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Group picture of the nine official candidates for the Parti Québécois leadership election of 2005, along with party president Monique Richard and Lyne Marcoux, the president of this election.

The Parti Québécois leadership election of 2005 will be held from November 13 to November 15, 2005 to elect the new leader of the Parti Québécois, the main sovereigntist and social democratic political party in Quebec, Canada.

It is the second race of its kind in the history of the party, following the leadership election of 1985. It will be conducted in two rounds, under a preferential voting system.

Unfolding

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Background

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On June 4, 2005, party leader Bernard Landry announced his intention to resign as leader of the PQ after getting 76.2% in a vote of confidence in his leadership from delegates to the party National Council. The party appointed Louise Harel as its interim leader. Gilles Duceppe, leader of the federal-level sovereigntist political party, the Bloc Québécois, was expected to be a strong candidate if he had decided to run. On June 11, he however announced that he would remain leader of the Bloc despite pressure to make a bid for the leadership of the PQ.

Campaign

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After months of pre-campaign, the race officially began on September 15, 2005, the official deadline for entering the race. Soon, André Boisclair emerged as a favorite in the polls, with Pauline Marois second, Richard Legendre a close third and Louis Bernard fourth. The validity of these polls, much touted by the media, was however challenged by some candidate organizations since they were conducted on the whole population of Quebec, rather than the actual voter pool, the legal members of the Parti Québécois. Also criticized was the intense media focus on the four candidates leading in these said polls, leaving the ideas of the other candidates in the dark. The later were much less discussed and their opening monologues were even cut for pundit commentary in LCN live broadcastings of the official candidates' debates.

A controversy made some impression, albeit relatively briefly, on the campaign: the said Affaire Boisclair. On September 10, 2005, Le Devoir columnist Michel David refered in his column [1] to a relatively unnoticed past article of Le Droit alluding to rumors of André Boisclair having lived a wild younger life and taken cocaine. Boisclair initially recognized a youth of partying and mistakes. Days later, after much media pressure, he admitted having "consumed". Ironically, this only made his popularity stronger in polling, something credited by pundits to popular sympathy in the face of the weight of the media scrutiny. The fact that Boisclair came out in 2000 on the subject of his homosexuality did not hampered his campaign either. Polls showed that more than 90% of Quebecers were not opposed to a gay Premier of Quebec. On public perceptions, Pauline Marois also raised the theory that her campaign was hurt by the fact that she is female.

Much of the ideological discussion occured during the official candidates' debates held across Quebec. New ideas were brought up. Amongst others, André Boisclair expounded a debt reduction plan and spoke of free higher education provided by the state. Richard Legendre talked much of more autonomy for Quebec regions. Pauline Marois spoke of water nationalization in an eventual Eau-Québec, like what was created with Hydro-Québec for electricity during the legendary Quiet Revolution. Speaking much about the struggle against poverty, Pierre Dubuc, Jean Ouimet and Gilbert Paquette showed themselves favourable to a guaranteed minimum income system, something that Marois agreed to.

Many candidates declared their intention to put an accent on public transportation and wind power. Ghislain Lebel was a black sheep of this progressive panel with more conservative ideas and Jean-Claude Saint-André defended the ideas of the pur et dur party stream, notably that of making gestures of rupture with Canada, sovereign state actions before sovereignty and contrary to the Canadian constitution, never signed by Quebec. The strongest concensus between all candidates was that most of these projects were possible through and only through national independence.

Vote

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The voting will be conducted by phone from November 13 to November 15, 2005 through a system used for the popular votes in the Star Académie TV show. The winner of the party leadership election will be declared on November 15, 2005. The date was chosen in honor of the famous first great victory of the Parti Québécois, when it was first brought to power on November 15, 1976. The election will work with a system of preferential voting, in two rounds.

Public debates

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The seven public debates are orchestrated by election president Lyne Marcoux. They are broadcast live via the Parti Québécois official website, pq.org, and the LCN television news network. In order to allow substantial and orderly exchanges with such a number of people, every occasion is divided into a series of three discussions, amongst three candidates each. Candidate groupings are set at random. Additionally, for every debate, opening and closing speeches are addressed, and selected questions from the audience and the internet are debated. This selection is executed by an impartial panel lead by Monique Richard, the party president.

Solidarity & public finances

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The debate on solidarity & public finances took place on September 21, 2005 in Sherbrooke.

