Candidates for Conservative leadership will meet tonight for the final official debate of the race, a French-language competition that will challenge candidates ’language skills as they fight for the best job.
Tonight’s debate in Laval, Que. is the latest campaign event where candidates will have a chance to convince aspiring voters to remove party members before the June 3 deadline. Anyone wishing to vote to elect the next leader of the Conservative Party must be on the list of party members before that date to receive a vote for the September 10 vote.
Tonight, the six candidates will make a direct appeal to French-speaking Quebeckers, a voting bloc that normally does not tip the Conservatives into federal elections. While there may be relatively few Francophone Conservative members, these party members will have a lot to say in the end result of this leadership race.
The last two debates have been difficult at times as the main contenders: Conservative MPs Pierre Poilievre and Leslyn Lewis of Brampton, Ont. Mayor Patrick Brown and former Quebec Prime Minister Jean Charest have exchanged barbs on everything from abortion to bitcoin.
Punctual personal exchanges have revealed how bad blood there is between Poilievre, a stronger right-wing candidate, and his centrist opponents Brown and Charest.
Two of the other candidates in this race, Conservative MP Scott Aitchison and Ontario Independent MP Roman Baber, have taken a more conciliatory approach by calling for party unity at a time when Conservative divisions have never seemed so hard.
Poilievre, right, gestures as Charest listens to the Conservative Party of Canada’s English leadership debate in Edmonton on May 11th. (Jeff McIntosh / Canadian Press)
Tonight’s debate will be different from previous campaign exchanges between candidates because three of them – Aitchison, Baber and Lewis – do not speak French.
Lewis, who also took part in the 2020 leadership race, stumbled upon the French debate last time reading notes.
Rudy Husny, a prominent Quebec Conservative and former employee of former Prime Minister Stephen Harper, said the language deficit “will make the debate less interesting, obviously.”
“It’s a problem and it’s not good for the image of the Conservative Party in Quebec when you have candidates who are not perfectly bilingual,” Husny said.
With English-speaking unilingual candidates on the sidelines, Charest and Poilievre are ready to dominate the debate.
Husny said the race in Quebec was already shaping up to be a competition between the two candidates, although Brown has had a strong following in some ethnic communities in the Montreal area.
The French debate is “critical”: Scheer’s former employee
Marc-André Leclerc, a former employee of former Conservative leader Andrew Scheer, said there was a “question mark” about Brown for French-speaking voters. His language skills are largely unknown, Leclerc said.
“It’s key for all party members in Quebec: our leader must speak French and debate in French. The French debate during the federal campaign is always critical. We want to see someone capable of fighting Mr. Trudeau and Yves “François Blanchet,” he said, referring to the prime minister and leader of the Bloc Québec.
Brown, who has aggressively courted ethnic and religious minority voters in this race, has also been a vocal opponent of Quebec’s Bill 21, which requires public officials to remove religious clothing while at work. a controversial law that is still popular among many Quebecers.
Charest has also promised to fight this law in the courts if elected.
“This is a key issue for all candidates. It will be a big part of the debate,” Leclerc said.
Brown gestures at the Conservative Party of Canada’s English leadership debate in Edmonton on May 11th. (Jeff McIntosh / Canadian Press)
Husny said Charest, who served as Quebec’s prime minister for nine years, is a known figure and expectations are especially high for him because “he’s playing at home.”
“Mr. Charest must call on the people of Quebec who know him to take action: get an affiliation. That is his goal in this debate and for the next 10 days, [to] convincing as many Quebeckers as possible to get a card, “Husny said.
“This is his path to victory. He needs strong results in Quebec.”
Husny said Poilievre should run for an electorate that perhaps knows him less well.
Husny said he hoped Poilievre would echo some of the points of discussion used by Eric Duhaime, leader of the Quebec Conservative Party.
Quebec Conservative Party leader Eric Duhaime speaks at a press conference in the legislature in Quebec City on June 18, 2021. (Jacques Boissinot / Canadian Press)
This small party has experienced dramatic growth since its leader criticized public health measures during the pandemic, as has Poilievre.
“You will hear the words ‘freedom’ and ‘freedom’ very much. That will be part of the message you want to send in tomorrow’s debate, which is aimed at people whom Mr Duhaime has already attracted,” Husny said of Poilievre. .
Duhaime has grown the party, which has no official ties to the federal Conservatives, from a membership base of just 500 to more than 70,000 since taking office last year.
Husny said all federal contenders are eager to get closer to those Duhaime supporters, who are mostly concentrated in the conservative-leaning Quebec area.
Members of the Conservative Party of Quebec have helped decide the last two Conservative leadership races.
The then leader of the Federal Conservative Party, Andrew Scheer, speaks at the Nova Scotia PC Party Leadership Convention in Halifax on October 27, 2018. (Ted Pritchard / Canadian Press)
Andrew Scheer, an advocate for supply management, won his career in 2017 in part because of his attractiveness among Quebec dairy farmers.
Erin O’Toole defeated perceived leader Peter MacKay in the last leadership race because of her organizational strength on trips to Quebec where there were relatively few Conservative members.
O’Toole won a block of gun owners who were drawn to his promise to ease federal gun restrictions.
Although some of the districts in the province have only a small number of Conservatives with a card, their votes have a disproportionate influence on a system that gives almost equal weight to all regions of the country.
“Quebec is very, very critical,” said Leclerc, Scheer’s former employee.
“O’Toole did very well in Quebec and that was a big surprise for everyone, I think. Everyone thinks Quebecers are mostly progressive and Peter MacKay fit in perfectly, but O’Toole got a lot of support because he had a good ground. game “.
Leclerc said some prominent Conservative organizers who supported O’Toole, such as Quebec Sen. Leo Housakos, are now on the Poilievre team.
“For Quebec’s ‘true blue’ conservatives, Poilievre is very attractive. For many of these Quebecers, Mr. Charest is not an ally, he is more of an enemy,” Leclerc said.
Leclerc said Charest was a frequent enemy of former Prime Minister Stephen Harper while in office; there were disputes between the two over a $ 1 billion transfer payment and cuts in funding for the arts and culture. Charest also did little to support Scheer and O’Toole in their attempts to become prime minister, Leclerc said.
“People don’t forget it and that’s why there are crazy people. Charest needs a great, great, great result and a great performance in Quebec,” he said. “If not, it’s out.”