Young activists mobilize to maintain their influence in the liberal leadership

Photo: Justin Tang The Canadian Press The candidate for the leadership of the Quebec Liberal Party, Charles Milliard, has positioned himself against the reduction of the influence of young people in the leadership race, like the four other officially announced candidates — namely Frédéric Beauchemin, Pablo Rodriguez, Denis Coderre and Marc Bélanger.

Thomas Laberge – The Canadian Press in Quebec City

Published yesterday at 11:55

• Quebec City

While the Liberals will meet this weekend in Lévis to debate, in particular, the weight of 16-25 year-olds in the leadership, young activists are mobilizing to maintain their influence in the choice of the next leader.

“We have already done some groundwork and mobilization work in advance to get as many young people as possible to vote against the proposal,” assures the president of the youth commission of the Quebec Liberal Party (PLQ), Christian-Alex Deschênes, in an interview with The Canadian Press.

Currently, young members of the PLQ account for 33% of the votes in the leadership. The Montarville Liberal Association is proposing to change the weighting so that it is one member per vote, citing “systematic discrimination based on age.”

The president of the association, Michèle Bureau, says she expected there to be resistance within her political party.

“When you dig a little deeper, you realize that there is a disproportion between the weight of young people compared to the weight of regular members […] A young vote could be worth up to ten times the vote of a regular member,” explains Ms. Bureau. The proposal will be debated Friday evening.

The regional president of the youth commission for Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Maïa Gonthier, maintains that “it will be important to have a lot of young people to counter the resolution.”

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“What brings us to the PLQ is above all the voice that is given to us,” says the woman who is also co-spokesperson for Charles Milliard's race.

The current rules mean that in the leadership race, each of the 125 constituencies is worth 2,000 points for a total of 250,000. These points are distributed to candidates as a percentage of the vote for members aged 26 and over. To this is added 125,000 points for members aged 25 and under.

The youth commission will make a “compromise” proposal that would see the 125,000 points awarded to young members redistributed in each riding, so that a riding would have 2,000 points for its members over 25 and 1,000 points for those 25 and under.

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“They must go and rally the young people”

According to activist Alexandre Tremblay-Michaud, who is 35 years old, it is late to change the rules of the race.

“It's the responsibility of leadership candidates not to just contact people who are over 25. They have to go and rally young people between 16 and 25. […] Those who will vote for the next leader in the majority, I dare to hope, are not even members of the party yet,” says the man who is involved in Frédéric Beauchemin's race, the Liberal MNA for Marguerite-Bourgeoys.

The five Liberal leadership candidates — in addition to Messrs. Beauchemin and Milliard, there is former Montreal mayor Denis Coderre, former federal minister Pablo Rodriguez and tax lawyer Marc Bélanger — have all positioned themselves against reducing the influence of young people in the race.

The leadership is likely to occupy a lot of space at the convention, which is being held from Friday to Sunday. The aspiring leaders will all be present and it will be an opportunity for them to network and recruit new supporters.

Religious schools and the constitution

The issue of funding religious schools, which has been the subject of much discussion in recent weeks, is also likely to come up again at the convention.

A few weeks ago, Liberal MP Marwah Rizqy said that her party's historical position had changed: “We now believe that we must stop funding religious schools in Quebec,” she said at the time.

A volte-face that has caused divisions within the caucus. The PLQ's political commission has launched a consultation with members on the subject.

The proposed constitution of Quebec will be discussed on Saturday. An idea that appeals to activist Sacha Cannon.

“I think it could allow the PLQ to get closer to francophones and position itself as the party that will defend the interests of Quebec,” says the man who is involved in Charles Milliard's campaign.

The Liberals will pay tribute to their former leader Dominique Anglade on Saturday at the end of the day.