With CAQ slipping, Liberals do some soul-searching as party kicks off policy process

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QUEBEC — Still in search of a leader, Quebec’s Liberals have launched a second policy renewal operation it believes will motivate its base of support and possibly woo back party members who have gone astray.

Liberal policy committee chairperson, former senator and journalist André Pratte, said the party is creating four working groups that will roam the province in the coming weeks to meet the membership.

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The official goal is to draft fresh policy ideas in four areas: economic development, improving public services, education and the affirmation of Quebec within the Canadian federation and the world.

The four teams will be made up of members of the party’s policy committee, including some veterans such as former MNA Pierre Arcand, and younger members, including Antoine Dionne-Charest.

They will report back to the party with resolutions that will then be debated and adopted, either at a May general council meeting in Bromont, or later at a November policy convention in Lévis, Pratte said.

“The objective is to create policy which we can propose to Quebecers as an alternative to the current government,” Pratte said in an interview with The Gazette. “It will show how a Liberal government will be different from the actual government — particularly on the economy.”

It’s the second such policy soul-searching operation the party has launched since its dismal 2022 election showing and comes as the party continues to score low numbers — particularly among francophone voters — in public-opinion polls.

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A year ago, the Liberals sent a 14-person task force, chaired by Pratte and Liberal MNA Madwa-Nika Cadet, across Quebec to conduct a post-mortem of the last campaign and propose new ideas to rebuild the party’s political identity.

In a 97-page report, the task force proposed the Liberals adopt more nationalist policies, including drafting a new Quebec constitution while Quebec remains a province of Canada. The move was tagged a strong “gesture of national affirmation.”

Should the Liberals form a government, the task force recommended the government adopt a law stating the English-speaking community has the right to receive health and education services in its own language as well as manage its own institutions as it sees fit.

Pratte said the difference this time is the party will move beyond general principles and move into concrete policy resolutions.

Party members involved in the task force said they wanted to see their work and the party continue to move forward in some way, Pratte said.

“It’s the follow-up,” Pratte said. “The effect of what we’re doing now is keeping people mobilized but, more important, it is a coherent preparation of what we will offer Quebecers.”

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Besides the four groups, the party is holding theme seminars in all the regions with Pratte saying the level of interest is higher than expected.

“Eighty people, on a Sunday morning in Laval, to talk about inflation,” he said. “That’s pretty good.”

Liberals are in a better mood than a year ago when things looked even bleaker, he added.

“People are less negative,” he said. “I am told we are seeing people (at events) we have not seen around in three, even five years.”

He conceded some of the Liberal optimism is the result of the recent erosion of the Coalition Avenir Québec.

“A year ago, people thought the CAQ was invincible and would be elected for the next 25 elections,” he said. “Suddenly, everyone sees its weak areas, that it is vulnerable. That fuels the optimism of people.”

Pratte acknowledged none of this party action has translated into an uptick in public support for the Liberals.

In the latest Léger poll published March 19 in the Journal de Montréal, the Liberals were in fourth place (14 per cent), well behind the leading Parti Québécois with 34 per cent of support and the slipping CAQ with 22 per cent. Québec solidaire polled at 18 per cent.

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But poll experts have pointed to a trend of a declining CAQ, which makes the future political landscape volatile and hard to predict. The CAQ has been trailing the PQ in the last six polls, with many signs voters have grown disillusioned with the party and Premier François Legault.

The Liberals, however, still have no permanent leader and won’t have one until 2025, a year before the 2026 election.

There are only two candidates interested in the job: Marguerite-Bourgeoys MNA Frédéric Beauchemin, who is still in reflection, and former Montreal mayor Denis Coderre, who says he will announce a decision in May.

Will the new leader be bound by the new party policy resolutions?

“I don’t think we can say it binds the leader because there will be a leadership race and each candidate will present their ideas, and someone will win,” Pratte said.

“But it will have political weight because these resolutions will be the fruit of serious work, done over months, so the next leader can’t just toss this out and say I am not interested.

“Insofar as a political party greatly needs members, and the Liberal members over the last years have felt a little bit abandoned, I think the next leader can’t ignore this exercise.

“That does not mean they have to adopt every proposal which was adopted, but I think he or she will have to take them into consideration.”

Pratte said the proposals will not be the final word for the Liberal’s election platform, but will be a “significant source of inspiration.”

“It (the exercise) will show Quebecers the Liberal Party is not waiting for a leader to get to work,” he said. “We are working hard at every level.”

pauthier@postmedia.com

twitter.com/philipauthier

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