Denis Coderre enters Quebec Liberal leadership race in Bellechasse
Peter Black, Local Initiative Reporter
peterblack@qctonline.com
Vowing to run in the Bellechasse riding on the South Shore, former Montreal mayor and former federal Liberal minister Denis Coderre has entered the race for the leadership of the Quebec Liberal Party.
Coderre, who turns 61 in July, made the announcement on June 21 in front of the National Assembly, with a group of supporters at his side, including former Liberal MNA Raymond Bernier.
Coderre had announced his interest in the leadership earlier in the year and said he would reflect on the decision during a pilgrimage to Compostela in Spain in May.
Coderre is the first candidate to officially declare for the leadership, which will be decided by a convention in June next year. The job became open when Dominique Anglade resigned following the party’s disappointing 21-seat showing in the 2022 election.
Coderre was elected mayor of Montreal in 2013, but narrowly lost to Valérie Plante in 2017; he lost by a larger margin in a comeback attempt in 2021.
In April of last year, Coderre suffered a mild stroke from which he has said he has made a nearly full recovery.
Prior to his run for Montreal City Hall, Coderre was the Liberal MP for the Montreal riding
of Bourassa, winning the seat in 1997 after three unsuccessful tries. He was named minister of immigration in 2002, but after the 2004 election, was not reappointed to cabinet by then-prime minister Paul Martin.
Coderre, who says he voted Yes in the 1980 referendum, has since become a staunch federalist. In 1990, he came a distant second to future Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe in a Montreal byelection.
Coderre said part of the reason he wants to be Quebec Liberal leader is to fight against the Parti Québécois, which, under leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, has vowed to hold a referendum on sovereignty if elected in 2026.
“I don’t need a new country. I’ve got one,” Coderre said. “The best way not to have a referendum is not to vote for them [the PQ].”
At the announcement press conference, Coderre said he chose the Bellechasse riding “because it is a federalist riding with a high French-speaking content and an agricultural and industrial character.”
Even though the Liberal candidate in the 2022 election got only four per cent of the vote in the riding, now held by Stéphanie Lachance of the Coalition Avenir Québec, Coderre has said he will run there even if he does not win the leadership.
Coderre said he is in favour of a “third link” between Quebec City and the South Shore, and would support whatever Quebec City Mayor Bruno Marchand thinks is best for the tramway plan.
Coderre said he invited “all the disappointed Liberals” to join him. “I think we need experienced men and women. I’ve always loved this party. I have deep roots in it, no mat- ter what anyone says. I think it’s important for us to come together again.”
Coderre said he plans to embark on a series of spaghetti dinners in all 125 ridings in the province to raise support for his campaign.
Other potential candidates, according to media reports, are Frédéric Beauchemin, MNA for Marguerite-Bourgeoys; Charles Milliard, former president of the Fédération des chambres de commerce du Québec (FCCQ); and Antoine Tardif, the mayor of Victoriaville.