Quebec Conservative leader Éric Duhaime receives 77 per cent support in confidence vote

Quebec Conservative Leader Eric Duhaime speaks at the opening of a two-day congress of the party, Saturday, November 18, 2023 in Levis, Que. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot

Quebec Conservative leader Éric Duhaime received 77 per cent support in the vote of confidence held this weekend in Lévis.

It was a score well below that of his rivals François Legault and Paul St-Pierre Plamondon.

Members of the leader's entourage said they have taken note of the dissatisfaction.

"It's just a fraction of the members who are present, who are the most involved, but also the most vocal. That explains why the result is slightly lower than our estimates for members," said a Conservative source close to the leader.

More than 300 delegates from the various local associations voted on Saturday at the Quebec Conservative Party convention in Lévis.

Since Friday, attempts were made to lower expectations surrounding the leader's vote of confidence. Duhaime had said that he expected a "fair" score.

Former Beauce-South candidate Jonathan Poulin said on Saturday that he sensed "discontent" within the party.

In his view, the leader is running the party too much on his own. Despite this, Poulin believes that Duhaime is still the right man for the job, at least for the time being.

Some party members still thought that the score could have exceeded 80 per cent.

On Friday, the Conservative leader acknowledged that the results of the last election campaign created disappointment and discontent among Conservatives. The party did not elect any candidates.

According to poll aggregator Qc125, the party is currently polling around 12 per cent of the vote and could win three seats if an election were held today.

In May, Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) leader Legault obtained a score of 98.6 per cent. Two months earlier, Parti Québécois (PQ) leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon achieved 98.5%.

In 2005, Bernard Landry resigned as leader of the PQ, humiliated by a score of 76 per cent.

Nine years earlier, Lucien Bouchard chose to stay on as leader despite receiving 76.7 per cent support.

The official name of the PCQ was: "Quebec Conservative Party -- Éric Duhaime Team."

During the convention, the leader proposed removing the last three words, which the members accepted almost unanimously.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Nov. 19, 2023.