Western Standard - Cory Morgan with Éric Duhaime

00:00:00.000 Welcome to the Cory Morgan Show. I've got a good one for today. I've got the leader of the

00:00:04.600 Conservative Party of Quebec, Eric Duhame, coming in, and he's talking with me one-on-one. He's

00:00:09.240 out in Alberta. He just won the leadership of the party, and I know people are saying,

00:00:13.240 Conservatives in Quebec? What? Where the hell are they there? Actually, they are, and it's a very old

00:00:18.400 party in Quebec. It's been there since almost the beginning of Confederation, but it's fallen by

00:00:23.880 the wayside, I guess, kind of like the Conservative Party in BC and things like that. Our parties

00:00:29.020 come and go and change, and Mr. Duhame has taken the helm of it, and he's had some great success.

00:00:35.840 He's vastly increased their membership numbers into the tens of thousands. He's taken them from

00:00:40.880 1% support in Quebec up to 11% support in Quebec. They now have a seat in the National Assembly,

00:00:46.760 and they're coming into an election this October. So, you know, we can all benefit. The more

00:00:52.840 Conservatives we have in Canada, the more common sense, individual, liberty-minded, small government

00:00:58.580 people we can get, the better. So I know we love to grouse about Quebec. We love to get upset with

00:01:03.000 their politics and their politicians, but we've got an exception coming out here, and it's not that

00:01:08.020 much of an exception. If you look at Quebec, actually, they've always had a good underlying

00:01:12.060 core of Conservative support out there. There's a lot of common sense Quebecers. There's a lot of

00:01:16.280 Quebecers who want smaller government, who want to develop their local natural resources,

00:01:20.600 and they haven't had a party to be able to express that for some time, and it looks like that's going

00:01:25.700 to be changing. So before I get to that interview, though, I just have to come out again and thank

00:01:30.580 our members for being there, for subscribing to the Western Standard. That's how we can keep doing

00:01:36.580 this. This is how we do this without getting any money from the federal or provincial or municipal

00:01:41.360 governments. They're not offering any. We aren't taking it, but it keeps us totally independent so

00:01:45.300 we can cover these subjects and issues that other media isn't. One of the interesting things from Eric

00:01:50.120 when I spoke with him, the mainstream media, like somebody with so many Conservative movements,

00:01:53.940 won't touch him. He can't get airtime with them. We're more than happy to speak to him, and you'll

00:01:59.420 be impressed. I mean, this is a bright guy. I would be very happy to see a Premier in Quebec such as him.

00:02:06.000 So for those members who have been helping us so far, thank you again. And for those who haven't

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00:02:15.300 You can take out a trial membership for a couple of weeks. It gives you full access to all the articles,

00:02:19.180 the columns, the things as they break, and you'll find it well worth your while. You know, you don't have

00:02:23.580 to keep it going after your couple of week trial, but I suspect once you've gotten full access to

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00:02:31.580 good deal and you're going to keep on with it. And it keeps us going and we can keep making more of this

00:02:36.140 kind of content. So with all of that out of the way, let's get on to talking with Monsieur Duhame and the

00:02:41.900 Conservative Party of Quebec.

00:02:43.180 All right. Well, welcome to Calgary, Eric and the Western Standard offices. Thank you very much for

00:02:49.900 coming out to talk to us today.

00:02:51.100 Thank you for the invitation, Corey.

00:02:52.620 So I'm going to get right into it. I mean, as soon as we ran across you yesterday and my interest was

00:02:58.780 piqued immediately, Quebec Conservative Party, you've been resurrecting it and bringing it out and with

00:03:04.460 some great success. We'll just start with there. What inspired you to get that party involved, take the

00:03:10.700 leadership and get rolling? I was an ADQ historically. I worked for a small right-wing

00:03:16.380 party in Quebec politics. We merged with the CAC, the Coalition for the Future of Quebec that is in

00:03:20.780 government right now. And unfortunately, I have to say that Francois Legault betrayed a lot of us

00:03:26.300 and he turned left a lot over the last few months, particularly on energy that might interest people

00:03:31.500 here in Alberta and out west. And so last year I've decided on November 22nd that it was time to move on

00:03:38.940 and to create, not create because the party already existed, but jump into a leadership race.

00:03:44.540 And within a year, the party went from 500 members to 38,000 currently. We went from 1% in the polls to

00:03:52.460 11%. We're the party that has the most, the biggest amount of donors in 2021 right now in Quebec.

