Quebec Conservative Leader Duhaime to Run in By-election for 2nd Chance at Seat

Quebec Conservative Leader Éric Duhaime comments on the Quebec government fall session at a news conference in Quebec City on Dec. 4, 2024. The Canadian Press/Jacques Boissinot

Leader of the Quebec Conservative Party Éric Duhaime is running as a candidate in the by-election for Arthabaska, after the riding’s representative left to run for the federal Conservatives.

In April 2024, MNA for Arthabaska Éric Lefebvre announced he was leaving the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) to run for the federal Conservatives in the next election. “I have tendered my resignation to the premier, as I will be standing as a candidate for the Conservative Party of Canada in the next federal election,” he said in a statement.

Lefebvre sat as an independent MP following his announcement, and on April 28 he won the federal seat of Richmond-Arthabaska for the Tories by over 1,500 votes. That riding had been held by Alain Rayes, who left the Conservative Party to sit as an independent when Pierre Poilievre became its leader in September 2022.

Rayes had said he wanted the Conservatives to have a leader who represented progressive values and centre-right economics. Rayes, a three-term MP, later said he would not run for re-election.

According to a May 1 press release by the Conservative Party of Quebec, the party’s candidate for the Arthabaska by-election will hold a press briefing on the sidelines of the campaign launch on May 4.

On Duhaime’s Facebook page, he urged his supporters to meet at the Arthabaska Pavilion on May 4. “I have a big announcement to make… Best kept secret in town,” he joked.

Duhaime, who has led the Quebec Conservatives since April 2021, failed to win a seat in the 2022 general election, losing to Avenir Québec candidate Sylvain Lévesque in the Quebec City riding of Chauveau by nearly 6,500 votes.

While the party boosted its popular support from 1.46 percent in 2018 to nearly 13 percent during the 2022 election, it won no seats in the National Assembly. The CAQ won another majority and increased its seat count from 76 to 90, while the Quebec Liberal Party went from 27 seats to 21, Québec solidaire went from 10 seats to 11, and the Parti Québécois went from seven seats to three.

The party had its first member in the provincial legislature in 2021 when sitting MNA Claire Samson was ousted from the CAQ caucus and joined the Conservatives. She didn’t run in the 2022 election.