SHERBROOKE, Que. - On the heels of a resounding electoral defeat, Jean Charest will likely consult his caucus before deciding on his future, according to a former cabinet minister and close ally.
Monique Gagnon-Tremblay said Charest is scheduled to meet his outgoing cabinet Wednesday and then his caucus later in the week, possibly Thursday.
Gagnon-Tremblay expects Charest to talk with his colleagues at those gatherings about whether he should stay on as Liberal leader.
"Yes, probably, because he's always consulting his caucus," she said at the Liberal rally in Charest's home riding of Sherbrooke, minutes after he gave his post-election speech without offering a hint about his future.
"He will do it, I'm sure, as he's used to doing it."
Charest suffered two major defeats Tuesday. His Liberal government was relegated to the official Opposition after nine years in power and he lost his hometown seat of Sherbrooke for the first time in nearly three decades of federal and provincial elections.
His first-ever win came on Sept. 4, 1984 — 28 years to the day before Tuesday's loss.
The Liberal defeat also brings Charest's run as Quebec's leader to an end — leaving Ontario's Dalton McGuinty with the longest active streak by a Canadian premier.
More than 100 Liberal supporters, who had been watching voting results roll in on a giant TV screen, sat in stunned silence as their local political hero lost his government, and then his seat.
Except for a couple of gasps and some red, watery eyes, the disappointed rally participants barely made a peep when they learned that Charest's Liberals had lost the election.
Most inside the Sherbrooke hotel also remained quiet when reports later indicated Charest had lost his riding to Parti Quebecois candidate Serge Cardin — but a handful of them booed.
Charest was quick to take responsibility for the losses.
In a passionate concession speech, Charest said the Liberals once again proved the polls wrong by coming just one percentage point shy of the PQ for the overall popular vote. Surveys had suggested a much-larger gap between the parties.
Charest was also pleased that the sovereigntist PQ was only handed a minority mandate, likely enough, he said, to keep its independence aspirations in check.
"I want to say to all of you tonight, and to all of you interested in the future of Quebec, that the result of this election campaign speaks to the fact that the future of Quebec lies within Canada," Charest said, drawing a big applause from the crowd.
Charest said that much work is left to be done and the Liberals will have opportunities to contribute to Quebec's future under the minority government.
He did not, however, offer any indication during the 13-minute address whether he would be part of the next phase.
Gagnon-Tremblay, a longtime friend of Charest's, said she didn't know what he will decide to do next.
"He will have to choose, he will have to decide — there's always a life after politics," said Gagnon-Tremblay, who did not seek re-election.
"He will take some time before deciding something. He's not in a hurry."
One supporter at the rally didn't know what will happen with the party or Charest.
"A lot of people are disappointed, let's put it that way," Jimmy Sawchuk said.
"It will be hard for him to leave politics. Is the party going to hold (together) if he leaves politics? We don't know."
It was the first time Charest, 54, lost his own seat in his political career — a stretch that took place entirely in this city.
Charest, who won eight consecutive votes at the federal and provincial levels, had clung to his riding despite several close calls over the years.
He won the seat in 2008 by 2,314 ballots. A year earlier, he squeaked out a win by 1,332 votes. On election night in 2007, one TV news outlet had even erroneously declared Charest had lost his seat.
Charest also endured the devastating 1993 Progressive Conservative defeat that left the party with just two seats across the country.
But this time around, despite uncharacteristically making several campaign stops in Sherbrooke, it just didn't come together.
Earlier in the campaign, Cardin, a former Bloc Quebecois MP from the area, said locals had been telling him they were fed up with the premier and the "odour of corruption" around his Liberal party.
This is the second time Cardin will succeed Charest in a political office. Cardin won Charest's vacant seat after he left federal politics in 1998.
With Tuesday's results, the province has turned the page on a premier who led Quebec during an era that saw the province's appetite for independence decline.
One political scientist believes Charest deserves credit for subtly helping reduce support for sovereignty, which the latest survey indicated was at 28 per cent.
Bruce Hicks, of Concordia University, said Quebecers stopped focusing on what was wrong with the federation because the Liberal leader was only occasionally confrontational in dealing with Ottawa. Charest also stopped pressing for constitutional change and instead promoted bread-and-butter issues.
