Quebec Liberal Party June 2025-

28 October
Mulcair: Is Pablo Rodriguez finally finding his groove?
The Liberal leader homes in on fixing health care and fighting another referendum, issues that are top of mind for Quebecers.
…At that general council, Rodriguez was able to successfully build on an unexpected lifeline thrown his way by the doctors’ union of general practitioners. Their head said that, at Pablo’s request, he was pulling back some pressure tactics during labour negotiations, including the refusal to provide training for the next cohort of residents. It put Rodriguez in the driver’s seat on the issue of health care, even if it did appear somewhat contrived.
He used his positive positioning to implore doctors to hold on for a year and not to take early retirement or leave the province. A clever play that built on the role handed him by the doctors’ union.
Rodriguez played the referendum card ably as well. Of course, the Quebec Liberal Party would be the only game in town when fighting the next referendum if, heaven forbid, there was to be one. But Rodriguez put the Liberals forward as a bulwark against a referendum, and that plays to the desires of a clear majority of Quebecers.
Smart politics. Rodriguez is a seasoned organizer and he understands that having a top team of election candidates is a way to signal momentum. I’m told several marquee names have committed.
They would include Charles Milliard, the second-place finisher in the leadership won by Rodriguez. He is a Liberal in the Bourassa mould, and could play an active role in helping Rodriguez understand today’s Quebec.
I’m also told that Antoine Charest will be running, and that would be exceptionally good news for Rodriguez. The son of Jean Charest would be redoubtable in debate with the Péquistes and represents the young generation that separatists keep claiming as their own.
Other names being floated include former minister Martin Coiteux, senior Liberal legal adviser Nicolas Plourde, and Sacha Cannon, the talented son of former federal Conservative minister Lawrence Cannon.

30 September
Mulcair: Attacks on rights intensify in Quebec. Where’s the Liberal response?
The federal and provincial Liberals still don’t seem to grasp the reality of Quebec’s ongoing assaults on human rights.
There’s no middle ground here. You either have convictions and the courage to defend them, or you stumble into a political trap. Prime Minister Mark Carney and Quebec Liberal Leader Pablo Rodriguez have both fallen right in.
Premier François Legault knows this game well. When he’s not undermining the rights of religious minorities, he’s hacking away at constitutional guarantees of equality between English and French in Quebec’s courts.
It helped give him two majority mandates — but there’s a new kid in town: Parti Québécois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon.
Two years ago, PSPP hopped onto the discrimination dance floor and showed that he really mastered the moves. He gave a full-bore rant against everything from systemic discrimination being taught in Quebec colleges and universities to gender identity issues, lumping them together as the “ideology of the radical left.”
Anyone who thought that this younger leader represented progressive, calm change was soon disabused of the notion.
At the federal level, the Carney government has filed arguments in the case against Bill 21 — the Coalition Avenir Québec law that openly discriminates against religious minorities.
That law has an entire chapter on face coverings that clearly targets Muslim women. Yet Carney has chosen to fight it only on narrow procedural grounds tied to the timing and use of the notwithstanding clause. That’s a thin gruel. …
Rodriguez recently claimed Bill 21 had brought “social peace” to Quebec. That was pure clientelism, an attempt to find short-term political cover. Predictably, it backfired. Instead of showing he “gets” Quebec, it has painted him into a tight corner.
How can Rodriguez say Bill 21 brought peace, then oppose the next anti-minority proposal from the PQ or CAQ?
So what now for Rodriguez? Once you’ve conceded that Bill 21 represents social peace, on what basis do you oppose the next outrage?
No courage. No convictions. No rights.

20 September
Who did Tom Mulcair call ‘one of the worst politicians I’ve ever met?’ (video)
The former NDP leader pulls no punches in his feisty Corner Booth debut.
… He also offered a warning to Pablo Rodriguez, current leader of the Quebec Liberals, saying “he’s walking right into a trap with Bill 21,” the CAQ’s secularism bill that bars teachers, lawyers, police officers and more from wearing religious symbols.
Mulcair added the provincial Liberals remain “in deep trouble outside of Montreal.”

Libman: ‘Where’s Pablo?’ and other urgent questions for Quebec Liberals
Three strikes, you’re out! That was part of what former Parti Québécois Premier Lucien Bouchard was trying to tell current PQ Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon recently about his unwavering promise to hold a sovereignty referendum in his first mandate if he’s elected premier next year. Seemingly anticipating another defeat, Bouchard said the two previous referendum losses, in 1980 and 1995, led to painful setbacks for the sovereignty movement. The former premier also warned PSPP that if a referendum becomes a central campaign issue, it could derail the separatist party’s lead in the polls, making it difficult for the PQ to get elected, and calling it a gift to Quebec Liberals and the federalist side. Which begs the question many have been asking: “Where’s Pablo?” The Liberals chose Pablo Rodriguez to lead them into next year’s election. New polls this week continue to suggest Bouchard’s concerns are justified. But that’s only if Rodriguez starts unwrapping his gift and gets to work much more effectively.

