The Quebec Liberal management race kicked off on Monday with candidates choosing up endorsements, because the provincial get together tries to broaden its attraction after years within the political wilderness.
4 candidates have formally entered the race, together with former federal Liberal cupboard minister Pablo Rodriguez; ex-Liberal MP and former Montreal mayor Denis Coderre; Charles Milliard, the previous head of the federation of Quebec chambers of commerce; and tax lawyer Marc Bélanger.
On Monday, a possible fifth candidate, sitting Quebec Liberal member Frédéric Beauchemin, introduced he was withdrawing from the race to help Rodriguez, whom he mentioned is the one candidate who can unite Quebecers.
Rodriguez, 57, is the probably front-runner, however he carries the bags of spending 9 years in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal authorities. In September he resigned as transport minister and from the Liberal caucus to sit down as an Impartial in Parliament till the beginning of the provincial management marketing campaign.
Milliard was first out of the gate on Monday, receiving a significant endorsement from former Quebec Liberal finance minister Raymond Bachand. At a information convention at Liberal headquarters in Montreal, Milliard mentioned he desires to supply a “breath of recent air” within the race, including that at age 45, he can carry collectively younger and older get together members to create an “intergenerational alliance.”
Bachand informed reporters on the information convention that Milliard, whom he mentioned embodies each youth and expertise, has the good thing about not being a profession politician — a thinly veiled reference to Rodriguez.
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“The Quebec Liberal get together, within the areas, doesn’t exist or exists little or no — it is vitally weak,” Bachand mentioned, lamenting how the provincial Liberals are polling in single digits with francophone voters, particularly exterior main cities. Rodriguez, he added, is tied to a federal political get together whose fortunes aren’t that a lot better within the province.
Quebecers within the areas are making ready to vote massively for the Bloc Québécois or the Conservatives within the upcoming federal election, Bachand mentioned, a vote that would come as quickly because the spring. “And the (Quebec) Liberal Celebration would appoint as chief somebody who has been the right-hand man of the federal government of Canada for 10 years?”
The Quebec Liberals suffered their worst defeat in additional than 60 years within the 2018 election that swept François Legault and his Coalition Avenir Québec into energy. They fared even worse in 2022, and now maintain simply 19 of 125 seats within the provincial legislature as they give the impression of being to regain floor with francophone voters exterior the get together’s base in Montreal.
Sylvia Martin-Laforge, head of an anglophone advocacy group — Quebec Group Teams Community — says the get together ought to lean on its conventional picture of financial stewardship, whereas casting minority rights as a matter of provincial prosperity.
Quebec Liberals will elect their new chief on June 14. They’ve been and not using a everlasting chief since Dominique Anglade stepped down in late 2022. Marc Tanguay, a Montreal-area member, has served as interim chief.
The marketing campaign will overlap with the Liberal Celebration of Canada’s management race to interchange Trudeau.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
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