"I do actually think that his approach to politics, his approach to Ottawa and the other provinces, was a game-changer," he said.
But Hicks doesn't think historians will give Charest the recognition he deserves for his contribution because his approach was much quieter than larger-than-life opponents to Quebec sovereignty, like Pierre Elliott Trudeau.
Instead, Hicks predicts people to link the drop in support for sovereignty to the uncertain economic situation.
He said another aspect of Charest's legacy comes from his attempts to reduce state intervention and retool the provincial pension-fund manager — the Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec — to make investments that reap returns, rather than use it to protect Quebec companies.
The world financial crisis helped sideline Charest's plans, he said.
"He put this discourse into the public arena," Hicks said.
"It would have been heresy a decade ago for anyone to suggest that the Caisse de depot should simply make investments because they have a good return."
The province's unemployment rate is far closer to the national average than it was when Charest took office. He made good on his 2003 promise to reduce income taxes, but his pledge to "re-engineer" Quebec's state, to make it smaller, was derailed.
The provincial debt has ballooned, especially after the financial crisis. The Charest government responded to the budget crunch with user-fee hikes in several areas, including university tuition.
The tuition gambit triggered massive student demonstrations in the streets this spring, sometimes-violent events that made international news. Many of the protesters also railed about the multiple ethics and corruption scandals that forced Charest to call a public inquiry.
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TWITTER REACTS
SPEECH INTERRUPTED
Users on Twitter are speculating that the gun used in the attack may have been a CZ 858, a semi-automatic weapon modeled after the AK-47 and legal in Canada.
"Never, never will I accept that Quebec is associated with violence," Marois told a news conference Wednesday.
"It is an isolated event and it does not represent who we are... Quebec is not a violent society. One act of folly cannot change this." (CP)
Premier-elect Marois says she will cancel the proposed tuition hikes which helped spark weeks of student protests earlier this year in Quebec. She will also cancel Bill 78, the much-maligned bill that gave police greater powers during the student unrest.
Marois also says she will form her cabinet within the next two weeks.
Other priorities for her new PQ government include expanding/strengthening Bill 101 language laws and working with Ottawa on the gun registry and looking at an increase on resource royalties.
Marois insisted that she return to the stage after being escorted off by her bodyguards. "There were at least 2,000 people there. What if those people panicked," she said at a press conference on Wednesday afternoon. She urged the crowd to exit the building calmly and slowly.
"I didn't know at that moment, outside, that there was a man who had been killed," she told the press conference.
She added that she never felt unsafe during the shooting but did not know that the man had been killed until after she left the building.
The victim in last night's deadly shooting has been ID'd as Denis Blanchette, a 48-year-old freelance technician who worked at the venue.
Richard Henry Bain, the suspect in last night's shooting runs a fishing and outdoors business near Mont Tremblant.
Police say they seized an AK-47 and a handgun last night.
Various media outlets have identified the suspect in last night's shooting at the PQ victory party in Montreal as Richard Bain.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has released a statement on last night's events:
“I was angered and saddened to hear of last night’s horrific shooting at the Parti Quebecois event at Metropolis.“It is a tragic day where an exercise of democracy is met with an act of violence.
“On behalf of all Canadians, I offer my deepest condolences to the family and friends of the victim and wish the person injured a swift and complete recovery.
“This atrocious act will not be tolerated and such violence has no place in Canada. Canadians can rest assured that the perpetrator of last night’s events will face the full force of the law.”
| @ PMO_MacDougall : We are deeply concerned with the violence that occurred and our thoughts are with the victims and their families. #Qc2012 |
The federal Liberals held a moment of silence before kicking off the second day of their caucus retreat. (Althia Raj)
The Liberals also released a statement that addressed last night's events:
“I was deeply shocked and disturbed to learn about the shootings that took place during Quebec Premier-elect Pauline Marois’ victory speech. We are extremely saddened by these senseless acts of violence, and congratulate the police and security forces for doing their work in the most difficult of circumstances. There is never an excuse or justification for acts of violence in Canadian society.On behalf of the Liberal Party of Canada and our Parliamentary caucus, I extend my thoughts and prayers to the victims and their families.”