15 July
Michelle Setlakwe
Députée de Mont-Royal–Outremont, Leader parlementaire de l’opposition officielle
It is with pride, humility, and determination that I take on my new role as House Leader of the Official Opposition in Quebec’s National Assembly.
The honour is all the greater as I become the first woman to hold this position for the Quebec Liberal Party.

21 June
Pablo Rodriguez can’t treat anglos ‘as the party wallet’ |video
(The Corner Booth) Political strategist Jennifer Crane, founder of Connexion Quebec Public Affairs, and political analyst Raphaël Melançon, founder of Trafalgar Stratégies, join hosts Bill Brownstein and Aaron Rand to break down Rodriguez’s closer-than-expected leadership win, and whether he can bring Quebecers back to the party in time for the 2026 election. “I was surprised he didn’t win as solidly as he thought he was going to win,” Crane said. “Most people I know who are Anglos voted for (second-place finisher) Charles Milliard.”
…the provincial Liberals sit in second place under their new leader, only five points back of the Parti Québécois. With Paul St-Pierre Plamondon’s party ahead and François Legault’s CAQ a distant third, Melançon says sovereignty is back on the table, meaning Rodriguez can position the Liberals as a refuge for voters who don’t want a referendum. …
Quebec Liberals gamble on Rodriguez. Will voters?
By Robert Libman
Did Quebec Liberals shoot themselves in the foot last weekend? Pablo Rodriguez, a former MP and minister under Justin Trudeau, narrowly won the leadership of the provincial party over pharmacist and former head of the Fédération des chambres de commerce du Québec, Charles Milliard. The Liberals face an uphill challenge. To win next year’s election, they must wrestle back the support of francophone voters who make up 80 per cent of the electorate. For the past several years, francophone support has been languishing at or below 10 per cent. The Liberals are largely the default party for non-francophones concentrated primarily in the Montreal area. Montreal Island and Laval, however, comprise only 33 of 125 ridings. As the Coalition Avenir Québec and Parti Québécois have shown, you can win elections without Montreal, but you can’t win without the overwhelmingly francophone regions covering the rest of Quebec.
… On language issues, Rodriguez has recently been criticizing the CAQ government’s actions as divisive, saying he would modify Bill 96 by eliminating two irritants — the search and seizure provisions and six-month grace period for immigrants to receive government services in English. He also promises to reverse tuition hikes that penalize English universities, and he opposes the pre-emptive use of the notwithstanding clause. But as he inevitably faces pressure to solidify his pro-Quebec credentials or acknowledge “the decline of French,” will the standard recoil reflex to throw anglophones under the bus kick in? He certainly didn’t object to Bill 96 as Trudeau’s Quebec Lieutenant, and he supported the Official Languages Act revision (C-13) that compromises minority-language protections for Quebec anglophones.

14 June
Quebec Liberals choose Pablo Rodriguez as new leader of party
(Montreal Gazette) The Quebec Liberals have elected former federal Liberal MP Pablo Rodriguez as the new leader of their party. On the second round of voting because no candidate achieved a majority of 50 per cent plus one in the first, Rodriguez narrowly beat out his last contender, Charles Milliard, the former president of the Fédération des chambre de commerce du Québec, on Saturday. Rodriguez, who had been considered the front-runner in the contest over the last weeks, won the leadership with 195,473 points or 52.3 per cent of the vote. Milliard was not far behind, earning 178,527 points or 47.7 per cent of the vote.
Milliard told reporters afterward that he was proud of his score after entering the race with zero and almost as an unknown. He said he met with Rodriquez right after the vote and offered his support. “I…asked him to take good care of the party and be vigilant because the party is precious,” Milliard said, repeating that he still intends to run for the party in 2026 in the riding of Orford.
… To the surprise of many, former Roberval MNA and party veteran Karl Blackburn did not survive beyond the first ballot. He placed third with 103,265 points or 27.6 per cent. Milliard beat him narrowly with 107,345 points or 28.7 per cent, allowing him to face Rodriguez in a final round.
Under the election regulations, only the top two candidates, Rodriguez and Milliard, were left on the ballot for the final tabulation of votes. It was based on the Liberal members’ second and third candidate preferences. The party opted for a preferential two-round voting system, which made predicting the results very difficult. Each of Quebec’s 125 ridings had the same clout in the vote with each assigned 3,000 points. Of the total, 1,000 points were reserved for youth members.

