Dominique Anglade to resign as Quebec Liberal leader, reports say
Anglade #Anglade
A little over a month after leading the Quebec Liberal Party to the worst electoral defeat in its history, Dominique Anglade is stepping down as leader of the party and MNA for the Montreal riding of Saint-Henri-Sainte-Anne according to multiple news reports.
Her announcement is expected to be made at 10:30 a.m. in Montreal.
“I knew it was going to be tough,” Anglade said in a Montreal Gazette interview during the provincial election campaign. “But politics is about doing tough things. And about making tough changes. But I never shy away from a challenge.”
Anglade’s announcement comes after weeks of criticisms over her leadership, how the election campaign was managed and, most recently, her decision to oust Vaudreuil MNA Marie-Claude Nichols from the Liberal caucus after the latter refused to accept a role in the party’s shadow cabinet.
Those criticisms – made anonymously at first but then amplified by on the record former Liberal cabinet ministers and MNAs – became more strident in the past 10 days, causing some observers to wonder not if she would leave the leadership, but when.
The Oct. 3 provincial election saw the Liberals reduced to just 21 seats in the National Assembly and garner just 14.37 per cent of the popular vote – behind Québec Solidaire (15.4 per cent) and the Parti Québécois 14.6 per cent). However the distortion of the first past the post electoral system allowed the Liberals to form the official opposition.
The timing of Anglade’s departure however comes at awkward time for the already embattled party. The National Assembly is scheduled to reconvene on Nov. 29 and the Liberals form the official opposition to a Coalition Avenir Québec government already buoyed by an election victory that saw it clinch 90 of the legislature’s 125 seats. While an interim leader will have to be found within the Liberals 20-member caucus (19, should Anglade indeed announce she is leaving politics altogether) there is no clear candidate to assume the leadership waiting in the wings, nor is the party prepared for the political or logistical challenges a leadership campaign would create in the short term.
Anglade, a former president of the Coalition Avenir Québec, was first elected as a Liberal in a byelection on Nov. 9, 2015.