CAQ convention: Francois Legault scores 98.61% confidence vote

Quebec premier and leader of the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) party François Legault scored 98.61 per cent in a vote of confidence by his delegates on Sunday.

Around 850 CAQ members gathered at a Sherbrooke convention to show their near-unanimous support for the premier. 

This test of leadership comes just weeks after the abandonment of the CAQ's flagship promise to build a third highway link between Quebec City and Levis.

The setback caused quite a stir across Quebec, especially in the Chaudière-Appalaches region.

In fact, the most recent Léger poll suggested the CAQ has dropped from 40 to 36 per cent in voting intentions across Quebec since February.

Even more abruptly, the drop was 14 per cent in the capital region, from 40 to 26 per cent. 

On Sunday morning, Health Minister Christian Dubé said he believes the CAQ had managed to put the third link episode behind it.

"I think we made the best decision [...] we are not afraid to make difficult decisions," he said at a press scrum.

Legault obtained 97.2 per cent of delegate support in 2014.

In comparison, Parti Québecois (PQ) leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon obtained a result of 98.5 per cent in his leadership test last March.

ARROWS FIRED AT PQ

In his speech, the CAQ leader specifically attacked the PQ, which is currently benefiting from the former's decline in the polls.

He called any nationalists who might be tempted by the PQ back into the fold, insisting that Quebec could not afford to wait for the "grand soir" (grand night) of sovereignty.

"As for the future of our nation, our culture, our language, there are only two parties left: the CAQ and the PQ," he said.

"The problem with the PQ is that it puts everything on the grand soir. The PQ tells us that we must protect secularism, our language. On that, we agree. But we must act now."

Legault said the CAQ was now "the largest gathering of nationalists in Quebec."

'MORALLY' BOUND

The premier qualified the words of his minister Pierre Fitzgibbon, who said the day before that the government did not feel bound to any resolutions adopted at the convention.

"We will look at them carefully. All good ideas are welcome [...] We are not technically bound, but we are morally bound [...] I think there are good ideas," he said.

On Saturday, CAQ delegates adopted several resolutions on energy, recognizing that "the energy transition is the challenge of the century."

They rejected proposals to end the monopoly of the Société des alcools du Québec (SAQ) and to allow right turns at red lights in Montreal. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on May 14, 2023.