Sustainable development & economy

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The debate on sustainable development & economy took place on September 28, 2005 in Montreal.

Culture

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The debate on culture took place on October 12, 2005 in Trois-Rivières.

Sovereignty and leadership

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The debate on sovereignty and leadership will take place on October 19, 2005 in Quebec City.

Territory

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The debate on territory will take place on October 26, 2005 in Rimouski.

Education

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The debate on education will take place on November 2, 2005 in Saguenay.

Health

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The debate on health will take place on November 9, 2005 in Gatineau.

Candidates

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Official

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Candidates listed have collected at least 1000 signatures from 40 different ridings, with a minimum of 10 signatures per riding. By order of official candidacy.

Withdrawals

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  • Hugues Cormier - Physician and candidate in the riding of Crémazie in the 2003 election. Controversy brought him to pull out three days after officially entering the race.
  • Gilles Hébert - Former public service union representative.
  • Gilles Paquette - Former Parti Québécois candidate. Did not gather enough signatures in time for the deadline.

Declined

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  • Maxime Barakat
  • Camil Bouchard - Member of the National Assembly.
  • Jean-Pierre Charbonneau - Former cabinet minister and former President of the National Assembly.
  • Gilles Duceppe - Bloc Québécois leader. He declined, notably to honor his promise of contesting the next federal election at the BQ helm.
  • Joseph Facal - Former cabinet minister considered relatively more centrist than other PQ members. He cited the professional and family commitments that led him to quit the cabinet in 2003. He has since sided with candidate Pauline Marois.
  • Bernard Landry - Former leader. A number of people requested that he become a candidate at the race for his own succession. After a summer reflexion, the former Premier declined.
  • Laurent M. Leclerc - Singer and actor.
  • François Legault - Former cabinet minister and past well-known aspirant to the leadership. He cited family commitments.
  • Daniel Turp - PQ Member of the National Assembly and past Member of Parliament for the Bloc Québécois. He declared his support for André Boisclair.

