By Dan Laxer
The Suburban

Canadian Party of Quebec (CaPQ) founding leader and co-leader Colin Standish is leaving the party – and leaving politics, at least for now. He has accepted a position as a Crown Prosecutor in another province, a position he refers to as a “dream job.” The formal announcement was made at a CaPQ community meeting at John Rennie High last week.

Standish says he took the “proverbial, and literal, ‘walk in the snow’,” referring to former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau’s own such walk before his resignation in 1984.

Standish has been looking for new employment for a while, and had even posted on his Facebook page last August that he was “actively seeking the next career move that will propel me forward professionally for the next decade.”

The new position will take Standish out of the province. He would have preferred to stay in Quebec. Several local opportunities had presented themselves, but Standish was passed over. He did wonder, he told The Suburban, if that had had anything to do with his involvement in politics. “I started looking in the rest of Canada,” he says, where he had several promising offers. He took the position that made the most sense to him as a lawyer. “It really is a great way to serve the public good. I certainly wouldn’t move away for anything less than a dream job,” he adds, “but I think it’ll make me the lawyer I wanted to be.”

Standish was born and raised in the Eastern Townships. He was fresh out of law school, articling for a law firm, when he became disillusioned with the federal and provincial governments’ evolving stance on language, which in Quebec would lead to Bill 96. That, added to the post-Bill 21 climate, and the use of the Notwithstanding Clause – both of which are currently being challenged in court – created the perfect storm that would lead to Standish’s involvement in the Task Force on Linguistic Policy and the creation of the Canadian Party of Quebec. CaPQ has been compared to the Equality Party founded in 1989 by Robert Libman. In fact, Keith Henderson, who led the Equality Party during the 1995 referendum campaign, is CaPQ advisor.

This does not spell the end of the party. Co-leader Myrtis Fossey will continue in her role. Founding party member Joseph Cianflone will step into the co-leader position. Standish will stay on as a board member and advisor. And he may return to the fold at some point (the new position is a one-year contract). Cianflone says the party is in “a stronger position than ever before.” Standish agrees, saying “we have an accomplished leadership team, money in the bank, paid off our campaign debts ahead of schedule, have thousands of supporters and a dedicated group of volunteers,” Standish says. “The CaPQ will continue the fight for a better Quebec based on principled leadership.”

Standish says the decision to leave was heartbreaking. He would rather be in Quebec. “The Eastern Townships is the only place that’s ever felt like home.” He is scheduled to start his new job later this month. CaPQ will have a full leadership convention later this year. n