Fresh off his anointment as leader of the federal New Democrats, Avi Lewis gave an overture to Quebec’s last remaining NDP Member of Parliament.
Alexandre Boulerice, whose Montreal consitutency of Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie is now the party’s only seat east of Manitoba, had in recent weeks been flirting with a jump to Québec solidaire. In February, the Quebec party made an exception to a rule barring men from running in certain ridings, reportedly to allow Boulerice to run.
After taking the NDP contest with 56 per cent support on the first ballot, Lewis told reporters he had “looked (Boulerice) in the eyes and I said, ‘please stay with us.’”
The conversation, which took place on the sidelines of the party’s Winnipeg convention Sunday, “touched me a lot,” Boulerice told The Gazette.
The MP said he had replied to Lewis that “I was going to think about it and come back to him.” Lewis “was happy with the response,” he said.
Once the epicentre of the “Orange Crush” that in 2011 propelled the NDP to official opposition status in Ottawa, Quebec today is no longer a bastion of NDP support.
In 2011, Boulerice entered Parliament as one of the party’s 59 Quebec MPs under then-leader Jack Layton. Now, with the party holding just six seats in Parliament, Boulerice’s possible departure could spell trouble for the party’s already battered reputation in Quebec.
In November, the NDP attracted mockery when its five leadership candidates struggled to string full sentences together in French during a leadership debate in Montreal.
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The candidates’ lack of French made for a campaign that “wasn’t very present” in Quebec, Boulerice said.
“It’s difficult to talk about the leadership race if the candidates can’t really give interviews in French.”
How does Boulerice assess Lewis’s French?
“It’s not perfect, I’ll put it that way,” he said. But “it’s still the best of the five candidates.”
Their conversation Sunday was in English, he said.
Lewis is “conscious that he needs to improve, he told me so. He’s committed to it,” Boulerice said.
But gaining ground in Quebec will take more than a command of the French language, the MP said.
“It will take a leader who will speak to Quebecers, so, obviously, the question of language is important, but also an understanding of Quebec’s history and culture.”
“I told Avi Sunday, ‘you need to come to Quebec. You need to come to Quebec’s regions, to meetings with people from different associations.’”
Lewis agreed to the proposal, he said.
“Quebecers are going to realize in the medium or short term that (Prime Minister Mark) Carney is a lot more conservative than he presented himself to be,” Boulerice said, which will offer an opening for the NDP in a province where he described many voters as progressive “social democrats.”
Lewis’s proposals for a public grocer and telecom provider, as well as for a massive social housing expansion, are likely to resonate with many, he said.
But it’s still up in the air whether Boulerice will be at Lewis’s side as he attempts to make inroads in Quebec.
“I’m reflecting. I’m in discussions with Québec solidaire,” Boulerice said, promising to make up his mind sometime “in the coming weeks.”
I’ve reported for The Gazette since 2024. I love covering a good politics story, but any day I tell Montrealers something new about the world around them feels like a good one. Got a tip for me? Email me at jawilson@postmedia.com