Adrien Pouliot: Éric Duhaime’s ideas are as radical as they are popular

Quebecers have elected Conservative MNAs to the National Assembly for the first time since 1935. Not one or two, but 19.

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How did this happen and what can be learned from it? Éric Duhaime’s first election, in 2022, only 18 months after taking over as leader of the Conservative Party of Quebec (PCQ), was bittersweet. While the party took 13 per cent of the vote, a ninefold increase over 2018, the votes were too dispersed and resulted in one of the worst democratic distortions in Quebec political history as the party did not succeed in electing a single MNA. Duhaime, a diehard fiscal conservative, combined his political experience in Quebec and Ottawa with communication skills honed over the last decade as a popular radio talk show host in Quebec City to prepare for the next four years. He professionalized the party, surrounded himself with a strong, experienced team and meticulously planned the next election.

This election was fought on the battlefield of ideas. Right out of the gate on Day 1, Duhaime announced that the old, bureaucratic tax and spend Quebec model was broken and had to be rebuilt. He unapologetically announced his intention to cut $47 billion in government waste, eliminate corporate welfare, reduce the size of the bloated bureaucracy by 20,000 positions and shrink program expenses by 2.5 per cent, including dumping the wasteful green fund. He next focused on the cost of living and announced a tax cut of $11,166 per typical average household over a term, structured around reducing personal income taxes, eliminating the carbon tax, suspending the provincial gas tax and eliminating the sales tax on used goods.

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Other taboo hot topics were addressed head-on: reducing the corporate tax rate by 59 per cent; more private-sector involvement in health care, including building four private hospitals; assisting young families with a pro-natalist stance; slashing housing costs by reducing regulatory impediments to construction; better control of immigration. Duhaime published a 200-page book on achieving greater autonomy for Quebec within the Canadian Confederation by forming alliances with like-minded conservative governments across the country.

Duhaime’s bold and early slapshots gave him the home-ice advantage as his adversaries were destabilized, forced to skate on his turf and to respond to (and often copy) his proposals as the polls started their upward movement for the party from an initial 13 per cent to more than 20 per cent. His popularity skyrocketed on social media (one edit of debate clips garnered 3.5 million views). His momentum never stopped growing and he peaked at the finish line by asking for the balance of power in a minority government to block the Parti Québécois’ promised (and most probably losing) referendum.

What lessons can conservatives across Canada learn from this breakthrough?

Run on ideas. Voters appreciate a campaign of ideas, Kim Campbell notwithstanding. Complex policies can be explained in simple terms, and this is where Duhaime excelled. Slashing $47 billion in wasteful spending struck a chord in Quebec City where everybody works in government or knows someone who does, and can attest to the waste, fraud and abuse of taxpayer money. Specifically stating the number of bureaucrats who would not be replaced at retirement was another easily understandable idea. Expressing the tax cuts in one simple number made them relatable.

Defend your ideas. Progressives had a fit over his plan for a home daycare voucher, to encourage parents to keep children home. Others claimed it was impossible to cut $47 billion without slashing services to the population and dismantling the state, or that competition would destroy public sector health care. Decentralization and privatization would, the critics claimed, threaten the very foundations of the Quebec welfare state. The list goes on, fed by agents of the status quo exposed as benefiting from the system. Duhaime never retreated one inch.

Keep it clean. While Duhaime sometimes responded to mudslinging, he proved to be a master of political judo, seamlessly turning the attacks of those who fired the first shots back upon them.

Stay focused and on message. The Trump tariffs could have derailed the campaign. But the Conservatives stayed on message, adapting its foundational messages to the theme of the day. The war room produced a five-point Trump anti-tariff strategy, simply by realigning its existing platform of lower corporate taxes, deregulation, interprovincial trade and energy independence through natural gas. The Trump panic eventually petered out. During the whole campaign, the party remained laser-focused on which ridings to target and who the core audience was: the blue-collar/suburban/rural family and the disenfranchised younger generation.

Prepare. Duhaime ran a much better campaign this second time around. Despite having no MNAs in the House for four years, he did not fade into oblivion as one might have expected. He persevered, getting media attention nevertheless. For example, relentlessly pursuing his adversaries on their flip-flopping regarding a third bridge between the north and south shores of the St. Lawrence in Quebec City, touring the country to meet fellow conservative premiers and promoting his book on autonomy, and getting a former Coalition Avenir Québec MNA and minister to cross the floor to join the Conservative ranks all maintained his media presence between the two elections. He was in the starting blocks weeks before the starting gun went off.

All across the western world, many voters are feeling the negative impacts of profligate governments, the burden of high government indebtedness, overweight bureaucracies, crushing taxes, out-of-control immigration and the erosion of democratic values. The silent majority has had enough of the broken promises of big government. They yearn to hope again for the simple promise of being able to raise a family in their own home and be left alone to flourish and run their lives with people who share their values. This is the conservative way. The ground is more fertile than ever, in Canada and elsewhere, to nurture that message. As can be seen in Quebec, there is hope that such a narrative can be heard.

Adrien Pouliot was leader of the Conservative Party of Quebec, 2013-2021.

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