HuffPost blogger Jo Perron-Simpson comments on last night's events:
"This is the moment where one needs to pause, not the moment to start pointing fingers at whomever or whatever. It is the moment where we must stop, take a step back from the electoral fervor, forget our political and historic baggage to mourn the death of an innocent man who was only doing his job, who wasn't even there for a political rally, but simply to earn a living.I am not writing this to explain the unexplainable, I am writing this to ask for the people of Quebec's discernment and especially it's compassion. We cannot let this event divide us, we cannot let this man be right. Let us do the opposite, I beg you."
"This morning I had the tough task of waking up my wife to tell her what had happened last night because she went to sleep before the speeches started. Every politician in this country is now thinking about security in a way that we haven't before. But I think that it is important for us all to remember that we cannot be hijacked in our desire to serve by someone with a gun."
Deepest condolences to the victims of the shooting last night in Montreal.
— Bob Rae (@bobraeMP) September 5, 2012
He later added this statement:
"We have long been a peacable kingdom for the most part. We’ve had very few acts of political violence. We are not a society where these things are ever celebrated or condone and they should never be. I do think that it is important for Canadians to continue to work hard on the reasons why we are together as a country, we are together as a family. And no political agenda, whether it is identity, or whether it is about economic concerns or social concerns of any kind, can never be a justification for extremism or a justification for violence. And I think it is very very important for all of us to remember that. And I think certainly, all of us in public life have an obligation to remember it, it terms of the language that we use, in terms of the demands that we make, in terms of our understanding in terms of what we owe each other, we owe each other respect. We owe each other respect. And that applies to the federation, that applies to each one of us as individuals, and there can never be an excuse or justification for violence."
Our #NDP national caucus meeting getting started now, with a moment of silence for the victims of last night's shooting in #quebec #cdnpoli
— Rathika Sitsabaiesan (@RathikaS) September 5, 2012
Shocked & thinking of the victims & their families today. PQ Montreal victory rally shooting leaves man dead, 1 injured soc.li/ixw60LC
— Nathan Cullen (@nathancullen) September 5, 2012
Police spokesmen on CBC News this morning said that they will be monitoring comments on social media, referencing even "jokes" that appear on sites like Twitter.
Premier Jean Charest, who lost the election to the PQ, is expected to address his cabinet then reporters later today. He will be meeting with his caucus some time this week
When she assumes power, Pauline Marois brings to 5 the number of women leading Canadian provinces and territories. It's a historical precedent, though likely overshadowed by the night's tragic events.
According to our Quebec election riding tracker, the PQ won 54 seats, the Liberals 50, the CAQ 19 and Quebec Solidair 2
According to the Montreal Gazette, footage showed a high-powered rifle, which Twitter users identified as an AK-47 or Valmont Hunter weapon. Police did not confirm this.
CBC reports that the victim, who pronounced dead at the scene, was a man in his 40s and that a second man was critically injured in the attack.
A security perimeter has been established around a vehicle that may contains guns or explosives, according to La Presse.
| @ SPVM : Important - Event at Metropolis: a person is deceased. More informations will follow shortly. #Qc2012 |
2 injured critically.. 1 arrest.. Shot fired behind the convention centre where Marois was giving her victory speech. A man about 50-years fired on people inside the Metropolis. Then the suspect set fired to the back of the Metropolis.
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| @ SPVM : Regarding the event that just happened at Metropolis : 2 people injured and 1 person arrested. More info will follow shortly. #Qc2012 |
Regarding the event that just happened at Metropolis : 2 people injured and 1 person arrested. More info will follow shortly.
Marois was rushed off stage by her officer detail during her speech. A PQ official said the move was triggered by the firing of a starter pistol or blank. Marois returned to stage to tell the crowd to file out slowly and carefully.
Listen to me carefully. As a nation, we want to make the decisions about the things that are important to us. We want a country. And we will have it. So yes, we will have relationships and we will do this in respect of the other.. I say to our neighbours in Canada: be open about this.... Quebec needs to become a sovereign country
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CP | By Andy Blatchford, The Canadian Press Posted: 09/05/2012 12:43 am Updated: 09/05/2012 12:53 pm