On Sunday afternoon, representatives of the Canadian Party of Quebec were in Shawville at Hursty’s restaurant for a meet and greet with local supporters. The party was created in June 2022 just prior to the previous provincial election. The party’s website states it stands for linguistic rights, bilingualism and national unity.
Pontiac candidate Will Twolan was present on Sunday and said that he was happy to represent the party once again. He ran in the 2022 election, finishing seventh with 475 votes (1.66 per cent).
Having recently graduated from uOttawa with a bachelors in political science and communications, Twolan is pursuing a Masters degree in communications at the same institution this fall.
He was critical of the provincial Liberal party and their stance on Bill 96, the 2022 overhaul of Bill 101, the province’s charter of the French language. The sweeping law tightened rules around everything from English signage in businesses to the enrollment rules of English Cegeps.
“If you look at the track record of the Liberals for the past x amount of years we’ve had Mr. Fortin in the area, what have we exactly gotten in terms of pushback for our rights?” he said. “Most recently, we see the Liberals still trying to enforce Bill 96, even the new leader, he says he’s 100 per cent in support of using the notwithstanding clause that steamrolls our rights. In the end he’s 100 per cent for Bill 96. In our area I know Bill 96 is a huge issue.”
He said that he was planning on hitting the road and knocking on doors throughout the riding in the lead up to the election to introduce his party to voters.
“As we get close to the election maybe you’ll see us out here again. I myself, I’m going to plan to go door-to-door here in the Pontiac as much as I can,” he said.
Party leader Joseph Cianflone said that the event was a lead up to a press conference they would be holding on Parliament Hill on Monday (May 25), where they would urge the federal government to use the powers of disallowance, which he said would allow it to override Quebec’s use of the notwithstanding clause.
“Governments should not be able to suspend fundamental freedoms indefinitely without meaningful constitutional safeguards,” he said in a statement. “The federal government has both a constitutional role and a moral responsibility to defend the rights of Canadian citizens when those rights are placed at risk.”
According to the Montreal Gazette, disallowance hasn’t been used since 1943, and federal Justice Minister Sean Fraser has said he has no intention of invoking it.
Cianflone has a background in health care and technology, and became party leader in 2025.
He said that the gathering in Shawville was part of the party’s efforts to expand its reach in the lead up to the next election. He said that they had already surpassed the number of candidates that they had fielded in the previous election (20) and were hoping to double that number.
“It’s important to us and our project to connect as many communities as possible,” he said.
