The race for the party leadership casts a shadow over the Liberals’ preparations for the session of the National Assembly

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QUEBEC CITY — On the eve of the Quebec Liberal Party’s preparatory caucus meeting, interim leader Marc Tanguay knows he has a critical role to play in ensuring Liberal MPs serve as the official opposition in the coming months – even as candidates for the party’s leadership are still debating its direction.

“I am very reassured and assume that the candidates running for election want to take us forward. … Nothing will change in our day-to-day role as the official opposition,” he said in an interview with La Presse Canadienne.

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Above all, Tanguay must ensure that the boundaries between the work of the National Assembly and the leadership are clear and respected by aspiring politicians and MPs engaged in the election campaign.

“The National Assembly must not become a trampoline for the election campaign of one or another candidate for the leadership. The rules are extremely clear, they have been repeated and we will ensure that they are respected,” he said.

Although Tanguay wants to achieve a clear separation between the two roles, he is well aware that the proposals of the aspiring politicians could be used against him by their opponents: “It is clear that the government could try not to answer questions in order to distract.”

Even if the new leader is not elected until summer 2025, Tanguay said he has no intention of giving up his interim position – at least not as long as he has the trust of the party and the caucus. “I’m doing it for the Liberal Party of Quebec … my way of giving back to my party is to take on this role,” he said.

He declined to say whether he would like to become parliamentary group leader if the next party leader is not an elected official. “I am not making any plans beyond June 14, 2025 (the date of the election of the next leader),” he said.

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However, this possibility is certainly there: the three candidates who have already declared themselves – Denis Coderre, Charles Milliard and Marc Bélanger – do not have a seat in the National Assembly. Within the group, only Frédéric Beauchemin, a member of the Marguerite-Bourgeoys party, is considering a candidacy for the presidency. The only other possible candidate is the federal transport minister Pablo Rodriguez, whose seat is in Ottawa.

Tanguay stressed that the Liberal Party is ready to ask questions of the government of François Legault, the Coalition Avenir Québec, whether about public finances or the quality of services provided to the population. But the provincial Liberals have another opponent: the resurgent Parti Québécois (PQ).

“We will have a chance to play against the PQ,” he said, mentioning immigration, which is sure to be a hot topic during the upcoming parliamentary session.

PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon recently said he would present “a plan to drastically and substantially reduce temporary and permanent immigration of all categories.” Even though the provincial Liberal party wants to criticize the PQ for this proposal, its own position on the issue remains unclear.

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Last week, Tanguay said the government had lost control of immigration and better planning was needed. He also said Quebec’s capacity to integrate immigrants was exceeded. And yet last January he said more temporary immigrants were needed to address the labour shortage.

The caucus’ pre-meeting, which begins on Tuesday, will provide an opportunity for the party to clarify its priorities for the next parliamentary session. Unsurprisingly, the provincial Liberal Party intends to say a lot about the economy and small and medium-sized businesses, and public services and energy are also on the agenda.

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