Duhaime: 'If we're not in the National Assembly, we'll be on the street'

QUEBEC CITY — Éric Duhaime straps the harness on his pitbull-Labrador mix, Mia, and attaches the leash to his waist belt.

As he exits his campaign bus, a group of roughly 30 supporters wearing athleisure cheers him on as he approaches the running track in the battlegrounds park of the Plains of Abraham.

It’s a chilly seven degrees, and Duhaime maintains a brisk five-minute-per kilometre pace over three kilometres as he chats with party activists.

Momentum appears to be on the side of his Conservative Party of Quebec, with the favourable polls published in the morning showing a five-percentage-point lead over the Coalition Avenir Québec in the riding of Beauce-Nord, and behind by one point in the riding of Beauce-Sud.

However, though Duhaime appears to have the momentum in the Quebec City and Beauce region, he is running against the wind if he hopes to translate that support into actual seats.

Speaking to reporters at a campaign stop in Portneuf, west of Quebec City, Duhaime said he knows his party is in many tight races, but because his voters skew younger, they are less likely to vote than supporters of the CAQ.

“It’s important for us to get seats,” Duhaime said. “But there is a risk that there will be a significant electoral distortion on Monday night. We want to tell the young people out there to ask their parents and grandparents to vote with them and to vote for the future.”

The CAQ is polling around the same level as it was in the last election, but is projected to win an even bigger majority, while Duhaime’s party could earn close to 20 per cent of the votes and win no seats in the National Assembly.

Duhaime is pulling all the stops to push party supporters to go out and vote.

At rallies, he’s telling them to babysit for others who need childcare so they can go vote, and to drive those with mobility issues to the polls on Oct. 3.

While he’s buoyed by the high participation rate in the advance polls, particularly in areas where his supporters are strongest, Duhaime is taking nothing for granted.

If his party is shut out on election day, it will result in many people being disenfranchised, he said.

“If we’re not in the National Assembly, then we’ll be on the street,” Duhaime said. “As a people, we should have this opposition in the assembly and have our debate in a democratic and appropriate way, but what happened in the last few years is that a lot of people went into the streets and that’s how they voiced their opposition.”

Duhaime, who gained popularity by opposing COVID-19 health restrictions, was in friendly territory Thursday, speaking to Radio-X morning host Dominic Maurais and  repeating the message that his supporters need to show up en masse to vote.

And he went on the attack, saying the CAQ is giving the province a bad name internationally by making disparaging remarks about immigrants.

He said incumbent immigration minister Jean Boulet should be dropped as a candidate after his anti-immigration remarks made headlines.

“Mr. Boulet is disqualified,” Duhaime said. “He should not be on the ballot.”

Duhaime said Legault should dump Boulet for saying 80 per cent of immigrants don’t speak French, don’t work and don’t adhere to Quebec values.

“What message is (Legault) trying to send — his comments are not acceptable for a minister, but they’re totally acceptable for a candidate of the CAQ and an MNA for Trois-Rivières? That argument makes no sense.

“Mr. Legault will have to sit down with Mr. Boulet and make a decision.”

Duhaime added he’s concerned about Legault’s repeated comments about immigration, the most recent coming Wednesday, when he said accepting more than 50,000 immigrants a year would be “suicidal for the Quebec nation.”

“I look in all the small villages, the immigrants who are there are like family. The people from there will buy them winter coats. That’s how we Quebecers are, and François Legault is giving us an image as intolerant people, and he’s harming the province’s reputation.”

On another radio show, Duhaime said his party is set to make a final pitch to anglophones to abandon the Liberals and vote for the Conservatives.

Duhaime told CJAD 800 host Elias Makos non-francophones are joining his movement and he hopes to pick up seats on the island of Montreal.

“A lot of non-francophones are getting in and I’m happy about that,” Duhaime said. “We’ll be in the west end of Montreal on Saturday, in the Jacques-Cartier riding, and I will make a bilingual speech.”

Duhaime said the Liberals risk becoming a marginalized party as they have polled  poorly among francophone voters.

However, more recent polls place the Liberals in second behind the CAQ, and the polling aggregate site Qc125.com predicts the party will form the official opposition.

jmagder@postmedia.com

twitter.com/jasonmagder

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