Jean Charest Offers to Nail ADQ Coffin Shut

Charest offers welcome to ADQ defectors

With the Action Democratique du Quebec still reeling after the departure of defeated leadership candidate Eric Caire and former house Marc Picard from its ranks, Jean Charest has evidently detected the opportunity to lay the ADQ to rest for good.

He's offered Picard and Caire -- as well as any other ADQ MNAs -- the opportunity to join the Liberal Party in the National Assembly.

"Politics is the art of inclusion," Charest announced. "For us the door has always been open, from all time. It is an open party and we will not change, but we will respect the choice of each MNA."

However, Charest has made no move to formally recruit Caire, Picard, or any other member of the ADQ.

"I can tell you from experience that if a member decides to make a change in his situation, whether to become an independent or to go elsewhere, if has to come from him," Charest added. "We are putting no pressure on the ADQ MNAs and yes we have known one another for a long time and that doesn’t prevent us from encouraging one another."

Not that Charest hasn't been talking to any of them.

"In fact I spoke to Mr Caire after his defeat," he said. "I also spoke to [Christian] Lévesque to congratulate him."

But one has to wonder whether or not all the members of the ADQ would be welcome to join Charest's caucus. After all, Charest has been threatening former ADQ interim leader Sylvie Roy with a libel suit for claiming that three of his cabinet ministers had met with a controversial construction magnate aboard the man's private yaught.

Then again, for the opportunity to put his conservative opposition to rest permanently, Charest may be willing to swallow his pride, and see if Roy is willing to do the same.

Rarely before has a long-established political party collapsed so quickly after managing to become the Official Opposition. But the ADQ has managed to accomplish this task.

The ADQ has evidently reached the end of its story, and Jean Charest is perfectly content to write its eulogy.

Two More Nails in the ADQ Coffin

Caire, Picard split from ADQ

Gilles Taillon's efforts to salvage the Action Democratique du Quebec from the ashes of its drubbing in the 2008 Quebec Provincial Election has just become much more difficult.

Eric Caire, Taillon's primary rival for the ADQ leadership, and Marc Picard, the party's former House Leader, have both left the party to sit as independents.

This is only one more merciless blow to a party that has already suffered a continuous stream of defeats. In 2008, they were punted from Official Opposition status with a 34-seat loss.

Mario Dumont -- previously the only leader the party has ever known -- resigned from the leadership quickly after.

On June 22, 2009, the party lost Dumont's seat in the National Assembly to Liberal Jean D'Amour.

The party went on to conduct a long, drawn-out and often vicious leadership campaign in which policies and ideas took a back seat to personal and ad hominem attacks.

Now, fully one third of the parties MNAs have left their caucus.

Caire -- who, after his narrow defeat, stressed the importance of the party supporting Taillon -- complained that Taillon was pulling the party too far away from its conservative principles.

“It is no longer the party I joined,” Caire complained. "That ADQ no longer exists for me."

Caire even took the opportunity to lob one more hand grenade Taillon's way before departing from the party. "I think that the future of the ADQ depends on the leader of the [party]," Caire insisted, knowing full well that his departure effectively cripples the party.

He also blamed poor leadership qualities.

"[His is] a reign without teamwork, without having either the qualities or the charisma to do it," Caire added.

When a leadership campaign turns as deeply personal as the ADQ campaign did, it's only natural that the winner and losers will find themselves unwilling and unable to work together.

As Jean Lapierre has noted, the ADQ's failure to have a proper leadership contest has effectively spelled its end.

The ADQ's time has seemingly come. With it, so has the time for a new conservative party in Quebec.


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Taillon To Lead ADQ In Its Fight For Survival

Gilles Taillon wins lacklustre leadership campaign

When Mario Dumont resigned the leadership of the Action Democratique du Quebec, the party was left with the dual tasks of rebuilding from its disastrous defeat in the 2008 provincial election and choosing his replacement.

Now that the ADQ has chosen Gilles Taillon to lead the party, it must focus on the most important task to emerge out of the leadership campaign: proving it deserves to survive.

The ADQ leadership campaign turned out to be an utter disservice to the party. The disqualification of a candidate, another candidate's alleged inflated credentials, and the illness of Taillon -- who will soon be undergoing cancer treatment -- became issues in the campaign.

But, sadly, ideas weren't a central preoccupation of the campaign.

The ADQ's leadership campaign focused almost exclusively on personal attacks and acrimony, and painted a picture of a party with a disease at its very core -- of an exhausted organization with no sense of purpose, or even of its own futures outside the personal aspirations of Taillon and his principle rival, Eric Caire.

