Conservative leader Andrew Scheer rises during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill, in Ottawa, on June 6, 2018.PATRICK DOYLE/The Canadian Press
For years, Michel Gauthier tormented the Chrétien and Martin governments in the House of Commons, using his rhetorical fire to attack the Liberals in Question Period and boost Quebec’s sovereignty movement.
Eleven years after his retirement, the former Bloc Québécois House Leader is coming back into the world of politics as a federalist, having formed an unlikely alliance with Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer. The pair will campaign together on Thursday in Chicoutimi-Le Fjord, just four days before a by-election in the traditionally nationalist riding where the Conservatives hope to steal a seat from the Liberals.
Mr. Gauthier is the perfect symbol of Mr. Scheer’s strategy in Quebec, where he is working to recreate the “blue” coalition of Quebec nationalists and conservatives that regularly comes together in the province. While Mr. Gauthier is at ease living in a united Canada today, his fight against the Liberal Party lives on.
“I am calling on sovereigntists who used to vote for the Bloc Québécois to turn their support to the Conservative Party,” said the 68-year-old.
The Liberal MP who was elected in Chicoutimi-Le Fjord in the last election, Denis Lemieux, resigned last year. While the Conservatives finished in fourth place in the riding in 2015, they have attracted a popular candidate with widespread name recognition in the riding, former junior hockey coach Richard Martel.
Conservatives think they have a unique opportunity to rally the anti-Liberal and anti-Trudeau vote in Quebec, given the falling fortunes of two other major parties in the province. Beset by leadership problems, the Bloc is facing another existential crisis. Meanwhile, the NDP is struggling to maintain its position as a major federal presence in Quebec under the leadership of former Ontario MPP Jagmeet Singh.
A Léger poll conducted in May in Quebec showed the Liberal Party of Justin Trudeau remained in the lead in Quebec with the support of 40 per cent of respondents. The Conservatives were in second place at 29 per cent in Quebec, up seven points in the province since March and up 12 points since the 2015 general election. The NDP was at 15 per cent, down 10 points since the previous federal election, while the Bloc was at 10 per cent, down nine points.
“Mr. Scheer is a new leader with a new team who is putting together a new program, he is very open to Quebec and he seems to me to be someone who would make a very good prime minister,” Mr. Gauthier said.
In Mr. Gauthier, the Conservatives have an ally who can use his public profile and his formidable verbal talents to attack Mr. Trudeau not only in the coming by-election, but also in the lead-up to the 2019 general election.
The long-time Bloc Québécois MP, House Leader and Leader retired in 2007, one year after the Harper Conservatives came to power. Despite the Bloc’s strong showings in Quebec in the 2004 and 2006 elections, Mr. Gauthier had lost his fire. A Parti Québécois MNA in the 1980s, Mr. Gauthier had become convinced the Bloc had outlived its usefulness and that Quebec was not set to become an independent country any time soon.
In recent months, Mr. Scheer has taken to attacking Mr. Trudeau in Quebec for living “in his own Care Bear world.” Mr. Gauthier likes to use a similar analogy, arguing that Mr. Trudeau lives in the “pays des merveilles” (Wonderland).
“I find him naive, like he is living on another planet. When he talks about the federal budget, he makes it sound like everything is going fine. When he talks about transforming Canada into a post-national state, he sounds like he is dreaming in Technicolor,” Mr. Gauthier said.
Mr. Trudeau campaigned in the riding last week ahead of the G7 summit, promising to fight to protect the aluminum industry and the supply management system in agriculture.