Who is Conservative Party of Quebec Leader Éric Duhaime?

Quebec Conservative Party Leader Éric Duhaime and 18 members of his party emerged as winner in Monday's general election. Photo by Pascal Ratthé/Montreal Gazette /=022031000020=/Tennis Canada

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Heading into Monday’s Quebec general election, leader Éric Duhaime hoped to see a dozen Conservative Party of Quebec (CPQ) candidates, including himself, elected to the National Assembly — the minimum for official party status.

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By night’s end, however, he and the party had “written a page” in the province’s history, winning 19 seats, the third most in a crowded field.

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“This evening is only the beginning,” the 57-year-old former political advisor and radio host told enthusiastic supporters of the party, as reported by the Montreal Gazette.

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Duhaime committed to working with Paul St-Pierre Plamondon’s minority Parti Québécois government “to cut bureaucracy, put money back in families’ pockets and reform the old Quebec model” but said the CPQ would not “support a referendum that will weaken Quebec.”

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Before Monday’s result, the CPQ was represented by lone MNA Maïté Blanchette Vézina (La Peltrie), who joined after leaving the Coalition Avenir Québec in the spring following extensive discussions with Duhaime.

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Here’s what to know about the leader who led the party to claim its first seats in the provincial legislature in more than 90 years.

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Who is Eric Duhaime?

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Born April 15, 1969, Duhaime grew up an only child in the Montreal suburb of Laval, where his mother was a bus driver and his father worked in construction, according to his CPQ Bio. 

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“He has said that from a young age he wanted to get involved in politics to give a voice to ordinary people, whom he believes are too often overlooked by the political elite,” it reads.

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He attended the Université de Montréal, earning a bachelor’s in political science, and later obtained a master’s degree in public administration from the École nationale d’administration publique (ENAP).

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Duhaime is also gay, having come out in a 2017 book, La fin de l’homosexualité et le dernier gay (The end of homosexuality and the last gay man), his first of five books to date.

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What did Duhaime do before politics?

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In the 1990s, Duhaime worked as a political advisor to Bloc Québécois leaders Lucien Bouchard and Michel Gauthier. At the provincial level, he was also a Parti Québécois activist. He later joined Reform Party Leader Preston Manning’s “United Alternative” movement, before throwing his support behind Stockwell Day’s successful leadership bid for the Canadian Alliance party. He then served as an advisor to the leader from 2000 to 2002.

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From 2003 to 2008, he was an advisor to Mario Dumont, leader of the Action démocratique du Québec (ADQ), and Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe.

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In 2009, he joined the National Democratic Institute as a consultant — a U.S.-based non-governmental organization that promotes democratic institutions — and worked in Morocco, Mauritania and Iraq.

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