In order to get on with the task of simply surviving, the party will need to put the deeply personal nature of the leadership campaign behind them.

Taillon seems to understand this.

"I accept this victory with humility," Taillon announced. "Especially since I won with such a slim majority. We all have to work together for the ADQ to triumph in 2012, 2013."

Caire seems to share that understanding.

"I conceded victory, whether its over two votes or 150," he said. "I believe in democracy."

"Our team needs to rally around our leader," Caire added. "The decision was made by our members."

Taillon's and Caire's ability to work together in rebuilding the ADQ will prove the answer to the question of whether or not anyone other than Mario Dumont can lead the ADQ.

Gilles Taillon and Eric Caire will have to work together, without acrimony, to prove that the ADQ deserves to survive.

The ADQ Needs Super Mario to Return

ADQ leadership campaign self-destructive

Canadians, being hockey fans, almost certainly remember the story of the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 1990s.

They kicked off the decade by winning two straight Stanley Cups. The Penguins' fortunes steadily declined until 1997, when Lemieux retired to battle lymphoma. The Penguins struggled after Lemieux's departure, winning only a single playoff series.

Lemieux returned to the Penguins in 2000, and the Penguins continued to struggle. These years of struggle set the stage, however, for a spectacular rebuilding program that eventually resulted in the team winning another Stanley Cup under Lemieux's annointed and groomed successor, Sidney Crosby.

Super Mario Lemieux recognized when his team needed him, and returned to the fray.

Super Mario Dumont may need to do the same.

Dumont resigned his position as leader of the party he founded in 2008, after being reduced from Leader of the Opposition to only seven seats in the National Assembly.

Since then, the ADQ has been in search of a new leader. The results haven't been inspiring.

So far, the main issues discussed in the ADQ leadership campaign have been the disqualification of a candidate, and the allegedly-inflated resume of another one of the candidates.

Where most party's leadership campaigns are characterized by the rush to sign up new members to support a particular candidate's leadership ambitions, the ADQ leadership campaign has been characterized by an exodus out of the party.

"I would say that the meter counting members leaving the party is turning faster than the one counting new members," said Caire, one of the leadership candidates.

Caire has been accused of using a fraudulent resume in which he is listed as holding a Bachelor of Communications degree from Laval University. For his own part, Caire insists that the degree is still "a work in progress", and that his resume was merely subject to a typo.

Caire himself accused Christian Levesque of being unable to chew gum while walking.

ADQ founding member Marie Gregoire has been markedly disappointed in the tone of the campaign.

"You would hope that the debate would be on ideas," she complained.

"The ADQ has always been a party of ideas," Gregoire continued. "They have been putting things on the table that nobody had the courage to talk about."

Enougn is enough. Taillon, Caire and Levesque have embarassed their party enough. Mario Dumont must by now recognize that he's the only one left who can lead to the ADQ.

Even if the party continues to struggle, at least it can continue to rebuild under his leadership. Perhaps one day it will return to the benches of the Official Opposition, or perhaps even the government of Quebec.

All Super Mario needs to do is return.

ADQ Searching for New Leader, Pronto

ADQ speeds up quest for new leader

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.

ADQ Leadership Race Heats Up

Gilles Tailon announces leadership bid

Just a few short months ago, the Action Democratique du Quebec were in extremely dire straights.

They had just finished absorbing a whopping defeat in the 2008 Quebec election, their leader, Mario Dumont, had just quit, and no contenders were lining up to bid for his vacated post.

What a difference a few months can make.

As of yesterday, three candidates have declared their candidacy to become the next leader of the ADQ.

Gilles Tailon has formally declared his candidacy. He says he plans to focus on economic issues.

Eric Caire, the National Assembly Member for La Peltrie and another former MNA, Christian Levesque.

At 63 years of age, Tailon is the oldest candidate to join the field. He'd certainly be a significant change from the young, dynamic Dumont. His best asset is a stint as the President of the Conseil du Patronat du Québec, an association of business people. He was the president of the CPQ for eight years between 1998 and 2006.

Caire was first elected in his riding of La Peltrie in 2007 by 51% of the vote. Since then he's advocated the abolition of public school boards and the introduction of a school vouchers program.

Levesque has some international credentials, having previously been President of General Textiles International, which is based in Paris. In a party that has to lead toward French Canadian nationalism, such links to France could be a real asset for both Levesque and the ADQ.

Any of these candidates would be hard-pressed to replace Mario Dumont, but with the sharp turn in the party's electoral fortunes the ADQ is well-poised for the kind of change in direction a new leader could bring.