of the Conservative Party, Éric Duhaime. Remember that François Legault chose not to take part in the exercise.

Hugo Pilon Larose
The Press

Tommy Chouinard
The Press

(Quebec) He is on the right, wants to allow more private health, exploit hydrocarbons, reduce taxes and reduce the size of the state. But what unites Éric Duhaime’s conservatives first and foremost, and what causes the most talk, is their use of the word “liberty”.

“Freedom”, a broad concept, is constantly put forward by the Conservative leader, who defends it even in controversy. The Press met him at the Parc des Braves, in Quebec, where he walks his dog, born from a cross between a Labrador and a pit bull. He adopted it a few years ago in the midst of a debate on the supervision of potentially dangerous dogs.

“It was an esoteric debate. The animal, if it is mistreated or if it is not well fed, it is sure that it will be delinquent or dangerous. At the time, we were attacking the consequence rather than the cause,” says Mr. Duhaime, who will not be told which breed of dog to choose.

This libertarian – for whom individual freedoms form the basis of a State intervening minimally in people’s lives – defends on the political front the freedom of his candidates to make controversial remarks. One did so recently by circulating a cartoon of a teacher protecting children in her class by pointing a gun at a shooter.

“I ruled out [une candidate] because she made thinly veiled calls for violence. I thought that was way too much. But at the same time, I’m the guy who defends freedom of expression. I have to be careful. I don’t want anyone who shared a video of another person considered by some to be a conspirator to be banned for life, ”defends Mr. Duhaime.

Then, during the interview, he openly recounts the preparations and negotiations prior to the leaders’ debate at Radio-Canada. The Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) would like to impose the theme of identity and immigration, which was not planned. “They want us to talk about that rather than their record,” he denounces.

This is also Eric Duhaime’s freedom: to attack his opponents by revealing the confidential discussions held by the parties behind the scenes of electoral preparations.

The effect of the pandemic

If it hadn’t been for the pandemic and the health measures, the conservative leader would not have returned to politics. This is also the case of people running for his party, mostly “people who were sacrificed during COVID-19 and who would never have entered politics before”.

Under his leadership, Public Health would, for example, have given recommendations to the population, but citizens would have been free to choose whether they followed them. “I believe that the [citoyens] are rational, intelligent people, and that they are able to make decisions for their own health and their own lives,” he says.

“It was a virus that was severe, but 50% of the population did not disappear overnight. Our rights and freedoms, it didn’t take long for them to get the hell out of here,” he continues. He does not explain how he would have managed the crisis that raged in hospitals and CHSLDs.

In his electoral platform, Éric Duhaime proposes to include in the Public Health Act the primacy of the Quebec Charter of Rights and Freedoms over any other provision. However, this primacy already exists and no legal challenge has shown that the health measures did not respect the charters.

“What we want to say is to reinforce the idea that the Charter takes precedence, because we have the impression that it was forgotten,” justifies the Conservative leader. He is also campaigning for it to now be necessary to obtain the agreement of 80% of deputies in order to continue the state of health emergency beyond 30 days.

A new divide

Eric Duhaime’s quest for freedom is also expressed by a less interventionist state and tax cuts.

The October 3 elections will move away from the divide between sovereignists and federalists, but also from identity debates, believes the former adviser and candidate for the defunct Action Démocratique du Québec (ADQ), which had its heyday at the time of the reasonable accommodation crisis.

“When I meet people, they talk to me about the price of their grocery cart, they tell me they can’t afford to fill up their gas anymore, they tell me they’re waiting three to six months for surgery and they still don’t have room, they tell me about the skyrocketing interest rates. The last thing they talk to me about is that they want to start a fight with English speakers,” he said in response to Law 96 on the protection of French.

Éric Duhaime opposes this law, which he sees as an instrument of the CAQ to attract PQ votes. He also denounces the fact that the government used the notwithstanding clause even before the law was challenged in court. But in the process, the conservative leader unreservedly supports Law 21 on the secularism of the State, which nevertheless does the same thing.

“All citizens have the right to have a secular state service. As a citizen, we don’t have to have someone else’s religion or a potential bias imposed on us, ”he justifies, refusing to see a contradiction or a hitch in his defense of freedoms.