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Tory Hopes in Quebec Ride on a Leader

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Tory Hopes in Quebec Ride on a Leader THE TORONTO STAR, Saturday, Feb. 12, 1972 16 Tory hopes in Quebec ride on a leader OTTAWA Possibly the most important and en­ during of Robert Stanfield's contribu­ Peter Desbarats tions to his party has been the com- plete overhaul of the federal Conserva- Ottawa editor tive organization in Quebec. Itis also his most speculative invest- fact that the Conservative-oriented Un­ At the top of the structure is a troika ment in the future. Unless the party ion Nationale party had been in power can find a commanding figure to lead it of three men: Dupras and two Mont- in Quebec since 1966 and was in the real lawyers, Claude Nolin, the "old in Quebec in the election expected this process of preparing its own defeat in year,it is unlikely that Stanfield will 1970. man" at 48 years of age, and 32-year­ reap the full benefit of four years of The Conservatives' Quebec campaign old Brian Mulroney, Beneath them is a intensive work in the province. 13-member executive committee and 10 Despite the Conservative leader's in 1968 was a six-week affairdirected by an ad hoc organization working out regional organizers. This central struc- claim in Montreal last month that ''it ture is to be duplicated in each of the doesn't matter to me whether it's one of temporary quarters on Notre Dame St. in the old section of Montreal. regions and finally at the riding level. man or a group," the party's search for The central 26-man structu e was ex­ an impressive and identifiable Quebec "We worked our hearts out but we r just didn't have it," recalled one veter- hibited publicly by Stanfield in Mont- "lieutenant" is not only continuing but real in mid-January, when he officially intensifying. an of that campaign theother day. The party, in thin condition, was al- launched the party's 1972 campaign in The man most frequently mentioned Quebec. Bythe middle of March, this is still Judge Claude Wagner, one-time most supine for the coup de grace ad­ ministered by Pierre Trudeau. cadre will have grown to 3,000 people attorney-general in Jean Lesage's Lib- - the "officer corps" for the army of eral cabinet in Quebec and a contender "That vast, bloody wave," as the 1968 campaign veteran remembered it. workers needed for the election which for the Liberal leadership in Quebec the party now expects in .June. against Robert Bourassa only a few In the wake of the election, it was an years ago. obvious decision for Stanfield to order his Quebec people "to start from French-speaking now Short-term problem scratch." Those were the words he More important than this technical used in' the summer of 1968 and he reorganization is the fact that the party The party's inability to find the right promised to give the Quebec wing of now operates in French at ·all levels in man for the top job in Quebec is its the party unusual access to his own Quebec. Even in 1968, the Conserva­ most pressing problem in the short time and energy in the coming four tives in Quebec were influenced strong­ term. In the long run, it is a relatively years. ly by the remnants of an old English- minor aspect of Stanfield's reorganiza­ The results are evident today. speaking hierarchy. It was common for tion and reform of the partyapparatus Paid-up party membership, at $2 a the party leader's office in Ottawa and in Quebec. year, has increased from 3,000 in 1968 party officials in Toronto to deal with This effort started immediately after to 26,000 by last November, according party affairs in Quebec through these the debacle of June, 1968, when the to figures supplied by the party and bilingual English-speaking Conserva- party succeeded in winning only four said lo be accurate. The annual $50-a­ tives in Montreal. The party now Quebec seats and when Real Caouette's plate fund-raising dinner addressed by claims that this pattern hasbeen bro- Creditistes came within sight of over­ Stanfield, which started in 1968 with ken once and for all. taking the Conservatives as the second the sale of a few hundred tickets, pro- most important federal party in Que- duced a sale of 1,800 tickets last De- The only "English" name among the FORMER QUEBEC justice minister Claude Wagner, unsuccessful candidate bee. cember. 13 members of the troika and execu- tive committee today is Brian for. the province's Liberal leadership, is now being wooecl by the Tories. There were many explanations for Part of this money has been used to Mulro- ney and he is far from being a typical the Tories' disastrous showing that support p e r m an e n t secretariats in Montreal and Quebec city. The Tories member of Montreal's English-speak- Stanfield has attracted in four years of They've had to fight the Creditistes and year. First of all, there was Stanfield ing establishment. He grew up in Baie constant private meetings and quiet where they have fought the Creditistes, himself, a unilingual Maritimer with claim that the Liberals outspend them persuasion in Quebec. six-to-one on administrative budgets Comeau on the north shore of the St. they've lost ground. little apparent understanding of Que- Lawrence River; learning French al­ Key people in the party in Quebec ''They have won every election in bee. 'l'he party became identified with for party headquarters in Montreal, but most at the same time as his mother don't believe that these changes will this province by tradition and default. a "two nation" constitutional philoso- the establishment of a permanent party bureau in Montreal is a new and sym- tongue. After graduating from St. automatically p r o d u c e results this Our only commitment this ttme is that phy which was a liability in English- Francis Xavier University in Nova Sco speaking Canada and produced no dis bolically important achievement for - year ..In their optimistic moments they we're going to make sure that if a - tia, he acquired his law degree at Que- somebmes talk about repeating the Liberal wins a seat against us, he's cernible benefits in Quebec. the Conservatives. bee's Laval University. kind of upset victory that the late Dan­ going to have to work for it." This philosophy was elegantly pro- Sinc'e 1968, under the guidance of Claude Dupras, a 41-year-old Montreal The new treasurer of the executive iel Johnson engineered for the Union But the crucial question, which the pounded by Marcel Faribault, Montreal Nationale in 1966. Realistically, this is lawyer and trust company executive consulting engineer, the party associa- committee, 52-year-old Jacques Cour- party will soon have to answer, re­ tion in Quebec has been decentralized tois, president of the Canadiens hockey the way they look at it: mains: Who will march at the head of who displayed all the characteristics in "The Liberals have never f ught 1968 of a great Quebec leader of the and structured to enable it to "pyra- club and the vice-president of a bank, o an Stanfield's new army in Quebec in 19th century. Finally, there was the mid" this spring. is typical of the important recruits that election in this province with us. 1972? I .
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