Timeline

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  • June 4, 2005 - Party leader Bernard Landry states his intention to resign as leader of the PQ after getting 76.2% in a vote of confidence at the Party National Council.
  • June 5, 2005 - Former Parti Québécois minister Pauline Marois is first to announce her intention to enter the leadership race. The statement is criticized by some militants because of its haste, coming one day after the resignation speech of Bernard Landry.
  • June 13, 2005 - Gilles Duceppe announces that he will not enter the race and will remain at the helm of the Bloc Québécois for the next federal election.
  • June 13, 2005 - The party presents the official rules of the upcoming race.
  • June 15, 2005 - An open letter to Bernard Landry is published in newspapers. [2] It implores the former leader to become candidate in the race for his own succession for the sake of the cause of sovereignty. It is signed by over forty people (mostly from minorities), like Bloc Québécois MP Maka Kotto, Bloc Québécois past candidate and president of the PQ Montréal-Ville-Marie organisation Maria Mourani and past Bloc Québécois MP Osvaldo Nuñez, notably. This follows the launch of "retourbernardlandry.org", an online petition sharing the same goal.
  • July 11, 2005 - The candidacy of Richard Legendre is officially accepted by the party.
  • July 30, 2005 - The candidacy of Louis Bernard is officially accepted by the party.
  • August 5, 2005 - The candidacy of André Boisclair is officially accepted by the party.
  • August 16, 2005 - Former leader Bernard Landry, after reflexion, ends the uncertainty around a possible candidacy of his to succeed himself. He officially renounces to become candidate and professes in faith in the capacity of the party to find a new leader and renew itself.
  • August 18, 2005 - The candidacy of Pauline Marois is officially accepted by the party.
  • August 19, 2005 - The candidacy of Ghislain Lebel is officially accepted by the party.
  • August 25, 2005 - The candidacy of Jean-Claude St-André is officially accepted by the party.
  • September 1, 2005 - Bloc Québécois MP and former Parti Québécois minister Serge Ménard announces his support for candidate Louis Bernard. [3]
  • September 2, 2005 - Days after official candidacy, psychiatrist Hugues Cormier resigns after being suspended by his employer, the Louis-Hippolyte-Lafontaine Hospital for asking patients to sign his candidacy slip. [4]
  • September 6, 2005 - Bloc Québécois MP Maka Kotto announces his support for Pauline Marois. [5] He had previously favoured a return of Bernard Landry, until the latter's definite refusal of August 16.
  • September 7, 2005 - Louise Harel, the Parti Québécois interim leader, speaks at a Bloc Québécois gathering and states that the PQ leadership candidates should debate, not battle. [6]
  • September 9, 2005 - Former Parti Québécois vice president Marie Malavoy announces her support for Pauline Marois. [7]
  • September 9, 2005 - The candidacy of SPQ Libre representative Pierre Dubuc is officially accepted by the party.
  • September 10, 2005 - Le Devoir columnist Michel David refers in his column [8] to a relatively unnoticed past article of Le Droit alluding to rumors of André Boisclair having lived a wild younger life, taken cocaine and having been strongly reprimanded by then Parti Québécois leader Lucien Bouchard for it.
  • September 12, 2005 - The candidacy of Gilbert Paquette is officially accepted by the party.
  • September 13, 2005 - After having being brought to court because of alleged drunk driving, candidate Gilbert Paquette announces to a press conference that he intends to remain in the race. [9]
  • September 15, 2005 - Jean Ouimet becomes the ninth and last official candidate.
  • September 15, 2005 - The deadline for entering the race, with the required 1,000 signatures, is reached, launching officially the race for the party leadership.
  • September 16, 2005 - The party presents the nine official candidates. [10]
  • September 16, 2005 - At the party headquarters, André Boisclair is asked about the rumors surrounding his past. Boisclair denies a reprimand meeting with leader Lucien Bouchard, but admits that he had made "mistakes" in his youth. [11]
  • September 16, 2005 - At a brunch commemorating the 2004 Parti Québécois victory of Elsie Lefebvre in the Parti Libéral du Québec stronghold of Laurier-Dorion, former leader Bernard Landry states his hopes that the accusation excesses will cease, seemingly referring to the scrutiny around Boisclair's past personal life. He also enjoins militants in his speech, his first public speech since his resignation, to rally around the future elected leader, whoever he or she may be. [12]
  • September 18, 2005 - André Boisclair is a guest of the Tout le monde en parle television show.
  • September 19, 2005 - At a Lévis press conference, when asked directly if he had ever taken cocaine, André Boiclair responds "What I want to tell you is I made mistakes, things I regret. Yes, I consumed. I can't be clearer than that." [13]
  • September 19, 2005 - The first official public debate is held at Sherbrooke on the subject of "solidarity & public finances".
  • September 20, 2005 - Richard Legendre receives the support of Elsie Lefebvre and François Gendron, respectively the youngest and oldest Members of the National Assembly.
  • September 28, 2005 - The second official public debate is held at Montreal on the subject of "sustainable development & economy".
  • September 30, 2005 - Ghislain Lebel declares in an interview with Le Devoir that André Boisclair's victory seems unavoidable. [14] [15]
  • October 4, 2005 - Jean Ouimet and Gilbert Paquette hold a common press conference during which they deplore the lack of media attention for the candidates and the importance put by them on population-wide polls that, they say, give wrong impressions, since the actual leadership vote is held only amongst party members. The two also speak of projects like the elaboration of a social contract, wealth redistribution in Quebec and the world and a provisional constitution before independence. [16]
  • October 6, 2005 - The Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste organizes a public debate on "language" at its home office of Montreal, the Maison Ludger-Duvernay. Seven out of nine candidates attend.
  • October 10, 2005 - Corinne Côté-Lévesque, the widow of Parti Québécois founder and sovereigntism spiritual father René Lévesque, announces her support for Louis Bernard. [17]
  • October 12, 2005 - Gilbert Paquette speaks, in a Le Devoir interview, of the possibility of a common candidacy for the four candidates most to the left, Pierre Dubuc, Jean Ouimet, Jean-Claude Saint-André and himself, saying that four candidates is too much for the most progressive.
  • October 12, 2005 - The third official public debate is held at Trois-Rivières on the subject of "culture".
  • October 14, 2005 - The recruiting period is over, midnight of October 14 being the deadline for new members to become party members and have voting rights for the election. The party organization reports a 60% membership rise, from 71,000 to 112,000. [18]

Slogans

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Results

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First round Second round
Candidate Votes Percentage Votes Percentage
Louis Bernard
André Boisclair
Pierre Dubuc
Ghislain Lebel
Richard Legendre
Pauline Marois
Jean Ouimet
Gilbert Paquette
Jean-Claude St-André
Totals 100.0% 100.0%

See also

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Election

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Candidates

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Category:2005 elections Category:Politics of Quebec

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