Photo: Marie-France Coallier archives Le Devoir Denis Coderre announced that he was leaving politics in November 2021, after suffering a second defeat in the Montreal municipal elections.
Possible candidate for leadership of the Liberal Party of Quebec (PLQ) Denis Coderre is already imagining two new ministries in Quebec, but refuses to support for the moment key proposals from the party for its relaunch — no without ensuring that he continues to work on his “humility”.
“I think we never change, we evolve,” he said in a telephone interview with Le < i>Duty Monday. He was being questioned about a post he made on Facebook on January 9, after being denied the renewal of his mother's passport because he did not have a power of attorney in hand.
“Canadian MP and minister for 16 years in Ottawa going to Place Guy-Favreau to apply for a first passport to my 85-year-old mother, recognized by everyone there, having all the required documents and signatures except a power of attorney authorizing me to make the request for my mother who has not been with me for 51 years. Result: refusal of the request, I have to go back and get a power of attorney,” Mr. Coderre wrote on the social network.
“Well, judgment is optional,” concluded the former mayor and federal minister in a hashtag.
A week ago, Mr. Coderre affirmed in his column on community radio CKVL that “humility, I’m working on it.” Le Devoirtherefore questioned him about his modesty regarding his publication on the passport office. “We won’t make a big mess. I had my mother's signatures, they asked me for a power of attorney. When I was an MP, I did not need a power of attorney. I wasn’t there to game the system,” he assured. He also stressed that he “could have called an MP”, but that he instead chose to go and get the proper documents, especially wishing that his mother could make her very first trip, to Ireland. .
Recently, all of the publications from Mr. Coderre's X account also disappeared. “They were the ones who erased them from me. It’s not me,” he said. “I had 300,000 members and now I barely have any left. I don't know what happened. I think Mr. Musk [X's owner] ran out of power, his battery died or whatever! I didn’t touch X,” he continued, laughing. As of Monday, Mr. Coderre had more than 278,000 followers on the social network, but no subscriptions.
Two new ministries
In spirit, Denis Coderre launched the idea of setting up two new ministries in Quebec. One would be dedicated to Children, and the other to Sport. “Doping, facilities, management” and prevention could be among the files falling under the latter ministry, he listed.
He also said he wanted a “bowl policy”: “healthy meals” provided to primary and secondary students. The former mayor of Montreal would also like “a serious discussion on the school tax”, in a context where he would like to give cities the responsibilities of building and maintaining schools. “We should return all the real estate to the municipalities,” he said. “I’ll tell you, if there hadn’t been so many [administrative] mazes, we could have built schools in downtown [Montreal],” he illustrated.
Denis Coderre, who was Minister of Citizenship and Immigration in the federal government of Jean Chrétien, did not want to say whether he adhered to interculturalism, as the PLQ sees it. On the other hand, he clearly stated that he would not renew the derogation clauses embedded in Law 21. Like former liberal leader Dominique Anglade, he would therefore leave it to the courts to decide the fate of the Law on the Secularism of the 'State.
The Constitution ? “I’m not getting into that,” he replied. The PLQ set up a committee on its revival, and it proposed in October to adopt a Quebec Constitution and a law on interculturalism, among other things. Mr. Coderre said he had started reading the document produced by the committee. He also refused to say whether he had support within the Liberal caucus.
Contrary to the PLQ, which calls for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” in Gaza, Mr. Coderre demands the release of Israeli hostages before doing the same. There are victims “on both sides” of this conflict, “but we are going to stop thinking that nothing happened on October 7,” he said, referring to the Hamas attack. against Israel. “I was the minister who put Hamas on the list of terrorist entities [in 2002], so I am consistent with the past. »