Quebec’s new opposition leader, Charles Milliard, has not ruled out discussing electoral reform after the Parti Québécois formed a government with 28% of the vote. He said the first-past-the-post system can produce a sharp gap between a party’s vote share and its seats.
Milliard met on Montreal’s South Shore on Thursday with his party’s elected lawmakers and defeated candidates. He acknowledged that the latest campaign had renewed questions about how voters are represented in the National Assembly. Electoral reform is not in the Liberals’ platform, but he did not rule out discussing it.
Milliard compared the Coalition Avenir Québec’s position with that of Conservative leader Éric Duhaime four years ago, when his party failed to elect a candidate. He called CAQ a legitimate political force and said he was not ready to write it off. He expected the party to choose an interim leader before selecting a permanent one.
The opposition leader said he was prepared to work with Premier Paul St-Pierre Plamondon’s government when their positions align. He also said he would press the premier to honour a promise to consider ideas from all parties while preparing the budget. “We are the official opposition, and our confidence has to be earned,” Milliard said.
He rejected making the Parti Québécois proposal to abolish the monarchy and refuse to swear an oath to the lieutenant-governor a central campaign issue. Voters barely discussed the question, he said, calling it a distraction. The premier cannot change the province’s parliamentary system on his own, Milliard added.
Milliard also stayed out of a dispute between Duhaime and Quebec City Mayor Bruno Marchand over a proposed tramway. He said the Liberals support the project and see it as an important part of the capital region’s transit network. Unlike the Parti Québécois, he noted, his party has a representative in the region, Julie White.
In the coming days, Milliard plans to form a shadow cabinet and assign lawmakers to policy areas. He has not yet taken a seat in the National Assembly’s Blue Room and called the prospect of sitting opposite the premier a privilege. He said experienced colleagues would help new lawmakers settle into their roles.