Quebec’s new premier will be chosen today at CAQ convention

DRUMMONDVILLE — Quebecers will learn on Sunday who their new premier will be.

After a leadership campaign that lasted 80 days, members of the Coalition Avenir Québec are gathering Sunday for a one-day convention to find out which of two candidates won the battle.

The winner — either Christine Fréchette or Bernard Drainville — automatically becomes Quebec’s 33rd premier. They will succeed François Legault, who announced in January he would be stepping down before the end of his second mandate.

Members have until 3 p.m. Sunday to cast a ballot. As of Saturday at 6 p.m., 73.7 per cent of the 20,500 eligible members had voted.

The Fréchette and Drainville camps spent the weekend making last-minute phone calls to potential supporters to ensure they get out and vote.

Arriving early Sunday at Drummondville’s Centrexpo, where the convention is being held, both candidates remained optimistic.

“(I’m) excited but confident,” Drainville told reporters. “We are making calls right to the last minute.”

“Yes, I’m a little excited,” said Fréchette. “I am happy with our campaign. Now it’s in the hands of the members.”

The two candidates get to make a last pitch in short speeches at the start of the convention at 2 p.m.

That will be followed by a final speech from Legault and a 45-minute tribute. Legault co-founded the CAQ in 2011 and has been its only leader to date.

The party will then announce the winner, who is elected by a majority vote, sometime after 4 p.m.

With limited time before the October election, the transfer of power is expected to be swift. Legault himself will be standing by Monday waiting to hear how and when the new leader wants to proceed.

To officially become premier, the winner will have to be sworn in by Quebec’s lieutenant-governor. That could happen as early as this week. The premier will then form a new cabinet.

Fréchette has said she wants a smaller cabinet — there are 26 ministers now, including the premier — while Drainville has pledged to cut the number to 20.

Drainville, 62, and Fréchette, 56, have promised to work together regardless of the result of the vote.

Drainville said he would name Fréchette deputy premier in his cabinet if he wins, while Fréchette said she would give her competitor a prominent role.

The new leader faces many hurdles, such as managing the exodus of CAQ MNAs who have decided not to run again, and trying to recruit new candidates at a time when the party is trailing badly in the polls.

The CAQ is a coalition of politicians with federalist and pro-independence leanings, so the new leader will have to move quickly to call for unity and keep the troops focused on the October election.

Sunday’s vote will bring the curtain down on a campaign that got off to a slow start, but became more intense at the end when Drainville turned up the heat on Fréchette, who appeared to be the front-runner.

On Friday both sides said their internal polling showed they were ahead. Fréchette conceded Drainville had picked up steam following an endorsement by Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette in the last week of the campaign.

Part of the mystery of who will win is due to the fact the two campaigns only managed to sell about 5,000 new membership cards since the race started.

The party did not reveal how many each camp sold, which means it was hard to tell which candidate benefited the most.

Most of the vote rests in the hands of the 15,000 pre-existing members of the party, and nobody quite knows what to expect from them.

Polls of people who say they vote CAQ indicated Fréchette was the favourite, but there was no way to tell whether those people held valid membership cards and whether they were voting.

One Léger poll done for the Fréchette campaign showed the CAQ’s standing among voters would climb with her as leader.

On Saturday, a new Léger poll done for Le Journal de Montréal revealed the CAQ under Fréchette would see its support move up to 18 per cent, putting the party in third place, but under Drainville’s leadership it would be in fifth place at eight per cent support.

Fréchette ended the campaign with the support of 41 CAQ caucus members, including 17 cabinet ministers. Drainville had the support of 20 caucus members, including four ministers. The value of such endorsements is hard to gauge.

While Fréchette had plenty of ministers behind her, Drainville seemed to have more political staffers with experience in the field.

As for political excitement, the two debates — one in Quebec City and the second in Laval — stood out.

While Drainville campaigned as the anti-status quo candidate, Fréchette sold herself as the steady hand at the helm that Quebec needs in troubled economic times.

They had different visions on identity issues, including immigration and the popular Programme de l’expérience québécoise.

Drainville claimed Fréchette was hiding that her plan to bring the PEQ back for two years would mean 125,000 more new arrivals in Quebec.

He also accused Fréchette of being slow to join the chorus of politicians who called for the resignation of Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau, in the wake of Rousseau’s English-only message of condolence following the crash at LaGuardia Airport that claimed the lives of two pilots last month.

Drainville also accused Fréchette being indecisive.

Meanwhile, Fréchette accused Drainville of having flip-flopped many times, including running in 2015 for the Parti Québécois leadership.

She accused him of letting his ego get in the way of his judgment about the future of the third link between Quebec City and Lévis.

Both candidates have different ideas about the future of Bill 1, the legislation to create a Quebec constitution, which died on the order paper when the legislature was prorogued until May 5.

To bring it back to life, the new leader will have to push through a motion in the legislature.

Fréchette says it would be better to get the support of the opposition parties to adopt such a foundational document. Drainville says he sees no problem with adopting it by a simple majority, or even using the rules of closure to push it through.

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