Former CAQ minister Maïté Blanchette Vézina says she is ready to help Conservative leader Éric Duhaime make his voice heard in the Quebec legislature. She claims to have “certain conservative values.” “We are in the exploratory stage of seeing how we can work together so that a conservative vision that aligns with my values can be brought to the National Assembly,” she said in an interview with The Canadian Press on Thursday evening. As he is not an elected representative, Duhaime does not have access to the National Assembly. Blanchette Vézina could therefore invite him to the parliament to hold a press conference. She could also table a bill for him in the Salon Rouge. Blanchette Vézina recently had lunch with Duhaime. “We realized that we share certain values, such as wanting to decentralize certain decisions,” said the woman who, until recently, was Minister of Natural Resources and Forests in François Legault’s government. But she has no intention of joining the Conservative ranks for the time being. The MLA for Rimouski plans to finish her term as an independent. However, Blanchette Vézina is not closing the door completely on running as a candidate for Duhaime’s party in the 2026 elections. “If I return to a party, it will be one that has a solid vision for the regions. I haven’t read the Conservatives’ platform, so I’m not ready to run for them,” she said. It should be noted that the Conservative Party did not elect any members in the 2022 elections, despite receiving nearly 13 per cent of the vote. “I really liked former minister Maïté Blanchette Vézina’s speech about the regions when she left the CAQ two months ago (...) Maïté has conservative values and is sensitive to the fact that 530,000 Quebecers have no voice in the National Assembly,” the Conservative leader wrote on social media on Thursday evening. A painful departure In September, Blanchette Vézina caused a stir when she slammed the door on the CAQ after being excluded from the cabinet. Upon her departure, she sharply criticized Legault, even inviting him to step down. At the time, she said she was still convinced of the “relevance of a third way, both inspiring and pragmatic” and that the CAQ was a “great and wonderful team.” This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Nov. 13, 2025.
