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The CAQ is growing with former PQ MP Bernard Drainville, who will return to politics.
CAQ deputies and ministers have played down the arrival of a hardline sovereignist to their team, in what Premier François Legault calls a nationalist coalition of politicians of all stripes. Bernard Drainville is the second prominent sovereignist politician to join the CAQ; Legault has recruited Caroline St-Hilaire, a former Bloc Québécois MP and former mayor of Longueuil to run for his party as well. This news provides further evidence that Legault is gearing up to potentially launch a new attempt, and version, of sovereignty in Quebec.
Last week, the halls of power buzzed with pro-independence supporters on the news that Mr. Drainville quit his job as a 98.5 FM radio host to attempt a return to politics. Abandoning his struggling former PQ party, Mr. Drainville will run for the CAQ in the riding of Lévis, sources confirmed.
Mr. Drainville was a PQ member and minister from 2007 to 2016. As a minister in the Marois government, he was responsible for drafting Bill 60 in 2013 – better known as the Charter of Values - which proposed a total ban on religious symbols in the public sector. Mr. Drainville tried to run for the leadership of the PQ after the departure of Ms. Marois in 2014, but he withdrew from the race to support the eventual winner, Mr. Péladeau.
Mr. Drainville, who will turn 59 on Monday, arrives just in time to help the CAQ in its bitter fight with the Conservative Party of Quebec for the ridings of the capital region. Mr. Drainville lives in the suburbs of Quebec, in St-Augustin-de-Desmaures. Coincidentally, the current CAQ MLA for Lévis, François Paradis, issued a statement shortly after Drainville’s announcement, announcing that he will not be seeking another term in the fall election. The announcement appears to have been brought forward for political reasons, as Paradis, who is president of the National Assembly, still has a full week left in his role as arbiter of the legislature’s debates.
The reaction of Mr. Drainville’s former party on his decision to run for the CAQ was swift and brutal. This news is another blow for the PQ, which is in last position in the polls. This week, former Premier Lucien Bouchard said the PQ may no longer be the right vehicle to advance the cause of independence.
Meanwhile, the move also gave some fodder to the Quebec Liberals, who may suggest that the CAQ is actively recruiting sovereigntists to its benches, while at the same time claiming to be a nationalist party. CAQ deputies and ministers played down this criticism, with Mr. Legault suggesting the CAQ is a nationalist coalition of politicians of all stripes. So far, this definition appears to be landing well with voters, as the Liberals struggle to resonate with Quebecers.
Coupled with legislative efforts that many suggest challenging the state of the federation today (including Bill 96 and Bill 121), Legault is working to assert a new type of nationalism in the province. How far that coalition extends and whether or not voters are buying into this new bent will be a major question heading into the fall election campaign.
