Former CAQ minister Éric Caire leaving political life
Posted March 26, 2026 9:52 am.
Former CAQ minister and La Peltrie MNA Éric Caire announces that he will not seek another mandate after 19 years in politics.
“It is difficult to get into politics. It is just as difficult to last in it. The most difficult thing, however, remains getting out. At the end of this mandate, I will have accumulated 27 years of active activism within the third way, including almost 20 years as an elected official. It is time for me to step down,” he wrote on his Facebook page Thursday morning.
Caire was first elected under the banner of Mario Dumont’s Action démocratique du Québec in 2007. He tried to become its leader in 2009, but lost to Gilles Taillon.
He joined the Coalition Avenir Québec in 2011. Caire entered the government in 2018 when Premier François Legault was brought to power.
He will then become Minister Delegate for Government Digital Transformation, then Minister of Cybersecurity and Digital Affairs in 2022 – a position he will have to leave in the wake of the SAAQclic scandal.
“However, I remain a proud CAQ member, more convinced than ever that Quebec needs this third way that thousands of us have dedicated ourselves to building over the past three decades,” Eric Caire concluded in his message.
–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews
