Teary-eyed Péladeau cites family in quitting
Media baron entered politics for his children’s future and says he’s now leaving for same reason
MONTREAL— When Quebec media baron Pierre Karl Péladeau was revealed as a star candidate for the sovereigntist Parti Québécois two years ago, he said he was jumping into the dirty business of politics for the future of his children.
Throwing his fist into the air, the former president of media company Quebecor Inc. said it was on their behalf that he had acted on his deepest political convictions and embarked on a quest “to make Quebec a country.”
The surprise was understandable, then, when he invited reporters to a surprise news conference Monday afternoon and invoked that same family as his reason for quitting his seat in the provincial legislature, his post as leader of the official Opposition and his role as leader of Quebec’s main independence party.
“Faced with no alternatives I am forced to make a choice, an agonizing choice, between my family and my political project,” Péladeau said. “I have chosen my family.” There were no explanations given, but in a province that pays extra-special attention to the private lives of its public personalities, none were really required.
It sufficed to rewatch the Sunday night television appearance of Julie Snyder, the TV producer, host and mother of two of Péladeau’s three children. Appearing on Tout le monde en parle, the flagship variety show of Radio-Canada (the main rival of the Quebecor-owned TVA network), Snyder sounded devastated and nearly destitute as she spoke about the breakdown of her marriage to the PQ leader just five months after their high-profile nuptials last summer.
Snyder said marrying her longtime partner was a dream come true for which she was prepared to make personal and professional sacrifices, including stepping away from the leadership of her successful television production company.
But being a political spouse took a toll on Snyder and on the couple’s relationship that was too much to handle, she said, adding, “I realized why people say that politics is violent.”
The couple is currently in mediation to settle their divorce, a confidential process that Snyder described as “a challenge.”
But if Snyder’s appearance included any coded-message that might have had bearing on Péladeau’s snap decision, it was her comment on the building blocks of a functioning family.
“We always talk about the importance of the family,” she said. “But the relationship of a couple is the foundation of the family. A family doesn’t last if the couple can’t stay together.”
For Marc Laviolette, a longtime PQ member and union leader, the Snyder interview and Péladeau’s resignation speech were “like two sides of the same coin — an unhappy couple that have the best interests of their children at heart.”
But Péladeau’s statement, delivered with wet eyes and quivering voice, was also an excruciating glimpse into the difficulties for politicians trying to balance their responsibilities in the legislature with the demands on the home front, said Concordia University political science professor Guy Lachapelle, a former PQ candidate.
That stark reality was acknowledged across the province’s political spectrum, including the fringe left-wing Québec Solidaire, the conservative-minded Coalition Avenir Québec and by Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard, who leads the Liberals.
“The decision that he took today is the fruit of a difficult reflection that led him to put his family before his political party. The well-being of those close to us, of our children, is the most precious thing we have,” Couillard said in a statement.
Péladeau was the seventh leader of the PQ, a party founded in 1968 by René Lévesque, and a controversial pick for a normally left-leaning movement.
He was cursed and criticized by those who cherish their union card as much as their party membership for being an uber-capitalist and the “lockout king” of Quebec — taking the hardline against Quebecor employees more than a dozen times while he ran the media company.
But despite the criticism, Péladeau was credited Monday for laying the groundwork for independence-minded Quebecers to eventually reunite under the same party after splintering in recent years and finding new homes with Québec Solidaire and Option Nationale.