About 600 people welcomed Charles Milliard as the new head of the Quebec Liberal Party in Trois-Rivières on Sunday, days after he was acclaimed in a leadership race that no one else joined.
Milliard, who entered the room at the Delta Hotel in the city about halfway between Montreal and Quebec City on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River, takes over a party recently shaken by the December resignation of former leader Pablo Rodriguez.
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Milliard outlined his five key priorities for a potential Quebec Liberal government: strengthening the economy, improving public services, supporting Quebec’s regions outside major urban centres, promoting culture and addressing access to housing.
Former Quebec Liberal premiers Daniel Johnson and Philippe Couillard, along with past interim leaders, attended the event to welcome the new generation of party leadership.
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Rodriguez stepped down amid a crisis involving allegations of vote-buying and reimbursed donations during the leadership race he’d won in June.
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A pharmacist by training from Lévis, Que., and former president of the Quebec Federation of Chambers of Commerce, Milliard faces the challenge of introducing himself to Quebec voters, having never held elected office at the provincial or federal level.
Party members hope Milliard will bring renewed energy to the PLQ, as he pledged to prioritize integrity, transparency, and accountability.
There are mixed opinions at the National Assembly on just how much a report into possible wrongdoing during the last Quebec Liberal leadership race exonerates the party.
The result of an investigation by an ex-judge found no conclusive evidence of a vote-buying scheme within Pablo Rodriguez’s campaign, but critics say the report “means nothing.”
“I’m really happy that this day arrived,” said Chomedey MNA Sona Lakhoyan Olivier, following the release of retired judge Jacques Fournier’s 39-page report.
“From the beginning, I was saying it’s not my writing, but nobody was listening to me. So this inquiry helped me prove my innocence.”
Lakhoyan Olivier was excluded from the Liberal caucus amid allegations that her riding office was improperly used for partisan purposes. She was also accused of being involved in text messages published by the Journal de Montreal last year that pointed to “brownies,” or $100 bills being given to people who voted for Rodriguez.
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Those allegations led the Liberals to order the independent inquiry.
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After interviewing more than a dozen witnesses, reviewing documents, emails and text messages, Fournier found no evidence that she was involved in a vote-buying scheme. He concludes the texts were “edited” and said he could not prove whether vote buying took place or not.
“The report proved that there’s no evidence at all supporting these allegations, and I think that it’s worth mentioning,” said interim Liberal leader Marc Tanguay.
Fournier found no proof that Rodriguez had any knowledge of wrongdoing. The former federal cabinet minister ended up resigning over allegations of impropriety during his leadership campaign.
“His report clearly demonstrates that my team and I never took part in, nor witnessed, any wrongdoing during the leadership race,” Rodriguez wrote on X on Feb 11.
The Liberals’ rivals, however, are attacking Fournier’s report.
“I think Justice Fournier is very honest by saying that he didn’t have the tools to do that task. He’s a toothless watchdog, and he said it as such,” said Parti Québécois Leader Paul St. Pierre Plamondon.
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In the report, Fournier himself admits he had limited power.
“Having no institutional powers of coercion or investigation, this report is based on the voluntary statements of the various witnesses I contacted,” he writes.
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Quebec Solidaire co-spokesperson Ruba Ghazal also diminished the report’s significance.
“This report doesn’t mean anything. The report said, ‘We don’t know.’ This is what the judge says. ‘I can’t have any conclusion, because I don’t have the tools to do this investigation.’” Ghazal told reporters.
In a statement, Journal de Montreal editor Dany Doucet said the newspaper stands behind its reporting on the text messages.
“The former judge does not know the identity of our sources and himself acknowledges that he did not have access to all of the information and text messages in our possession,” he said.
The Rodriguez leadership campaign is still being investigated by Quebec’s anti-corruption police unit, and the National Assembly’s ethics commissioner is still looking into Lakhoyan Olivier’s actions.
