As the May calendar flips into June, the Action Democratique du Quebec has decided to accelerate its leadership contest.
The party will vote for its new leader on October 18, 2009. The vote had previously been scheduled for February 2010.
This happens as a fourth candidate, Chauveau MNA Gerald Deltell, seems prepared to take to the field. Deltell has been the subject of a "draft Gerald" movement which could make him an instant contender for the leadership of the hobbled party.
“Many people have asked me to be a leadership candidate,” Deltell recently admitted. “I don’t like politics. “I love it.”Deltell would join Gilles Taillon, Christian Levesque and Eric Caire in the race to become the next ADQ leader, and only the second leader the 15-year-old party will ever know.
Deltell was previously a journalist, and had covered Quebec's National Assembly for TQS.
Janvier Grondin, the man behind Mario Dumont's accelerated departure from the ADQ leadership, has welcomed the prospect of Deltell joining the leadership race with enthusiasm. “I really like his style,” Grondin noted.
Ironically, Deltell's current riding was formerly the home of Gilles Taillon, who in December 2008 ran and lost in the riding of Chapleau, which may give Deltell a serious head-up over Taillon -- Mario Dumont's former deputy leader -- in the contest.
This, of course, is all assuming that Deltell decides to run.
Patrick,
ReplyDeleteHaving read many of your posts on the travails & tribulations of the ADQ - I am nevertheless at a loss to understand your fascination for this party. Sure it makes for a good (localized) political soap-opera, yes the characters involverd are intriguing - but, really, in the end, will this party signify anything?
The ADQ is the conservative federalist voice in Quebec. As a result, we need the ADQ to draw conservative Quebecois away from the Parti Quebecois.
ReplyDeleteWhen the ADQ was at its peak last year, the PQ was the third party in the National Assembly. No matter how you look at it, that's good for Canada. Also good for Quebec.