Politics is an extreme sport, fought between opponents in the Blue Room, but also in factions divided between colleagues from the same party. In Quebec, parliamentary history is full of more or less tense moments in which rebellious MPs rejected the established order.
Posted at 5:00 am.
Vote against your government
In 1982, PQ MP Louise Harel voted against a special law put forward by her own government regulating working conditions for public servants. His – extremely rare – action was not without consequences. “I remember not being able to stand up in the Blue Room. I was like a pillar of salt. Eventually the staff cleaned up and before they turned off the lights they tapped me on the shoulder to let me know they had to close the doors. It took at least four months before I found a table with colleagues from the Parti Québécois where I could sit down to eat,” Ms. Harel later said in an interview for a CHU de Québec publication.
Losing your job in the name of your principles
IMAGE OF THE RUSSELL WILLIAMS FUND IN THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY ARCHIVE
Russell Williams on campaigning with Robert Bourassa in the late 1980s
In 1991, following the publication of the Bélanger-Campeau Commission's recommendations on the constitutional future of Quebec, Liberal MP Russell Williams voted against his own government's Bill 150 because the original text of the law called for a referendum on sovereignty to be held before October 26, 1992 (the law was eventually changed to focus the referendum on the proposals Ottawa had made to the provinces in Charlottetown). Prime Minister Robert Bourassa had stripped his MP of the title of parliamentary assistant.
Defy authority
PHOTO YAN DOUBLET, LE SOLEIL ARCHIVE
Louise Beaudoin, Pierre Curzi and Lisette Lapointe slammed the door on the PQ caucus to sit as independent MPs.
In June 2011, almost a year before Pauline Marois was elected prime minister, the Parti Québécois leadership chair was contested by three leaders of her political party. Lisette Lapointe, Pierre Curzi and Louise Beaudoin slammed the door to sit as independent MPs. “The Parti Québécois that I am leaving is that of monstrous authority, a leadership obsessed with power. The atmosphere has become unbearable,” Ms. Lapointe said at the time. At the time, the PQ caucus was divided over a bill to manage what would later become the Videotron Center. The three resigning MPs rejected the party line that Ms Marois tried to impose in passing the bill.
to attract attention, to attract attention
PHOTO ANDRÉ PICHETTE, LA PRESSE ARCHIVE
Françoise David, Manon Massé and Amir Khadir turned their backs on the House of Representatives when they voted on the liberal welfare reform in November 2016.
In November 2016, three Québec Solidaire MPs, Amir Khadir, Françoise David and Manon Massé, turned their backs on the House of Representatives when they voted on the Liberal welfare reform, which required benefit recipients to have vocational training if they wanted it for their benefit to obtain. In an interview with HuffPost Quebec at the time, Ms. David explained that they behaved that way at Salon Bleu because they considered it “a day of shame for Quebec.”
Share your thoughts
PHOTO ERICK LABBÉ, LE SOLEIL ARCHIVE
Former CAQ MP Émilie Foster, now a professor at Carleton University
Last spring, former CAQ member Émilie Foster, now a professor at Carleton University, complained that political parties had become “machines for centralizing power and controlling the message” while engaged in “perpetual electioneering.” The media treats the different views of MPs as betrayal. In this context, it does not go unnoticed when an elected official of the ruling party publicly declares that a government decision is unpopular or unwise.
PHOTO ROCKET LAVOIE, LE QUOTIDIEN ARCHIVE
The member for Jonquière, Yannick Gagnon, at the time of his election victory in 2022
In November, CAQ member for Jonquière Yannick Gagnon admitted he was concerned about the subsidy provided for the Los Angeles Kings' arrival at the Videotron Center for preseason games. “This is not good timing,” he said. In April, his colleague from Beauce-Nord, Luc Provençal, publicly expressed his deep disappointment at the abandonment of the project for a third highway link between Quebec and Lévis. After the crushing defeat at the hands of Jean-Talon, the government resumed its project.