PQ candidate Boissonneault says he regrets his reckless youth

Montreal Gazette

14-05-2025

Quebec Politics
By
VICTORIAVILLE — The Parti Québécois candidate for the riding of Arthabaska deeply regrets his reckless youth but said Wednesday he is a new man, enough to merit the confidence of voters.
And former journalist Alex Boissonneault insisted even if he had been approached three weeks ago about running by PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon — turning down his first and second offer — at no time was his journalistic integrity in doubt.
He made his decision to run only Sunday, immediately informing his employer, Radio-Canada, which removed him from his job hosting the Quebec City morning show, Première Heure. He said he respected all the ethical guidelines of the corporation.
At an at times emotional news conference Wednesday in his home town of St-Ferdinand in the heart of this riding in central Quebec, Boissonneault choked up when he talked about the deep roots his family has in the region where he was born and raised and still owns land.
But it was his arrest in 2001 when he was a member of extreme left radical group that plotted to take down fences at the Summit of the Americas — a crime for which he was convicted after 41 days in prevention custody — that dominated journalists' questions at their news conference.
He later applied for a pardon, receiving it in 2011.
'It happened, I regret it,' Boissonneault said with St-Pierre Plamondon standing beside him on a stage overlooking pristine Lac William. 'For sure I regret it. The path my life has taken since shows I have lived a respectable, clean life.'
Asked what the today 46-year-old Boissonneault would tell the 22-year-old Boissonneault in relation to past events, he replied: 'Don't do it.'
He also said he does not expect local voters in the conservative leaning riding to make an issue of his past, which the PQ has called an 'error of youth.'
'People know me, my region knows me,' he said. 'I don't think it will be an issue.'
He said the decision to subject his life to scrutiny in an election was not easy.
'We know there will be turubulence,' he said. 'I have four children to which I had to explain (what I did). I spoke to my wife. It was not easy.'
He revealed he has come full circle from his leftist past. After completing his education and teaching for three years in Peru, his views have changed. Today he considers himself centre right on the spectrum.
He said the state has to do better.
'We pay a quarter of our salary in taxes and sometimes we have trouble seeing a doctor,' Boissonneault said. 'The taxpayers have to have more for what they give. Right now they give a lot and they don't have what they should have.'
He said he signed on to the PQ's plans for Quebec sovereignty because he believes Quebecers can be 'richer, personally and collectively and like any other people they are capable of assuming their destiny.'
On this theme, St-Pierre Plamondon has been coherent, he added.
One who has no plans to let voters forget about Boissonneault's past is the leader of the Quebec Conservative Party, Éric Duhaime, who plans to run in the same yet-to-be-called byelection in the riding which the Coalition Avenir Québec has held since 2012.
One day after issuing a blistering press release treating Boissonneault as a man unfit for public office, he arrived in the riding on the same day as Boissonneault's launch to hold his own afternoon news conference.
'It's important that the public knows that a candidate has arrived with a heavy criminal record,' Duhaime told reporters after touring a local fruit and vegetable supplier. 'I'm delighted that the population now knows and is capable of taking a decision.'
But St-Pierre Plamondon said he believes Boissonneault is the man for the race. He learned only of his past when he first approached him to be a candidate. Colleagues and Radio-Canada brass were aware of his past.
St-Pierre said he 'looked him right in the eyes,' and came to the conclusion Boissonneault 'is the best person to represent Arthabaska.'
'He has all my confidence,' St-Pierre Plamondon said. 'I am the guarantor of his candidacy. Never would I have considered cancelling someone's life for a mistake for which he has been pardoned.'
Boissonneault's arrival comes on the same day as a new Léger poll conducted for the Journal de Montréal shows the CAQ has plunged to third place in public opinion as Quebecers say they crave a change from Premier François Legault's government, which has been in office seven years.
The PQ leads the poll with the support of 33 per cent of voters followed by the Liberals with 21 per cent, the CAQ with 20 per cent and the Conservatives 13 per cent. The struggling Québec solidaire is polling at 10 per cent.
St-Pierre Plamondon was cautious in his comments on the poll.
'Of course we're encouraged by another poll where we gained three points and we're in a good position,' he said. 'I've never dictated any decision or statement based on polls. We're going to focus on winning Arthabaska. That's all that matters for us today and in the coming weeks.'
Observers are expecting an intense three-way battle for the riding, between the PQ, CAQ and Conservatives. The CAQ first won the riding in 2012 but it was left vacant when MNA Eric Lefebvre won a seat in the House of Commons in the April general election.
The premier has until September to call the byelection.