Pontiac MNA André Fortin hosted his annual holiday breakfast fundraiser at the Campbell’s Bay RA hall on Saturday morning, just a week after turmoil within the Quebec Liberal Party saw him promoted to the position of parliamentary leader.
His new position is effectively leader of the opposition as party leader Pablo Rodriguez, elected by party members in June, does not currently hold a seat in the National Assembly.
Fortin was joined in Campbell’s Bay by colleague Enrico Ciccone, Liberal MNA for the Montreal riding of Marquette, who opened the breakfast with words of support for Fortin, before Fortin himself took the stage.
“This is a weird time in politics,” opened Fortin after a standing ovation welcomed him to the stage. “It’s a weird time for our party, but it was a weird time for the CAQ before, it was a weird time for Quebec Solidaire who lost one of their members too. I think the federal guys are feeling it’s a weird time for them too. They lost a guy yesterday. Everything feels like it’s moving a lot in politics.”
In late November, the Quebec Liberal Party was hit with two back-to-back scandals that have drawn significant media attention.
First, Rodriguez suspended former parliamentary leader Marwah Rizqy, promoting Fortin to her position, after she fired her chief of staff without consulting him, citing a “breach of trust” as the reason for his decision.
Then in the same week, the Journal de Montréal published a story featuring text exchanges that allegedly show Rodriguez supporters received cash rewards for voting for him in the leadership race.
Rodriguez narrowly beat former Quebec Chamber of Commerce president Charles Milliard, whose candidacy Fortin supported. An independent investigation into the allegations will be made by former judge Jacques R. Fournier, with a report due at the end of January.
On Saturday, Fortin worked to shift the focus away from his party’s internal turmoil.
“Behind all that, there’s what you guys need in terms of services, and that is government’s job regardless of what’s happening in various political parties,” he said.
“We can’t afford, as citizens, as towns, as businesses, as community members
. . . we can’t afford this government any more. [ . . . ] We are at a place right now, where our party is more needed than ever, because we have a government that is not meeting the needs of citizens. And you have the party that’s leading in the polls that’s openly and freely talking about a referendum on independence.”
When asked how his party can focus on meeting the needs of citizens when it is caught up unravelling internal problems, Fortin pointed to the independent investigation.
“I think the fact that they launched an inquiry into the leadership race allows us to focus on stuff. It wouldn’t be productive for us to try to figure out independently on our own what actually happened,” he said.
“To me [Rodriguez] won that race. He’s the leader. But everybody wants to know what happened, whether it happened, the extent of it, so having somebody who’s outside of the party with that experience and credibility to look into it independently, reassures us at this point in time.”
He said he accepted the promotion from party whip to parliamentary leader “to make sure that caucus members are working with the same energy that they need to have, focused on the task.”
“My job is basically, at this point, to lead our parliamentary team, which is focused on healthcare, the economy and education – those major files that impact Quebecers on a daily basis. So [Rodriguez] can deal with the party situation, and my job is to question government, interact with the premier, to make sure that the priorities I’m hearing about today are the ones that are talked about in the assembly.”
