MONTREAL – Confused about who’s who in the political hinterland these days?
Brace yourself. It’s going to get worse.
After a 2011 filled with political turmoil provincially and federally, the new year is starting off in the same way: with a bang.
It’s no wonder voters are confused about the players on the ice. They keep changing sweaters.
Kicking off the new year, two politicians, La Prairie MNA François Rebello and Saint-Maurice-Champlain MP Lise St-Denis, both decided to switch parties.
Rebello, one of the younger politicians in the Parti Québécois – considered a rising star in the party – last week donned the multi-coloured jacket of the newest party in Quebec, the Coalition avenir Québec.
On the same day, St-Denis flipped from the New Democratic Party to join the federal Liberals and their interim leader, Bob Rae.
While the move by St-Denis puzzled many, Rebello’s did not. He has always been close to CAQ leader François Legault and observers believed it was only a matter of time before he jumped ship.
Still, Rebello got raked over the coals for the move, accused of hypocrisy and betrayal by his former PQ colleagues.
On Friday, PQ leader Pauline Marois blasted him again, accusing him of lying to her face just before Christmas when he swore allegiance to the PQ.
Rebello found one supporter of his decision, political science professor Christian Dufour of the École nationale d’administration publique.
“The right of our politicians to flip-flop, regardless of the reasons, should be defended,” Dufour wrote in his weekly newspaper column.
“We can’t complain that party line rules transform our elected officials into puppets at the same time as taking away from them the main power they have over their parties: getting out (now) instead of going to the slaughterhouse.”
There are some who argue that the old maxim that you are born and die a member of a particular party does not apply in modern times. And if voters don’t feel married to one party or another anymore, why should politicians?
Which leads us to the recent shuffling of the deck chairs in the National Assembly. Here is the short version of what has been happening in case you are keeping score at home.
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Technically, of 125 MNAs, 64 are Liberal (including speaker Jacques Chagnon) and 44 are PQ, which forms the official opposition. The left-wing party, Québec solidaire, has one MNA, Amir Khadir.
But’s it’s in the remaining pool of seats – referred to as independents – where things get interesting.
In that group, seven are MNAs elected under the PQ banner but who have since walked. Of the seven, three – Louise Beaudoin (Rosemont), Pierre Curzi (Borduas) and Lisette Lapointe (Crémazie) – are sitting as independent sovereignists after a spat with Marois.
Three others – Benôit Charette (Deux-Montagnes), Daniel Ratthé (Blainville) and now Rebello (La Prairie) – have announced plans to join the CAQ, which technically does not have party status in legislature. That requires a minimum of 12 MNAs.
To keep you on your toes, the seventh PQ dissenter, Jean-Martin Aussant (Nicolet-Yamaska), has decided to go off and form his own separatist party called Option nationale.
An eighth former PQ MNA, René Gauvreau (Groulx), was expelled by Marois because of a police investigation into one of his aides.
Which leads us to a second pool of MNAs formerly associated with the Action démocratique du Québec.
Two of them – Eric Caire (La Peltrie) and Marc Picard (Chutes-de-la-Chaudière) – quit the ADQ a while ago in another feud and have been sitting as independents. They have announced they are joining the CAQ.
There are four remaining ADQ members, including party leader Gérard Deltell (Chauveau). Deltell, along with François Bonnardel (Shefford), Janvier Grondin (Beauce-Nord) and Sylvie Roy (Lotbinière) announced before Christmas they too are going to join the CAQ.
This means when the National Assembly resumes sitting Feb. 14, the CAQ will have nine members in the first parliamentary wing of the party’s history.
Party leader Legault does not have a seat and will direct his party’s house work from a distance while building the party from the outside.
He must deal with a new poll showing support cooling for his party. The poll, conducted by Léger Marketing for the QMI news agency on Jan. 11 and 12, showed support for the CAQ at 33 per cent. In December, it was at 37 per cent – a four-point slide. (The Liberals were at 27 per cent, the PQ at 25 per cent and Québec solidaire at nine per cent.)
Although it is not guaranteed, the CAQ will probably negotiate with officials to sit together. Usually the legislature allows this as a courtesy, such as when it allowed four Equality Party members to sit together.
Party status – which results in larger budgets and staff – is a whole other matter.
Of course, this is assuming the ADQ-CAQ merger is entrenched by the ADQ. ADQ members are voting on that plan now. The results will be known this Sunday.
The one striking thing about all this shuffling of chairs is that not a single Liberal MNA has crossed the floor. Don’t expect that to happen as the party is known for its iron discipline. (Tony Tomassi of LaFontaine was expelled from the Liberal caucus and remains an independent.)
Rebello’s arrival in the CAQ and his statement that he sees it as a tool to achieve sovereignty (eventually) will certainly dissuade any wavering Liberal MNAs.
So has the wooing and courting stopped?
Probably not. It’s the nature of the business.
Khadir, for example, says he has been regularly approached by the PQ to join them given that his party also believes in social democracy and sovereignty. He has resisted.
The ADQ’s Sylvie Roy said she too has been approached by the PQ.
A PQ recruit would go a long way toward shoring up Marois’s leadership but that has not happened so far.
And Legault says he still has some surprises in store, including beefing up the federalist side of his coalition. One potential recruit is former Notre-Dame-de-Grâce federal Liberal MP Marlene Jennings, who confirms she has been approached twice by Legault.
Jennings said this week she is still mulling over the idea.
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