Champagne may be ‘quality candidate’ Quebec Liberals need
If there is a by-product of Denis Coderre’s Quebec Liberal Party (QLP) leadership water-testing tour it is that it may encourage other “quality” candidates to ponder a run.
We put “quality” in quotes because that is the diplomatic word Liberal interim Leader Marc Tanguay used in relation to Coderre’s potential bid: “For me, this is confirmation that people of quality are thinking about the leadership.”
Coderre, one-term Montreal mayor, former longtime Liberal MP and former minister of various portfolios under prime ministers Jean Chretien and Paul Martin, says he won’t decide until May whether or not he’ll run. So it’s too early to say whether an ABC (anybody but Coderre) movement will emerge.
To date, few folks have openly expressed an interest in leading the Libs back to the promised land, one they have ruled for about 70 of the past 120 years.
Quebec Liberal MP Joël Lightbound (Louis-hébert), who two years ago dimmed his rising star wattage with criticism of his government’s pandemic policy, was mulling the idea about a year ago. He told Radio-canada recently he has not closed the door necessarily, but needs more time to reflect.
The other known interested party is Montreal MNA Fréderic Beauchemin who recently returned to the Liberal caucus after he was suspended pending an investigation into a dispute with a party official.
Another in the mix potentially is charismatic MNA Marwah Rizqy, the darling of several media commentators. Pregnant with her second child, she has said the timing is just not right for a contest that will take place next year.
As a side-show that at least got the QLP in the news, Coderre and Rizqy traded barbs over the relative merit of their respective political careers.
Then there is federal Innovation, Science and Industry Minister Françoisphilippe Champagne. According to a revealing report last week in The Hill Times, the energetic minister was not quite emphatic enough in denying his interest in the provincial Liberal leadership, and therefore he was declared to be interested.
What he actually said when asked “if it would be accurate to say he’s not ruling out the possibility (of running)” was: “Listen, I have a job. I’m always amazed at people, people always ask me if I want another job. I have a job, and I’m pretty happy with that, and I’m pretty busy.”
Of course, leading Quebec’s Liberals is not just another job. In fact, one might argue if there ever was a job crying for a “quality” candidate of Champagne’s ilk, it’s Quebec Liberal leader at a time when the Coalition Avenir Québec government could be on the way out in the 2026 election, with no federalist alternative.
As former Liberal premier Jean Charest put it in a CBC Radio interview last week, the QLP “is the only federalist party in the National Assembly … There needs to be a strong federalist voice that brings people together.”
Champagne is surely aware of the political stars aligning. With Justin
Trudeau seemingly sincere about leading the Liberals into the 2025 federal election, he either faces exile to opposition if the Grits lose to Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives, or another stint as a minister in what, in the most optimistic scenario, would be another Liberal minority.
Even if and when Trudeau decides to leave, Champagne’s odds to succeed him would be slim up against the likes of Chrystia Freeland, Anita Anand, Sean Fraser, Mélanie Joly or Mark Carney.
The QLP executive has decided the leadership vote will be in the spring of 2025, although it is not clear when the deadline for entering the race might be.
It seems clear the QLP leadership would be Champagne’s for the asking, except, according to the Hill Times report, no one from the party has officially asked him yet.
While Champagne’s departure from the Trudeau cabinet would be a mighty blow, it might be seen as a sacrifice for the greater good of the country.
One thinks of Jean Lesage who spent 13 years as a federal Liberal MP, including four years as minister, before taking on the leadership of the QLP in 1958, in opposition to Union Nationale premier Maurice Duplessis (comparisons to François Legault optional).
Lesage, as we know, ushered in the Quiet Revolution modernizing Quebec. Champagne has the same opportunity - to lead Quebec’s 21st century transformation.