Drainville gets support from 3 ministers
Three ministers have announced their support for Bernard Drainville as the vote for the new head of the CAQ is about to begin.
I’m guessing that in the short term Simon Jolin‑Barrette sees himself as éminence grise to a second premier, and in the longer term, displacing him. But I don’t see either one as history’s man.
bob 10:09 on 2026-04-07 Permalink
Who cares? They will not be a party after the next election.
Ian 21:17 on 2026-04-07 Permalink
I do hope you’re right but the regions can still be whipped up to blame everything on furriners what hate real Quebec culture
bob 08:39 on 2026-04-08 Permalink
They have the resurgent PQ for that. Though, oddly, as the CAQ vote collapses, the PLQ vote is picking up more than the PQ.
Philippe Fournier at 338canada.com has had the CAQ at zero seats for months, and at or near zero seats since June last year. They have been behind the PCQ and QS for that long.
Ian 21:51 on 2026-04-08 Permalink
PSPP has kind of hamstrung himself with the whole referendum thing, I think he could have had a fighting schance if not for that. Even hardliners don’t have as much of an appetite for it in the midst of a global financial crisis with the spectre of invasion & annexation on top of it.
Joey 16:37 on 2026-04-09 Permalink
All PSSP had to was smile and coast until the campaign. Easier said than done, I suppose. The conventional wisdom has it that Frechette will handily win the CAQ nomination (it’s kind of insane that 20K CAQ members get to pick the PM, but it is what it is), but I wouldn’t count out Drainville’s support among the motivated members of the party – she is the candidate of the CAQ elite but his message probably resonates more with the membership. Basically Legault bet that he could get both the right-wing business community and the French-language white nationalist community together and ultimately it fell apart.
It will be interesting how the CAQ, kind of like the Conservative Party, might have a huge impact on the election even if they don’t win any or many seats. A Frechette-led CAQ will probably clip the Liberal Party’s wings a bit, leaving only Duhamine to challenge PSSP on which party has the more (intentionally) xenophobic posture – easily a boost for the PQ. If Drainville wins, a lot of CAQ support would probably bleed to the Liberals and suddenly PSSP will have two guys gunning for the nationalist vote. Could the LPQ eke out a narrow victory? Definitely possible…