Only a day after Quebec Liberal Party (QLP) leader Pablo Rodriguez announced he would be resigning following weeks of turmoil within the party, Pontiac MNA André Fortin has said he believes Charles Milliard, the leadership candidate he had previously endorsed, is still “well suited” for the job.

Milliard, the former president of the Fédération des chambres de commerce du Québec (FCCQ), has yet to declare his intention to run, though several media have reported him to be considering it. The party’s former interim leader Marc Tanguay has been tapped once again to fill the position until a new leader is elected through an official race. 

“I think the party would be well suited with Mr. Milliard at the helm, as we face a chronically inefficient CAQ government and a PQ who is once again proposing to have a referendum in their first mandate,” Fortin told THE EQUITY on Dec. 19.

Fortin said though Milliard may be a new face for voters across the province, he finished second in the spring’s leadership race with 48 per cent of the party’s votes, compared to Rodriguez’s 52 per cent. 

“To me the party would be well suited to have a candidate that represents party renewal, somebody who can come out with fresh new ideas, and somebody who’s rooted in Quebec’s regions. He is somebody who would have a lot to bring. [ . . . ] Public notoriety is not a unique criteria in this regard, though Mr. Milliard has gained a lot of it in the past year.” 

Fortin said the party still has to share the rules for the next leadership race, which is expected to be much shorter than the spring’s race given that the provincial election is only 10 months away. 

“Anybody who is seriously considering being a candidate for that race would do well to wait for these rules,” he said. 

“There will be significant attention turned to what the Liberal party will propose in the next campaign so that’s why for us it’s important to have a leadership race that has a very quick turnaround, [because] the next leader will have a lot on their plate in terms of candidate recruitment and [building a] platform in a very short period.”

Rodriguez resigns

Rodriguez officially stepped down on Dec. 18 after weeks of turmoil within the party and several reports about problematic practices during his campaign which he has repeatedly said he knew nothing about.  

In the latest of these campaign scandals, the details of which were published by Le Journal de Montréal on Dec. 16, 20 people were allegedly reimbursed $500 each for attending a fundraising event at the home of a Montreal businessman, such that the host indirectly donated $10,000 to Rodriguez’s campaign.

In a statement, Rodriguez’s team said the host acted without their knowledge, stating “this action is unacceptable, unethical, and contrary to the rules in force, and has never been part of the campaign’s practices.”

Earlier scandals include an alleged cash-for-votes initiative, currently being investigated by Elections Québec, in which text messages revealed some people were reportedly paid $100 to vote for Rodriguez, as well as Rodriguez’s decision to expel parliamentary leader Marwah Rizqy from caucus after she fired her chief of staff Geneviève Hinse without consulting him. 

Alongside the Elections Québec investigation, there are also three other investigations underway: one commissioned by the party itself, being led by retired judge Jacques R. Fournier; one from the National Assembly’s ethics commissioner looking into allegations a Liberal MNA used government resources for partisan purposes; and a criminal investigation of the QLP opened by UPAC, the province’s anti-corruption agency. 

In his Dec. 18 resignation, Rodriguez once again stated he had done nothing wrong, but was stepping down because he believed he had become a distraction to the party. 

“I took this decision solely out of a sense of duty. I want to be very clear. I have nothing to reproach myself for,” he said in French. “The Liberal party deserves to have its projects and its plan for the future discussed.” 

Fortin, who was promoted to the position of parliamentary leader after Rizqy was suspended, said he believed Rodriguez’s words to be “authentic.” 

“He believed and still believes that politics is still the best way to improve your fellow citizens quality of life and that the Liberal Party is the best vehicle to achieve that,” he said.  

“No campaign, no party is ever fully protected from one person or two people going rogue, but if information about those people comes to light, then the party has a responsibility towards its members and potential electors to clean house and kick these people out of the party, and that is 100 per cent what we intend to do.”