If a vote of confidence were to occur today, former Liberal MP Paule Robitaille could not support her former leader, Dominique Anglade, after the expulsion of Marie-Claude Nichols.
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“Until Ms. Anglade shows me another way of doing things, I will not be able to vote for her,” she said Friday afternoon on QUB radio.
The former MP for Bourassa-Sauvé points out that Ms. Anglade “talked a lot, a lot, about bringing people together”. “Well, now is the time,” she said.
Paule Robitaille believes that her party is “on the wrong track”. “The Liberal Party, at the moment, we don’t have time to put people out,” she told host Yasmine Abdelfadel. You have to put your energies into trying to rethink the party, to rebuild it. If we have someone who divides, we cannot rebuild a party under conditions like these.
On Thursday, MP Marie-Claude Nichols was expelled from the Liberal caucus after refusing the position of transport critic proposed by Ms. Anglade. Instead, she wanted to be named third vice-president of the National Assembly. The Liberal leader preferred MP Frantz Benjamin for this position.
Paule Robitaille then expressed her disbelief at the fate reserved for Ms. Nichols. “What’s going on at @LiberalQuebec? Does this caucus really have the means to deprive itself of such a sincere, competent and committed MP? Time for purges?” she wrote on Twitter.
Chief Dominique Anglade has still not spoken about the expulsion of Ms. Nichols.
Already, former minister Lise Thériault has announced that she will not support the Liberal leader in the vote of confidence to be held over the next year.
On Friday, former Liberal minister Serge Simard also told TVA Nouvelles that he no longer trusts Ms. Anglade.
Nichols will remain an MP
For her part, Marie-Claude Nichols ensures that she will remain in office as an independent MP and that she does not plan to join another political party.
In a short written statement sent at the end of the morning, the MNA for Vaudreuil wanted to reassure her fellow citizens. “Nothing will change for them in terms of the energy my team puts into serving them, my presence in the field or in the National Assembly where I will use all the means at my disposal to make their voices heard,” says -she.
“I also want to inform them of my intention to sit as an independent MP and, therefore, not to affiliate with any other political party out of respect for them and because of my deep convictions. My values do not change, they remain liberal,” adds Ms. Nichols.
