Éric Duhaime

He has led the Conservative Party of Quebec since April 2021 and was elected MNA for Bellechasse on 5 October 2026. He was the party's candidate for Premier of Quebec in the 2026 general election, won by the Parti Québécois.

Career

Duhaime studied political science at the Université de Montréal and public administration at the École nationale d'administration publique. He advised Stockwell Day, Mario Dumont and others, and was a columnist and radio host (Radio X and FM93) for years, publishing five political books. A member of the ADQ until 2012, then the CAQ, he won the Conservative leadership with 95.99% in 2021, lost in Chauveau in 2022 and in the 2025 Arthabaska by-election, then won Bellechasse in 2026, where the Conservatives took 19 seats and 20.67% of the vote.

Positions

CTV describes the party's 2022 platform as heavy on tax cuts and health-care competition, including private care with the health card, plus a balanced budget within four years. Breach Media says he opposes unions, backs privatisation and opposed COVID restrictions. He opposes Bill 96 on French while calling himself a nationalist, and his climate platform sets no emission targets. Breach Media calls his approach 'shock-jock conservatism'.

Controversies

Breach Media, a critical outlet, reports that in 2021 Duhaime joked on air that female political staffers were ugly and that in 2022 he endorsed the Freedom Convoy; it also associates the Radio X station he worked at with 'trash radio' that carried Islamophobia and COVID misinformation. Wikipedia notes criticism of his remarks on several public figures and on sexual assault. The sources read cite no charge or conviction.

Summarised automatically from the linked sources. Wikipedia · Wikipedia · Breach Media · CTV News

Photo: Asclepias, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons (cropped)