00:04:00.220 We now have a first member in the National Assembly for the last 86 years. We have a member from Iberville

00:04:06.940 who jumped ship from the CAC and she joined us over the summer. So I think we can say we're a growing

00:04:12.220 party. We're now ahead of the Party Quebecois in the polls, ahead of the Liberals among Francophones,

00:04:17.100 and we're still working hard to keep doing better. That's excellent. There always has been,

00:04:22.860 in my view, an understated conservative core population in Quebec. And Mario DuPont,

00:04:28.300 you brought up the ADQ. You worked very hard for a lot of years and made some breakthroughs,

00:04:32.860 but had other challenges moving along. So what would be different this time than the past efforts

00:04:37.980 with the ADQ? Well, I think that first off, the constitutional issue is not on the table

00:04:41.580 anymore. It's irrelevant. We don't vote. It's not a referendum in the elections in Quebec anymore.

00:04:45.340 There's no yes and no side. That's why the Liberals and the PQ are melting.

00:04:49.500 The second thing is that we went over the last 20 months through a huge crisis. And we saw the

00:04:54.940 government taking a lot of our liberties, our freedoms. And we also saw the democracy being

00:05:00.300 on pause. And I think that many of us cherish that. And we don't believe that the government should,

00:05:06.460 you know, deprive us from those civic rights so easily. And so, you know, being a true

00:05:14.300 small-c conservative or libertarian or right-winger or call it like you want,

00:05:18.700 is first and foremost to respect people and individual choice. And we didn't see a government

00:05:23.580 doing that right now. And so we, you know, there's something that unites us that is much stronger

00:05:29.260 than what it used to, because now we see how fragile democracy and liberties could be.

00:05:33.500 Yeah. Individual liberty. A classical liberal. I mean, it's been a lost term.

00:05:37.820 Yeah. That's what we are.

00:05:39.420 We need it back.

00:05:41.260 Yeah. Well, that's why we're campaigning right now.

00:05:44.300 Yeah. And like I said, I was so happy to see that there's some movement coming along. So in your

00:05:48.860 election cycle, you're coming into a general election probably next October, I believe.

00:05:52.380 Yeah. October 3rd next year. So we still have like a little bit more than 10 months left.

00:05:56.860 And so now we're just at our party convention, adopted a new program. In January, I'm going to

00:06:02.860 start announcing new candidates. We're also building constituency associations. We have already 90 out

00:06:08.540 of 125 that are done. So we're working very hard to be present on the ground. And there's also going

00:06:14.300 to be a by-election called in early next year. So that's all going to be a first test for our

00:06:18.620 organization and our party. So you might be able to double your caucus in the National Assembly.

00:06:23.260 Maybe. It's a tough seat. If we win that seat, we're going to win a lot of seats. Let me tell you.

00:06:27.260 Yeah. By-elections. Yeah. It really depends on where it is, but it's something to look forward to

00:06:31.900 and watch. So, and you touched upon quickly, and it's something in the West we've always been

00:06:36.220 interested in. And a lot of the sparks we've had fly between Alberta and Quebec is over economic

00:06:40.860 independence and resource development. And there's, as we've been finding, a fantastic natural

00:06:47.260 gas deposit in Quebec that could be developed and exploited, but it sounds like the government

00:06:52.060 currently wants to shut that down. I think all of us would be happy to see more development.

00:06:57.500 Well, it's very disappointing because you have to know that Quebec Premier François Legault,

00:07:01.260 when he was in opposition, wrote his biography and he gave a full chapter to the importance to

00:07:06.700 develop our natural resources in Quebec, particularly gas and oil. He even said that he wanted Quebec to

00:07:13.100 become the Norway of America with the richness of our fossil fuels. Well, unfortunately, he went to

00:07:20.460 Glasgow a few weeks ago and he completely flipped flop. He became a green giant, as we call him. And now he

00:07:27.260 wants to make environmental speeches to international activists. And he said that he wants to table a bill

00:07:34.220 early next year to ban any kind of exploitation or exploration of gas and oil. So for us,

00:07:43.340 that's a huge flip flop. And it's terrible because Quebec has to be more independent financially.

00:07:48.460 And, you know, I know that you had a referendum out in Alberta a few weeks ago and, you know,

00:07:55.980 you guys are sick and tired of the equalization formula. And I think many Quebecers like me are sick

00:08:01.260 and tired of receiving money. We want to be more autonomous. And independence doesn't start by

00:08:06.220 voting yes in a referendum. It starts by paying off for your own social programs. And this is what

00:08:12.060 we want to do. And unfortunately, François Legault used to say that also. He wanted to get out of

00:08:16.380 equalization. And now he's a big promoter of it. It's kind of funny when you think about it because

00:08:20.620 he's a former separatist minister, right, in the Parti Québécois. And he wanted Quebec to become more and

00:08:26.060 more independent politically. But economically, he's probably the premier that is going to make us the most

00:08:31.100 dependent of the rest of Canada. It's kind of surprising. And I see a contradiction and a

00:08:35.900 little bit of hypocrisy when you consider that he called your oil dirty oil also a few months ago.

