The entourage of new Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre is trying to pressure Alain Rayes to resign from his post, a day following he left the party, while Quebec members of the Conservative caucus remain silent on the fate of their old colleague.
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“It’s pure and simple intimidation that they have as a tactic”, launched Alain Rayes on the phone. “I am in shock.”
Around noon, members of the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC), including Mr. Rayes himself, his wife and children, received a particular text message. “Your MP Alain Rayes has just left the Conservative Party. He decided not to fight Trudeau inflation with Pierre Poilievre’s team. Alain, call his office now and tell him to resign from his post of deputy”, can we read there. The constituency office telephone number is included in the message.
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Result: the office was inundated with calls. “My three lines are congested,” explained Mr. Rayes. He also reports that Pierre Poilievre and the new leader of the CCP’s Quebec caucus, Pierre Paul-Hus, have directly contacted the president of the riding association to ask her to publicly denounce his departure from the CCP.
“What does it say to others? If you don’t join the ranks then you don’t put your tail between your two legs, here’s what happens, “said the main interested party, who makes a link with “American politics” and “Trumpism”.
Alain Rayes said he was afraid of going through the same situation as his provincial deputy, the caquiste Éric Lefebvre, who had seen demonstrators march past his home. Called to comment on the subject by the Journal de Montreal in the middle of the day, the deputies of the Quebec caucus of the PCC did not return our requests.
A “lack of class”
“It’s a lack of tact and a bit of a lack of class. It looks revengeful, “said Yan Plante, former adviser to Stephen Harper and vice-president of the firm TACT.
A better strategy to dislodge him would have been to organize a large rally in Victoriaville in a few months “to demonstrate that they want to take back the riding”, he added.
The approach taken so far, “strategically it’s very bad,” said Mr. Plante. “Instead of talking regarding unity, inflation and the economy, it diverts the conversation to an internal settling of accounts. It’s junior stuff.”
“Good. It starts the same way, democracy with Pierre, ”tweeted the leader of the Bloc Québécois Yves-François Blanchet, following having indicated in the morning that he got along well with Mr. Poilievre.
Mr. Rayes was one of the key players in Jean Charest’s campaign in the leadership race, which ended in a crushing defeat for the former prime minister at the hands of Mr. Poilievre on Saturday night.
