MNA Pierre Dufour expelled by Legault from CAQ caucus

Things are heating up in the government less than a week before the cabinet reshuffle. Premier François Legault has just announced that he is expelling Pierre Dufour, MNA for Abitibi-Est, from the CAQ caucus.

In an interview with La Presse, Dufour suggested that he would resign and run for mayor of Val-d’Or if the premier did not appoint an elected official from the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region as a minister.

“We have a lot of work ahead of us to deliver the changes Quebecers expect. The government team is and must remain united. As premier and party leader, I am taking the necessary decisions to maintain this cohesion and ensure that we live up to Quebecers’ expectations,” François Legault said in a statement on Friday.

Later Friday, Pierre Dufour assured that he had never issued an ultimatum to his government.

“I said I was keeping all options open. That meant leaving, staying, conforming, or going into the private sector. I think everything was in the plans, so we were waiting to see what would happen with the cabinet shuffle,” he said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

The MNA nevertheless expressed confidence in the Premier’s decision regarding him.

“I’ve always maintained my convictions, I’ve always maintained my way of presenting things, I’ve always defended my region. Of course, if the big boss at the top doesn’t accept certain statements, then I suffer a consequence, but I’m able to live with that,” he explained.

Abitibi-Témiscamingue has not been represented by a minister from the region since 2022, even though the CAQ holds all three ridings.

Jean Boulet, minister of labor and MNA for Trois-Rivières, is currently responsible for the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region, in addition to being responsible for Mauricie and Nord-du-Québec.

The two other CAQ elected officials in the region are Suzanne Blais (Abitibi-Ouest) and Daniel Bernard (Rouyn-Noranda–Témiscamingue).

It remains to be seen whether Dufour will resign from his position as MNA to run for municipal office.

Jaclin Bégin, president of the Abitibi-Témiscamingue Conference of Prefects, finds it “unbelievable” that an MNA representing the region’s interests should be excluded in this way.

“I always believed that we elected our MNAs to make the people heard. Now, he’s being kicked out because he carries a message. To my knowledge, Mr. Dufour has always been respectful of the Premier and his colleagues. All he said was that he wanted a minister from the region, and that’s what we carry as a message,” he said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

“He’s a good MNA, he was a good minister. He would definitely make a good mayor for the city of Val-d’Or. But we would have preferred to see him as a regional minister,” added Jaclin Bégin.

On Thursday, Minister Andrée Laforêt announced that she was leaving the CAQ to run for mayor of Saguenay.

“An issue that hurt us politically”

Dufour did not shy away from criticizing his own government. Last month, on the sidelines of a caucus meeting at the National Assembly, he suggested that the CAQ was talking a lot about the third link—a project for the Capitale-Nationale region—when there were other important issues for the regions.

“The third link is not a priority for the people of Abitibi-Témiscamingue,” he said at the time.

When asked whether it was necessary for Abitibi-Témiscamingue to have a regional minister, the MNA pointed out that this decision was up to the premier, adding, “It’s definitely an issue that has hurt us politically.”

In May, Dufour asked his government to listen more to the regions.

Last week, the region’s prefects made a public appeal to the government to appoint a minister from among the region’s elected officials in order to give voice to their demands.

Last May, in a radio interview on Radio-Canada’s Des matins en or program, the MNA for Rouyn-Noranda–Témiscamingue, Daniel Bernard, criticized his own government.

He also lamented the fact that no elected officials from the region were represented in the cabinet. Bernard then had to make an act of contrition.

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews