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Pierre-Karl Péladeau quits as PQ leader, MNA for St-Jérôme
May 2, 2016 - 1:45pm
This kind of came out of nowhere. Speculation? Who'll run to take his place?
Utterly stunning news. Of course I'm glad to see the back of him, but I'm flabbergasted.
Véronique Hivon would be a good choice.
1) The PQ is going nowhere in the polls, which put PKP under pressure as it would any party leader in his situation, and which clearly was an affront to his messianic sense of self.
2) His wife caught him, to paraphrase the great political analyst Nancy Sinatra "Messin' where he shouldn't have been messin", and was threatening to go public about it if he didn't step down.
3) He's fighting an alien brain worm infestation.
4) He maybe just got bored with whole thing.
The expression on his face did not suggest someone who was leaving of his own accord.
Personally, I'd kind of like to see Jean-François Lisée take another crack at it. Of course, even more than that, I'd really like to see QS displace the PQ, so my feelings are mixed.
Why did Pierre Duchesne (his chief of staff) "quit" (or was he "demoted") last week?
And Julie was on Tout le Monde en Parle last night... did anyone catch that episode? Will have to check on line.
ETA: Here's something en anglais about her appearance:
Stuck in the Middle avec moi: I have even more respect for Julie Snyder after Tout le monde en parle
Could she be PQ leader?
I'm with you on that. Although it may be wishful thinking I think the PQ is in a slow but permanent decline along with those who still want Quebec to become an independent country.
They should pick the next PQ leader using the format of La Voix.
Yes, I think the consensus of opinion is that the PQ was more socially democratic several decades ago under Rene Levesque than it is today.
And PKP in particular is certainly more right-wing than Levesque and the PQ of old when it comes to economic policies.
Hopefully the PQ will return to its roots and become the progressive party they once were.
I can't say I'll hold my breath,unfortunately.
Rosemary Barton joked this afternoon that someone should get a camera on Pauline Marois for her reaction.
It's interesting to think whether the 2014 Quebec Election might have been different for Marois had it not been for PKP's fist pump.
https://twitter.com/RosieBarton/status/727197326876499968
Hopefully the PQ will disappear entirely.
Can't say I'll old my breath either.
Or as Justin Ling tweeted 'PKP resigns to spend more time with his money".
I would not be surprised if I thought that PKP did all this to screw up the PQ, starting from his leadership bid. This is just too convenient. The PQ has to elect a new leader and raise a warchest by 2018, and they just don't have the critical mass of activists and campaigners they would need to do this.
Still, Quebec's Donald Trump is gone, which is a good thing.
Ethan Cox has an interesting take on this, in Ricochet: https://ricochet.media/en/1135/abrupt-resignation-of-pq-leader-pierre-ka...
Unfortunately,that scenario would reduce Québec to PLQ and CAQ tyrannies for the next 20 years. With a different leader,a progressive Lévesque type,I'd be open to voting for them.
Or maybe it would open the door to an anti-racist social democratic party accountable to people and committed to social justice for Quebec. Rumour has it that such a party exists, though the PQ has long sceased to be it.
Chantal Hébert
Péladeau’s departure might be good news for PQ, bad news for Liberals
Pierre Karl Péladeau’s fighting words that were music to the ears of the converted acted as a powerful deterrent on the majority of Quebec voters who cannot stomach the prospect of a third referendum anytime soon.
https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2016/05/03/pladeaus-departure-might-...
"Be a politician", they said. "It'll be fun!", they said.
Jean-Martin Aussant will not seek the PQ leadership.
http://www.ledevoir.com/politique/quebec/470104/parti-quebecois-jean-mar...
This time I hope they get it right with their choice of Leader.
Yes,I'm a supporter of QS but a progressive as PQ leader would push them closer to the left and trhat's good news.
Face it,QS isn't forming a government soon,unfortunately. The next election could see a PQ government that is true to its roots.
Thank you,PKP for resigning!
Sylvain Gaudreault has been picked as interim leader.
CBC claims Véronique Hivon is the one to watch, citing sources that say a dozen PQ MNAs are about to support her - as well as former Option Nationale Jean-Martin Aussant, who won't be running himself.
But - a Léger Marketing poll says Alexandre Cloutier would reap 27% of PQ votes, vs. 15% for Bernard Drainville (he of the infamous Charter of "Values"), and only 11% for Hivon. This leads ex-premier Bernard Landry to call on the PQ to save its time and money on a leadership race and just crown Cloutier.
Where would you place each of those people on a left-right spectrum?
Right.
Cloutier ran against PKP and placed second, but remained loyal to all his policies. Likewise, Hivon supported Cloutier in that race.
Most importantly, none of them showed any trace of resistance to the neoliberal direction of the PQ, initiated by Lucien Bouchard's attempt to emulate Mike Harris in the 1990s.
I don't think the leadership race is about policy. It's about having an electable persona. The left opposition is not within the PQ.
I'd love to be wrong about this. If anyone is more familiar with their internal politics (I'm not), please weigh in!
New PQ leader to be elected by mid-October
Party says it will finalize rules of leadership race by end of month
May 07, 2016
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/new-pq-leader-to-be-elected-by-mi...
Véronique Hivon will officially launch her campaign for the Parti Québécois leadership on Monday.
Véronique Hivon sera de la course à la chefferie du PQ
le 08 mai 2016
http://www.laction.com/Actualites/Politique/2016-05-08/article-4522343/V...
*
http://rabble.ca/news/2016/05/pierre-karl-p%C3%A9ladeau-and-party-cant-be-saved
Pretty much the same lament as I made here. I won't quarrel with Mathieu as to whether the PQ has been neoliberal for 3 decades (as he says) or 2 decades (as I said). Of course he's correct about Lévesque attacking the workers and the common front. But that just put him in line with all the NDP provincial governments ever. The onslaught on public services, Mike Harris style, and the obsession with deficit, really marked Bouchard's regime.
But our conclusions are the same. It makes little difference whom the PQ chooses as its leader, so long as there is no movement for change within. And as I said above, I don't see any. Mathieu appears to concur.