A Conservative rebirth in Quebec

ALéger-Journal de Montréal poll published Thursday confirmed what other public and private surveys had announced: the Conservative Party of Québec has resurrected from its old, cold ashes. According to Léger, were a provincial election held today, the party led by former trash radio host Éric Duhaime would attract 11 per cent of the votes, including 22 per cent in the Quebec City region. This would probably allow the party to win a couple of seats in the Québec National Assembly, including Duhaime's. Considering the party's history in the province, this would be a political miracle. It could also lead the province along a treacherous path.

In Québec, the provincial Conservative party died in 1935 when then leader Maurice Duplessis merged with the short-lived Action libérale nationale to form l'Union Nationale. L'Union nationale became a political juggernaut, governing the province from 1936 to 1939 and from 1944 to 1960, when the Liberals were elected to launch the Quiet Revolution. Beginning in 1970, the Parti Québécois nibbled l'Union nationale's support until the party officially folded in 1989.

It was only 20 years later that a couple of former MNAs attempted to resurrect the provincial Conservative Party. Under the leadership of well-known businessman but amateur politician Adrien Pouliot, the party remained marginal, gathering only 1.46 per cent of the vote in the past provincial election, in 2018. Then came Duhaime.

As a radio show host and writer, Duhaime has been involved in too many controversies to list them all here. Let us just say that he is the exact opposite of a politically correct politician. One example will suffice: he once compared sexual assault to having your unlocked car burglarized.

Duhaime is a brilliant “provocateur” and a very effective communicator. That could make him a formidable politician, if only he managed to straitjacket his worst instincts.

Although fully vaccinated himself, Duhaime has catered to the “anti-vax” crowd, stating that “it is not for politicians to tell people whether they should get vaccinated or not” and criticizing the lockdown measures put in place by the provincial government as “public health extremism.”

This week, Duhaime announced that the party's candidate for a coming byelection on the south shore of Montreal would be Anne Casabonne, a well-known actress who recently tweeted that the vaccines against COVID-19 were nothing but “a pile of s--t.” About this candidacy, star political columnist Michel C. Auger wrote in La Presse: “It's pure Éric Duhaime: the publicity stunt that gives a big high, an ephemeral intoxication, but which ensures a solid hangover the next morning.”

As contemptible and opportunistic as it is, the strategy works. Compared to a poll conducted last month, François Legault's Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) lost four percentage points, most going to the Conservatives. Overall, only four per cent of the survey's respondents are not vaccinated, but no less than 27 per cent of Conservative voters still resist vaccines. In other words, the party has become the political shelter of the unvaccinated.

Legault is still comfortably ahead in the polls and Duhaime is, for now at least, too controversial to enthrall other than a relatively small proportion of Québec voters. Yet, he stands with the same level of support as the once mighty Parti Québécois. This anoints him with a dose of credibility that makes it impossible for the media to ignore him.

If Duhaime is elected to the National Assembly with a couple of his accomplices (the Quebec elections are set for Oct. 3), there is no doubt that he will use the bully pulpit to his advantage. From controversy to controversy, he will attract a lot of attention. From then on, who knows what could happen?

We've seen it in many countries, including in the U.S., the U.K., France, Poland and Brazil: when liberal democracies neglect to nip populism in the bud, weird and worrisome things

(DUMAIME) HAS CHOSEN THE SAME POPULIST AND IRRESPONSIBLE RECIPE THAT MADE HIM A STAR OF TRASH RADIO IN QUÉBEC CITY.

can happen. As journalist Anne Applebaum wrote in her 2020 essay Twilight of Democracy, “given the right conditions, any society can turn against democracy.”

This means that we — the reporters, the commentators, the politicians — must take this new radical Conservative party seriously before it starts turning a significant number of Quebecers against the institutions that have made Québec a liberal democracy (notwithstanding bills 21 and 96).

As Auger noted in La Presse, there is room in the province for a solid Conservative Party of Quebec. The province's small “c” conservatives thought they had found their home within the CAQ. However, despite his business background, François Legault is not a conservative but rather a fan of what he calls “the efficient Left.”

Éric Duhaime has the political and the communications skills to lead such a mainstream Conservative party. Unfortunately, until now, he has chosen the same populist and irresponsible recipe that made him a star of trash radio in Québec City. Such a deleterious view of our society and its institutions must be fought with intelligence, determination, and courage.