Quebec conservatives plan new political party

CBC News Saturday, October 23, 2010
More than 400 people are attending meetings in Quebec City this weekend to plan the creation of a right-of-centre political party in Quebec.  The meetings are being organized by the Réseau Liberté-Québec (Quebec Freedom Network), a group that launched in September. The party does not have a platform or name yet, but it has declared its intention to focus on economic issues instead of the idea of separating from Canada.  Maxime Bernier, a member of the federal Conservative caucus and a former minister in Stephen Harper's cabinet, addressed the meeting, calling it a new chapter in Quebec history.  "Let's state it loudly and forcefully — we need a smaller, less interventionist and less centralized government in Ottawa, but also a smaller, less interventionist and less controlling government in Quebec City," Bernier said in an English version of his speech that was posted on his blog.  Other conservative thinkers due to address the group include Ezra Levant and Tasha Kheiridden.  The meeting comes after the fall in status of the Action Démocratique du Québec, or ADQ, a provincial conservative party. In the 2007 election, the ADQ won 41 seats and wrestled Official Opposition status away from the Parti Québécois, but the party now has only four elected members.