LÉVIS — From journalist to backroom strategist working for the party’s greats to becoming leader himself, Jean-François Lisée has crossed the Rubicon.
In a brash come-from-behind win that had péquistes reeling, Lisée Friday yanked the PQ crown out of the hands of the man the party establishment believed had enough of the the royal jelly to give the firm the facelift it needs, Alexandre Cloutier.
It was not to be.
On the second ballot, Lisée squeaked to victory with 50.63 per cent of the vote compared to Cloutier, the MNA for Lac Saint-Jean, who bagged a disappointing 31.7 cent per cent after his support collapsed.
It is only slightly higher than Cloutier’s score in the 2015 leadership vote of 29.2 per cent.
Placing third was sovereignty hardliner Martine Ouellet, also on her second go around. Candidate Paul St-Pierre Plamondon did not survive the first ballot.
A total of 55,142 péquistes voted meaning a turnout of 75.09 per cent, higher than in the 2015 race.
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“Tonight, this victory belongs to all of us,” Lisée said taking to the stage to deliver a victory speech to about 2000 supporters. “It’s the victory of the PQ.”
After a bitter five-month campaign, Lisée immediately reached out to the losers.
The new Parti Québécois leader Jean-François Lisée, right, is congratulated by runner up Alexandre Cloutier at the PQ leadership race results evening, Friday, Oct. 7, 2016 in Lévis.
“Alexandre, dear Alexandre,” Lisée said. “Do you want to write a book about our future victories together?”
Lisée pledged to implement Cloutier’s ideas. To Ouellet, he said he admired her guts and drive.
But bitter does not begin to describe Coutier’s defeat.
Cloutier started the race to replace Pierre Karl Péladeau in the lead only to watch it fritter away as Lisée and Ouellet trained their peashooters at him day in, day out, narrowing the gap over the last five months.
By the end, a fatigued and burnt-out Cloutier was telling reporters this would be his last try for the job and he was anxious to get home.
Lisée, 58, becomes only the fourth leader in the PQ’s history to win by election. The others have been acclaimed. He is the party’s ninth leader overall.
The new Parti Québécois leader Jean-François Lisée speaks to supporters after he was elected at the Parti Québécois Friday, Oct. 7, 2016 in Lévis.
In his speech, Lisée switched to English, reaching out to the anglophone community. He urged them to leave the “trap” of voting for a corrupt Liberal government and join in creating a new country.
“As leader I will make sure that we have an open and fruitful dialogue on who we are and what we can build together,” he said in a 40-minute speech.
And he said the Liberals’ days in office are numbered. He said he has a remedy for the party: “a long period in the opposition and ethics detox.”
At a news conference, Lisée dismissed the idea his score gives him a weak mandate, saying 50 per cent is a majority.
He said he is humbled by the vote and said he repeatedly he is ready for the next election.
“We will win in 2018,” Lisée said.
The win means Lisée’s days spent shadowing the great leaders of the party, Jacques Parizeau and Lucien Bouchard for whom he worked as an adviser, are over for good.
Now, he has the job for real, including all the perils and turmoil that come with taking over a firm in obvious decline.
For Lisée, perseverance paid off. He pulled out of the 2015 campaign when it became clear he would could not beat frontrunner Péladeau.
Politics being a unpredictable game, he would get another chance with his surprise departure. This time there was no shilly shallying and Lisée poured his heart, soul and formidable intellect into a campaign filled with surprises that will be studied for years by political science students.
His confidence grew daily. By the end of the campaign he was waving around editorials in English Canadian dailies endorsing Cloutier as a way to showing péquistes the federalists feared him more and that was better for the cause.
He comes with his load of baggage. While he appears to have overcome, for now, the visceral dislike many péquistes have for him — beefs dating back to the failed 1995 referendum — he is still seen as a distant, even arrogant intellectual in the minds of many Quebecers.
He shifted himself enough to the right with his aggressive identity politics campaign that he now represents a threat to even the Coalition Avenir Québec with its base of wishy-washy nationalists — some of whom harbour fears of new arrivals.
The winner has to hit the ground running. He only has a week to prepare for the resumption of the legislature Oct. 18. Lisée is taking the weekend off but will meet all his MNAs next week.
Former Quebec premier and Parti Québécois leader Pauline Marois waves to supporters as she arrives at the PQ leadership race results evening, Friday, Oct. 7, 2016 in Lévis.
Only Pauline Marois was on hand to witness the new leader’s arrival. Conspicuously absent were four living former leaders: André Boisclair, Bernard Landry, Lucien Bouchard and Péladeau.
Marois issued a pitch for unity. Later, both Cloutier and Ouellet said they would rally to the new leader.
The evening at the Lévis convention centre was heavily focused on healing. There was music and song and spontaneous hugging of old friends, but a marked lack of enthusiasm even after Lisée was declared he winner.
The vote capped a campaign that officially started in July but really was underway moments after Péladeau resigned for family reasons.
Cloutier, backed by much of the party brass including 14 MNAs, ran the classic leader’s campaign: conservative, middle of the road, cautious to a fault but mostly wary of tripping up.
Enter Lisée, who entered this race with nothing to lose. His campaign hit paydirt when Véronique Hivon pulled out of the race, leaving most of her supporters in his lap.
Lisée seized the opportunity. His tactics were simple: poke and provoke at the same time as remaining just vague enough on where he stands to be able to dress it up with words along the lines of “just saying.”
In the end, the ballot box question was not about who was the best to advance sovereignty, but who is best equipped to bring down the Liberals.
The new Parti Québécois leader Jean-François Lisée watches the results with his mother Andrée Goulet at the PQ leadership race results evening, Friday, Oct. 7, 2016 in Lévis.
Election results
First round:
- Paul St-Pierre Plamondon: 3,772 (6.84%)
- Martine Ouellet: 9,077 (16.46%)
- Alexandre Cloutier: 16,357 (29.66%)
- Jean-François Lisée: 25,936 (47.03%)
Second round:
- Martine Ouellet: 9,702 (17.67%)
- Alexandre Cloutier: 17,403 (31.70%)
- Jean-François Lisée: 27,801 (50.63%)
Total votes: 55,142
Turnout: 75.09 per cent
