The pressure is mounting on CAQ minister Éric Caire. The Conservative leader, Éric Duhaime, wants to force him to leave his seat because his government retreated on the third link.

Quebec Conservative Party (QCP) activists will go door-to-door to collect signatures from dissatisfied voters. The party is drawing its inspiration from a bill introduced by Caire in 2011, which would have allowed citizens of a riding to remove an elected official with a petition obtaining a majority of signatures.

That indicates their intention to collect the support of 50 per cent of the voters in La Peltrie, Caire's riding, to encourage him to resign.

"Eric Caire, in opposition, liked to be called a sheriff. He was the first to call for the head of elected officials. Today, the time has come to taste his own medicine," said Duhaime in a statement.

The PCQ is considering other actions to get Caire to give up his seat, including a letter and radio advertising campaigns..

Caire, who was a strong supporter of the third link, had said in 2017 that he would resign if the CAQ backed down on the file.

After his government's flip-flop last week, the La Peltrie MNA decided instead to keep his seat and explain the decision to his constituents.

Another petition launched last week also calls for Caire's resignation. At the time this story was written it had gathered more than 7000 signatures.

ALLOW ELECTED OFFICIALS TO BE DISMISSED: PQ

The Parti Québécois (PQ) is inspired by Caire's 2011 initiative. The political party will introduce a bill to allow the dismissal of elected officials when they don't respect their commitments.

According to PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, the idea is to give the population a way to be heard if it finds that a commitment has been broken and that "trust is broken," he said.

"It creates discipline," he said in an interview in the corridors of the national assembly press gallery in Quebec City.

"It's a reminder to elected officials that if you solemnly put your seat on the line and make a commitment, you're playing with people's trust, there can potentially be consequences."

This would create "perhaps a certain sense of prudence" within some elected officials, who would have had "interest in taking it more seriously" before running in two election campaigns on a third link project "that would never see the light of day," he explained.

He said François Legault never intended to live up to his promise and go forward with the third link.

St-Pierre Plamondon also asked the premier to apologize to Quebecers.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on April 24, 2023.