Quebec Liberal Party members will have to wait until the spring of 2025 to choose their next leader.
The party made the announcement Sunday, the final day of its general council in Drummondville, Que., prompting a heated debate.
The Liberal Party has been without a permanent leader since November 2022, when Former Leader Dominique Anglade stepped down following a major election loss.
There has been little public interest in taking on the party’s leadership role since then, and some are hoping that by delaying the leadership vote to 2025, more potential candidates will emerge.
“We Liberals don’t want to have a coronation,” Interim Quebec Liberal Party Leader Marc Tanguay said. “We need, and we’re looking for, a real race with more than one candidate — men, women, people with ideas.”
But there was some tension surrounding the decision.
“The regions were not heard — as always,” Denis Tremblay, a Quebec Liberal Party member from Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean said of the election timeline.
“I think the sooner, the better, for the Liberal Party,” said William Baril, a member of the Liberal Party’s Youth Wing in Rouyn-Noranda and a staffer for Liberal MNA Frédéric Beauchemin. “The Liberal associations in all the regions of Quebec need to have a clear pathway in front of them and it’s really difficult to raise funds when you don’t have a leader.”
Baril was one of a few members of the youth wing who spoke out against the decision Sunday. Several of them stood next to potential candidate Beauchemin in a show of solidarity as he entered the general council.
Beauchemin says he is still considering running for leadership of the Liberal party, despite being temporarily suspended from the Liberal caucus pending investigation.
“I’m 100 per cent confident that everything will be in the past. It’s a misunderstanding,” Beauchemin told reporters. “We’ll move forward. I don’t think it’s going to influence the process.”
The MNA for Marguerite-Bourgeoys was temporarily suspended from caucus after the president of the party’s youth wing, Élyse Moisan, accused him of psychological harassment. He denies the allegation, but came under fire after taking to social media to accuse his party of lacking a clear direction. Moisan did not speak to media this weekend.
The party’s interim leader also refused to comment on the situation Sunday because the investigation is ongoing, but he insists his party is in a good place despite the tensions.
He says there are other potential candidates out there, outside of the party’s caucus, and they have just been waiting for the leadership race regulations to be published before throwing their hats in the ring.
“The phone’s going to ring, and the phone already started to ring,” said Tanguay, who has confirmed he will not be a candidate himself. “We already have discussions, informal discussions, with potential candidates.”
Federal Quebec City-area MP Joël Lightbound has previously said he, too, was not ruling out running to be the party’s leader.
The party is also hoping to make the leadership race a little more accessible this time. It’s cutting the entry fee for the race to $40 thousand — down from $50 thousand, and it’s capping campaign spending at $400 thousand. To qualify as a candidate people will have to gather 750 signatures from members in 70 ridings.
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