Liberal leader wants to tighten screws on dissenting MNAs on religious schools debate

Quebec Liberal Party interim Leader Marc Tanguay questions the government during question period, Thursday, October 10, 2024 at the legislature in Quebec City. (Jacques Boissinot / The Canadian Press)

Visibly irritated by the dissent within his caucus on the issue of funding for religious schools, interim Quebec Liberal leader Marc Tanguay has given assurances that he will hold discussions with the elected representatives who have broken ranks, without giving any further details.

“Under no circumstances should caucus discussions end up in the public arena,” he said at a news briefing on Tuesday at the National Assembly.

Last week, during a debate on a Parti Québécois (PQ) motion calling for an end to funding for religious schools, Liberal MNA Marwah Rizqy said that her party's position had just changed: “We now believe that we must stop funding religious schools in Quebec,” she said.

Since this about-face on a historic position of the Quebec Liberal Party (PLQ), three caucus members -- Frédéric Beauchemin (Marguerite-Bourgeoys), Désirée McGraw (Notre-Dame-de-Grâce) and Elisabeth Prass (D'Arcy-McGee) -- have publicly broken the party line, stating that they are in favour of maintaining funding for religious schools.

• WATCH: 'Confusion over the term religious schools,' private schools association chair.

“There will be internal discussions to this effect,” said Tanguay, while refusing to give any further information on the content of these conversations.

“I reiterate the rule: what happens in caucus stays in caucus. If we've been in the PLQ for 157 years, it's because a lot of people have passed through the PLQ and respected that rule. We can't function any other way than by respecting that,” he added.

Tanguay said that his leadership was not called into question by this story.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Oct. 29, 2024.