(Ottawa) New Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre’s Quebec political lieutenant, MP Pierre Paul-Hus, says he is convinced the deal reached between the Trudeau government and the NDP should ensure the survival of the Liberal minority in the lower house until June 2025 won’t last.
Posted at 12:00 p.m
Joël-Denis Bellavance La Presse
According to him, the New Democratic Party (NDP) has been increasingly marginalized since its unification in March, while Justin Trudeau’s Liberals, guided by their thirst for power, will not hesitate to provoke elections if they believe it is the best for them Case is advantage and the polls are generally in their favor.
Result: Pierre Paul-Hus will soon start looking for candidates who could carry the Conservative Party banner in the next elections, he pointed out in an interview with La Presse.
“We need to start preparing now. We can hardly wait. The agreement between the NDP and the Liberals could fall at any time. We have no choice,” said Mr Paul-Hus, who was a member of the reserve force for 22 years and was a regiment’s lieutenant colonel from 2003 to 2007.
In it, the NDP undertakes to support the liberal minority government in the House of Commons in votes of confidence that affect budgets in particular. In return, the Trudeau government has pledged to implement certain measures dear to Jagmeet Singh’s party, most notably the creation of a national dental care program for less fortunate families.
PHOTO PATRICE LAROCHE, LE SOLEIL ARCHIVE
Pierre Poilievre and Pierre Paul-Hus at a rally in Lévis as part of Canada’s Conservative Party leadership race last May
In anticipation of the next election campaign, the Conservative Party’s coffers are already well stocked after a leadership race that enabled it to recruit some 670,000 members – a record for a political party on the federal stage.
Economy, economy and economy
In addition to recruiting candidates, Mr. Paul-Hus plans to campaign with cultural communities in the Montreal area in the coming months to convince them that the Conservative Party is the best option to replace the Liberal government.
He also wants to shatter the impression that he believes the Conservative Party west of Trois-Rivières is a simple reincarnation of the Reform Party.
“With the Conservative Party being heavily concentrated in the Quebec region, my role as political lieutenant will be to reach out to the business community, cultural communities and other regions of Quebec. With my experience over the last few years, I have come to realize that east of Trois-Rivières it is natural to vote conservatively. But west of Trois-Rivières, people have the impression that it is a party from the west of the country, à la the Reform Party,” explained Mr Paul-Hus.
“In the Quebec region, in Beauce or in Lac-Mégantic, we vote conservatively and that’s natural,” he says. We need to get the message across that the Conservative Party of Canada is a right-wing party. »
We are responsible curators. We are a coalition of different kinds of conservatism. There are progressives, libertarians, social conservatives. But all in all, our absolute priority – and this is especially true for Pierre Poilievre – is the economy, the economy and the economy.
Pierre Paul Hus
According to Mr. Paul-Hus, who will also advise Mr. Poilievre on national security and defense issues, his leader’s statement during the leadership campaign that he wanted to make Canada the “freest country in the world” specifically covered “economic issues”. Freedom”.
“To give young adults the freedom to do what they want with their money, for example to live, to buy a house, that’s what’s missing at the moment. This economic freedom is only accessible to people who have money at the moment. It’s not accessible to those who don’t have a dime,” he said.
In the immediate future, the priority of Mr Paul-Hus, who was first elected in 2015 when the Conservatives were relegated to the benches of official opposition, will be to ensure the unity of the Quebec caucus.
In an interview, Mr. Paul-Hus referred to the resignation of Alain Rayes. He wanted to thank his former colleague for his work as a political lieutenant.
“I thank Alain for what he did as a lieutenant for the Conservative Party. He did an excellent job. Today he chose a different path. I respect his decision. It was an event that was boring for everyone, both him and us,” he said.
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9 Total number of Conservative MPs in Quebec following Alain Rayes’ decision to resign from the party this week
Source: HOUSE OF COMMONS