Parti Québécois race whittled down to four candidates
Professor, comedian, sitting MNA and lawyer will compete for party leadership
QUEBEC It will be a four-way race for the leadership of the Parti Québécois.
Despite the difficulties of meeting and signing up party members during a pandemic, the party confirmed Friday that four candidates have come up with the required 2,000 members and raised their non-refundable $15,000 deposit to be eligible to run.
The latest to make it official is historian and Dawson College professor Frédéric Bastien, who marched into PQ headquarters Friday with his paperwork. Friday 5 p.m. was the deadline for candidates to come forward.
On Tuesday, standup comedian Guy Nantel also made a late visit to drop off his papers. Nantel is considered an outsider in the world of PQ politics but in a recent poll of Quebecers was leading the race based on his name recognition.
But it is the members of the party, not the public at large, who will elect the leader. They will cast their ballots by phone and the internet Oct. 5-9 with the winner named Oct. 9.
Two other candidates are in the race: Jonquière MNA Sylvain Gaudreault, the only candidate already elected to the National Assembly, and Paul St-pierre Plamondon who placed fourth in the 2016 leadership race that elected Jean-françois Lisée.
Educated at Oxford and Mcgill, St-pierre Plamondon is a lawyer. He ran for the PQ in the 2018 general election, placing second to Coalition Avenir Québec candidate Marguerite Blais in the riding of Prévost.
Given the circumstances, the PQ did not hold any kind of rally kicking off the leadership race.
The party simply gave notice that the four have qualified to run via a simple statement to the media.
The four now can get down to the business of campaigning. They each have entrenched positions on issues ranging from language to immigration.
St-pierre Plamondon, for example, says if he was premier he would not hesitate to take “forceful measures” to promote French while preserving the rights of the anglophone minority.
On the other hand, Nantel ruffled feathers in the PQ when he said English would have a “national language minority” status in his Quebec.
Plamondon made waves early on in the race when he pledged to hold a sovereignty referendum in a first mandate of a PQ government.
Gaudreault, the most seasoned politician of the pack, has been more cautious, saying the PQ has to prepare the terrain for such an event first. He was also the first to say he recognizes systemic racism exists in Quebec. Bastien says it does not.
The four will get a chance to spar despite the pandemic. Between Aug. 15 and Oct. 2, the party will stage three virtual candidates’ debates.
And just to make the race more interesting, the Journal de Québec revealed Monday that former PQ leader and premier Lucien Bouchard has donated $500 to Plamondon’s campaign.
The Liberals were also supposed to have a leadership race to replace Philippe Couillard, but in May the party instead acclaimed Dominique Anglade leader after her lone opponent dropped out of the race.