Supporters point to gaining popular support as a victory, though at 9 p.m.
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As election results leaked out Monday night, Quebec Conservative Party leader Éric Duhaime vowed that he and his party would not soon disappear from the political scene.
With the Coalition Avenir Québec projected to form the next government, the Conservatives were also claiming some sort of victory. Getting more than 10 percent of the vote in the early count was a good sign, supporters said.
However, after 9:00 p.m. they did not direct or choose in any equitation.
“The party was at one percent about a year ago, so this is huge,” said Cédric Lapointe, the party’s press attaché.
Throughout the campaign, Duhaime noted that opinion polls reflected a notable rise in popular support for the Conservative Party since he became party leader in November 2020, reaching nearly 20 percent, tied for second with Liberals and Quebec Solidarity.
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Duhaime’s campaign was marked by almost daily 5:00 pm rallies, mostly in small towns for hundreds of supporters. The largest demonstration took place midway through the campaign at the Center Vidéotron in Quebec City, where approximately 2,500 supporters gathered.
Duhaime based his campaign primarily on hyperlocal issues in the Quebec City area and its suburbs.
The party has pledged to end a controversial tramway project and offer free public transport in the capital region. He said he would scrap the CAQ plan to build a tunnel between Lévis and Quebec City and build another bridge in its place.
The so-called third link was one of Duhaime’s main campaign issues. She insisted on the issue almost daily, and asked the CAQ leader, François Legault, to make the studies carried out by Transport Quebec public.
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Duhaime, a former Quebec City radio host, garnered support from loyal blue-collar workers of so-called shock radio, as well as opponents of COVID-19 restrictions. He also gained popularity among Quebec City’s traditionally conservative voters, many of whom expressed disillusionment with the CAQ and its perceived betrayal of more right-wing friendly promises such as smaller government and tax cuts.
The Conservative Party campaign rarely traveled more than an hour outside of Quebec City, barring trips to Montreal for television leaders’ debates and a final campaign rally in Pointe-Claire on Saturday night to court the vote. english speaking To that end, he vowed to repeal Bill 96, the CWC government’s language law, and replace it with legislation he said would not roll back the rights of the historic English-speaking minority.
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Hoping to capitalize on anger within the non-Francophone community, and the alleged collapse of the Liberal Party’s voter base, Duhaime tried to convince Anglophones that his party would give them a real voice in the National Assembly and would aim to unite the English. and Francophones. His last appeal was made in a bilingual speech to his supporters at the Hilton hotel in Pointe-Claire.
“Francophone, Anglophone, Allophone, you are all Quebecers,” Duhaime told the crowd. “Here you are all essential. We don’t care what year your ancestors arrived or what year you came to Quebec.”
Other campaign promises included relief for renters in the form of checks, highway speed limits of 120 km/h and large tax cuts.
He urged Anglophones to drop their traditional support for Liberals and said the threat to sovereignty was no longer an issue.
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“That debate is over; there is no longer a referendum, and because of that old division, you voted liberal forever, and the other parties did not want to talk to you, ”he said.
Duhaime’s campaign was not without its weaknesses. He spent about a week answering for his past financial mismanagement, when it was discovered that he owed several years of back taxes on property he owned in the Quebec City area.
Duhaime also had to answer for earlier comments he made as a radio host when he pondered whether it would be a good idea to build a wall between the US and Canada to cut off the point of entry on Roxham Rd.
Asked about those comments, Duhaime did not distance himself from them and refused to rule out building a wall as a way to stop what he called “illegal immigration.”
Towards the end of the campaign, Duhaime appeared to be panicking after a poll showed him trailing CAQ incumbent Sylvain Lévesque. He urged supporters to converge on his Chauveau to knock on doors and answer phones in the hours leading up to election day.