Defecting Quebec Tory MP Alain Rayes faces text message campaign demanding his resignation
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The text accuses Rayes of having called it quits with the Conservative party because he ‘decided not to fight Trudeau’s inflation with Pierre Poilievre’s united team’
MP Alain Rayes rises to question the government during Question Period, Monday, November 29, 2021 in Ottawa. Photo by THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld Article content
OTTAWA — Quebec MP Alain Rayes says that he and his team have been the target of “intimidation” tactics from Pierre Poilievre’s leadership team ever since Rayes announced he would step down from the Conservative party and become an independent member of Parliament.
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Speaking to the National Post Wednesday, Rayes said he believed Poilievre’s team is behind the apparent campaign of text messages meant to push him to resign his seat. He also alleged that the president of his riding association in Richmond-Arthabaska, Que., Isabelle Deschamps, has been pressured to publicly speak out against him and even freeze the riding’s bank account.
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Poilievre’s spokesman, Anthony Koch, said that Poilievre and his Quebec lieutenant, Pierre Paul-Hus, did indeed speak with Deschamps for an upcoming event in the riding, but denied any suggestion that she was pressured to speak out against the MP or freeze the riding’s assets.
Late on Wednesday evening, the Conservative party sent out a tweet apologizing for the automated text messages sent to party members in Rayes’ riding, but did not apologize directly to the MP.
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The Conservative Party of Canada apologizes for an automated text message sent out earlier today to party members in the riding of Richmond-Arthabaska.
— Conservative Party (@CPC_HQ) September 15, 2022
But Rayes is sticking to his version. “It’s intimidation, pure and simple,” he said in an interview in French. “What they’re saying to my former colleagues is: this is what happens if you’re out of line. So get in line, march with your tail between your legs and think like us.”
“No wonder people are cynical because of politics,” he said.
Rayes and his wife received a copy of the text message sent in French to the members in the riding of Richmond-Arthabaska around noon on Wednesday. It accuses the MP of having quit the Conservative party on Tuesday because he “decided not to fight (Prime Minister Justin) Trudeau’s inflation with Pierre Poilievre’s united team.”
It then provides the phone number to Rayes’s office with a suggestion the recipient call and tell the MP to resign his seat.
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Conservative MP Alain Rayes quits party caucus after Poilievre victory 
Tasha Kheiriddin: I discovered firsthand the power of Poilievre. Liberals should be afraid Rayes said that the three employees in his constituency office have been inundated with calls ever since the text message came out, with many constituents calling to say that they are shocked by the message itself. Rayes said he was disappointed that his association’s phone lines have been busy when they could be helping his constituents with other matters instead.
The now independent MP said that he does not regret stepping down from the party and that the events of the past 24 hours are comforting him in his decision.
“Today, I can tell you in no uncertain terms that I am proud to be an independent MP of Richmond-Arthabaska,” he said.
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Rayes was the first MP to publicly endorse former Quebec premier Jean Charest in the leadership race and became one of his main organizers in Quebec. Charest finished a distant second in the race, behind Poilievre, and lost a majority of ridings in his home province.
Charest even lost to Poilievre in Rayes’s riding of Richmond-Arthabaska, where Poilievre finished with 54 per cent of the points.
The MP announced on Tuesday in a statement that he would be stepping down. “I respect the choice made by members of the Conservative Party of Canada in the last leadership race. However, some of my political ideals, values and convictions are not compatible,” he wrote.
“I leave without bitterness and I remain driven by the deep desire to continue to serve the population.”
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That statement was released shortly before Poilievre took the floor to deliver his first statement to the media on Tuesday, and got questions about Rayes’s departure from his caucus.
The new leader said the leadership race showed that he had the support of Rayes’s constituents and said in French that Rayes had “decided not to fight Justin Trudeau’s inflation.”
Rayes said on Wednesday that he would not shy away from criticizing the Liberals’ decisions, especially in terms of the economy, and that it has been a priority for him in the seven years he has been an MP and the Quebec lieutenant for the party’s last two leaders.
But he said he simply could not stay true to his principles while staying in the party now led by Poilievre.
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“I have known Pierre Poilievre for seven years. I have lived through the past six months in a race. I’ve seen him go. I’ve seen the type of politics he has done, the people around him and his propositions. I’ve heard his victory speech and his speech to caucus (on Monday). There was no signal, based on my values and convictions like law and order or protecting institutions.”
Rayes said he has received many messages of encouragement from MPs on both sides of the aisle — and even an offer to buy a membership card from another party, which he refused.
He said he was already concerned about the “American-style politics” that Charest described as Poilievre’s style during the campaign, and that the attacks against him prove it.
“We’re not immune to that. And I think we have proof here today.”
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