11 June
Can Rodriguez dodge the “Anyone But Pablo” movement developing in Québec Liberal race?
Andrew Caddell
It is not just Pablo Rodriguez’s name or urban swagger that may hold him back—he has little growth potential among young people
(Hill Times) Fearing political oblivion, the Liberals have gone out of their way to not offend francophone nationalist voters, who are not their natural constituency.
For example, they did not oppose Bill 4, the shortest law in the Commonwealth, which offered to make the oath to the King—a constitutional requirement—optional. They followed that up with support for a unanimous resolution demanding the elimination of the post of lieutenant governor, the day after Indigenous leader Manon Jeannotte’s appointment was announced last December. They voted in favour of a motion denouncing bilingualism, another repudiating Prime Minister Mark Carney’s call for “One Canadian economy, not 13,” and joined in calling for the end of the monarchy the day King Charles left Canada last month.
The leadership race has attracted five candidates: Rodriguez, and a series of former candidates and business types. Marc Bélanger, a tax lawyer, ran and lost in two long ago federal elections. Karl Blackburn, former MNA in Roberval and recently president of the Conseil du patronat du Québec business group, was seen as a front runner and came in late. Charles Milliard was the president of the Federation of Quebec Chambers of Commerce, while Mario Roy is an economist and farmer.
What is truly astonishing is the vast majority of Rodriguez’s support comes from anglophone MNAs. The former Trudeau cabinet minister was known on Parliament Hill as a hypernationalist who publicly denied there was such a thing as a native anglophone community in Québec.
Rodriguez is also one of the architects of Bill C-13, which applies the rules of the Charter of the French Language on federal employees and federally regulated businesses, and declares French Canadians as the only linguistic minority in Canada. In the passage of Bill C-13, I heard from several anglophone MPs that the Trudeau PMO—egged on by nationalists like then-heritage minister Rodriguez—discouraged them from voting against Bill C-13, with promises their nomination papers might not be signed in 2025.
The greatest irony of the raft of endorsements for Rodriguez is that his MNA supporters are presuming he can win a majority. I have been reading about and participating in Quebec politics since I was a teenager in the 1960s. I live in one of the rural “regions,” and I don’t see Rodriguez cleaning up here. It is not just his name or his urban swagger—he has little growth potential among young people.

10-11 June
Mulcair: Progressive voices from all sides take a stand for Quebec unity
…the Quebec Liberal leadership race now takes on new significance. Voting has begun to choose a permanent leader, and the stakes are high.
The choice seems to be coming down to experienced Quebec politician and business leader Karl Blackburn and former federal minister Pablo Rodriguez, who sat at the cabinet table for every boneheaded economic decision of Justin Trudeau.
The growing momentum behind Blackburn is worth noting. I’ve known Blackburn for decades. He is the only candidate with experience in the National Assembly and brings with him a deep understanding of Quebec and its regions. He has a businessman’s eye for the economy, grounded in his roots in the resource-rich Saguenay—Lac-St-Jean region, and an engaged approach to social issues. Few understand the Quebec model as well as he does, including our approach to resource development that treats First Nations as genuine partners, as exemplified by the Paix des Braves.
See Karl Blackburn on how Quebec Liberals can beat the CAQ
It’s been a long, cold, wet spring. But there is, indeed, some sunlight on the horizon.
Course à la chefferie du Parti libéral du Québec: que le meilleur gagne!
… Jusqu’à la dernière minute, on a cru qu’il n’y aurait qu’un nombre très restreint de candidats.
Or, celui qui sera choisi par les membres héritera du PLQ dans un contexte tout à fait différent de ce qu’il était il y a deux ans. …
La dégringolade de la CAQ, ses échecs consternants, son incapacité à livrer ses projets phares, la remontée du sentiment nationaliste provoquée par les attaques de Donald Trump envers la souveraineté du Canada et l’incertitude économique viennent ouvrir la voie à un retour du PLQ comme la seule option valable pour de nombreux Québécois en 2026.
Si le mode de scrutin et le système de pointage du parti rendent l’issue du vote imprévisible, la journée du 14 juin n’en sera que plus palpitante.
Quebec Liberals vote for new leader Saturday; five candidates (video)
“Whoever takes over will have to be very regional,” said political analyst Karim Boulos about the Quebec Liberal leadership race. With five candidates, the new leader must rebuild the struggling party.

7 June
Karl Blackburn on how Quebec Liberals can beat the CAQ
(The Corner Booth) … A late entry into the [QLP Leadership] contest is Karl Blackburn, former MNA for Roberval from 2003 to 2007, and a chief organizer for the party. Blackburn also served as the president and CEO of the Conseil du patronat du Québec (CPQ), the province’s largest employers’ group. The Quebec Liberal leadership candidate joined hosts Bill Brownstein and Aaron Rand to lay out his vision for uniting the Liberal base in Montreal with the vote-rich regions of the province. Blackburn feels his Lac-St-Jean bonafides will serve the party well outside of the 514-450.
Blackburn talked about his opposition to the CAQ government’s language, education and health-care bills. He also commented on the “anyone but Rodriguez” sentiment brewing in the race against the early front-runner, former Montreal-area federal minister Pablo Rodriguez. “The PLQ are not going to be a government anymore if we’re not able to reconnect with the regions, and this is my strength,” Blackburn said in response to what would make him a more attractive candidate than Rodriguez.

2 June
Quebec Liberal leadership race: Economist Mario Roy shares his ‘big ideas’
(CTV) Roy: I started my campaign with one idea, one proposition that is completely different from the others. I’m suggesting nationalizing residences for older people. The reason is that over the past decade we’ve lost a number of residences for older people all over the regions but all over Quebec. We’ve seen a lot of residences that have been closing over the past years, and I’m suggesting to nationalize them for two reasons.