00:08:41.420 And the same guy wants to squeeze as much money out of it. There's something there's a huge

00:08:46.140 contradiction. And I hope that Albertans see it. I'm going to tell him. Oh, we do. We get pretty

00:08:51.580 upset, but I don't think he cares much what we say. So that's why I'm excited to see Common Sense

00:08:56.380 voices servicing in Quebec, though, and speaking up. And, you know, I am of an Alberta sovereignty

00:09:03.820 leaning sort of point of view in my own way. I've got problems with the system and the way Canada

00:09:07.900 is set up. But as it stands, economic independence, if you don't have that, it's hard to move towards

00:09:13.100 other forms of sovereignty. And then you have the means at your disposal.

00:09:16.460 Yeah, absolutely. Quebecers and Albertans have always been allies in this country in terms of our

00:09:22.140 vision of Federation. We've always been the two provinces that were the more autonomous,

00:09:26.940 where the two provinces where the Ottawa knows best approach is not really appreciated. And I

00:09:33.340 think it's important to build those bridges back again between Quebec and Alberta. And this is what

00:09:39.820 I want to do. And that's why I'm visiting Alberta this week. And I know that Jason Kenney tried to build

00:09:45.260 the build that bridge with Francois Legault. The premiers met in Quebec City a year or two ago,

00:09:50.940 two years ago. And I do recall that the Premier of Quebec said that he would facilitate a gas line

00:09:58.700 in the north of Quebec, the LNG pipe. And unfortunately, he backtracked on that as well over

00:10:04.540 the last summer, betraying his deal he had with Premier Kenney. So I think it's time to rebuild those

00:10:11.260 bridges. And unfortunately, we thought Francois Legault could be the guy to do it. But obviously, he's not.

00:10:16.220 And getting back to your partisan efforts, there's something that's been interesting. And you

00:10:19.340 mentioned yesterday was you've kind of bypassed the mainstream media. I mean, this is the wonderful

00:10:24.540 things with our modern means of communication, a party leader can manage to reach out and connect

00:10:31.180 with people without the support of the major ones. As I said, the only coverage you got, I think, was

00:10:36.220 from Le Devoir. I got one article during my leadership. That's it. I didn't get anything. And

00:10:40.140 even to this day, I didn't have an interview with French CBC. And where our parties ahead of the

00:10:45.740 Parti Québécois were, in Quebec City, were over 25% more than the PEQ, the Liberals and Quebec

00:10:51.020 Solidarity United. And still, we don't exist. And the mainstream media are almost not. But

00:10:57.740 nowadays, we have social media, we have medias like yours, that are able to do their job. And

00:11:03.180 people get informed other ways, fortunately. And so parties who are boycotted by the media could show up

00:11:09.580 and make, you know, have a lot of votes in the election. Yeah, I think it's time for the mainstream

00:11:14.460 media to reevaluate the way they're approaching things rather than us. I mean, political organizers

00:11:19.580 on the ground are discovering that they don't need them. They can reach people without them. And the

00:11:23.660 mistrust between people in the mainstream media has been growing. So it's just good to see, you know,

00:11:28.540 again, a new movement that will take advantage of those things rather than trying to reach your

00:11:32.860 constituents. Can't agree more. Yeah. So I mean, again, you're espousing conservative

00:11:39.820 principles, you're bringing that platform forward. Where can people find more information then on

00:11:43.900 your party? And then you can go on conservateur.quebec. So it's not conservative, conservateur,

00:11:51.980 T-E-U-R.quebec. And also, I want to tell all Canadians, if you're a Canadian citizen, you can become 1.00

00:11:58.140 member of a party in provincial politics, even if you don't live in that province, or if you're

00:12:02.300 whatever, everybody can, you cannot donate, but you can become a member. So I encourage all

00:12:07.500 Canadians who are supporting us to become members of the Conservative Party of Quebec. It's a rebirth

00:12:12.220 in a certain way, because we had eight premiers in the history of Quebec that were conservatives,

00:12:16.140 but none of us have seen them because it's way, way before we were born. And, but I think it's a

00:12:21.900 great thing to have now a clear center of right alternative, francophone, and it could also have a

00:12:27.660 good impact even on the national scene to have a strong conservative movement within the French

00:12:33.020 community. Absolutely. I mean, with conservatism and classical liberalism, I mean, the more it spreads

00:12:37.580 throughout the country, even if it seems, you know, distant to us in Alberta, we all benefit if we can

00:12:41.660 get some more common sense policy and some responsibility out there. So thank you very much for

00:12:46.780 coming in to speak with us and speak to our audience and keep fighting the good fight. Thank you very much.

Western Standard - December 22, 2021

Cory Morgan with Éric Duhaime

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