Quebec's elec-tion campaign has been jolted by news that a celebrity anti-corruption whistleblower is preparing to enter the race.
There are multiple reports that Jacques Duchesneau has agreed to run for the new Coalition for Quebec's Future in what would be a potentially ground-shifting development.
Duchesneau is the author of two incendiary studies on corruption in the construction industry, its ties to illegal political fundraising and crime groups like the Mafia.
One of those reports has yet to be made public.
The Coalition party said it would not confirm or deny that it had recruited the man who last year played a pivotal role in prompting the government to call a corruption inquiry.
"My candidates will all be announced by Tuesday," Coalition Leader Fran莽is Legault said, grinning broadly Friday.
"I have nothing to announce today."
He did salute Duchesneau's "integrity."
An ex-Montreal police chief, Duchesneau had been hired by the Charest Liberals, and he produced a report on how the construction industry was bilking the public purse and using some of its cash to illegally fund political parties.
That report was leaked to the media. It created such a sensation last fall that, after two years of refusing to call a public inquiry, Premier Jean Charest finally relented.
Duchesneau made waves again in June when he revealed that he was the one who leaked the document. He testified at the inquiry that he gave it to a journalist because he was convinced the government was planning to ignore it.
A former policeman, federal civil servant and defeated mayoral candidate, Duchesneau has a history of public spats with several professional colleagues, including the provincial government and Montreal Mayor Gerald Tremblay.
The Coalition is participating in its first election campaign.
It promises to shelve the independence debate and bring together Quebecers of federalist and separatist backgrounds to tackle other pressing issues.
The party led opinion polls earlier this year but more recently has been in third place in a close threeway fight. It risked being sidelined in the news coverage in the first days of the campaign, when talk was mostly about student strikes and ethics.
That dynamic shifted Friday.
There was an immediate example of the impact Duchesneau's candidacy would have on the race. The Parti Quebecois held a news conference to introduce its economic team of candidates, and the event was overshadowed by questions about another party's recruit.
PQ leader Pauline Marois reacted warily to Duchesneau's reported entry in the race.
"I'd be a bit stunned because he said he would not be returning to politics," she said citing Duchesneau, who had suggested his political career was over after a defeat in Montreal municipal politics.
If it happens, Marois said Duchesneau's candidacy would harm the Liberals and not her party: "I believe the Parti Quebecois has been very clear on the integrity issue," she said.
Charest declined to comment.
Every party has tried to claim some ownership of the ethics issue.
The PQ has promised a democratic-reform package that includes $100 limits on political contributions, voting at age 16 and referendums initiated by citizens who collect petitions. The Liberals have pointed to the anti-corruption squads they created, to the inquiry and to numerous pieces of legislation they passed to tighten political fundraising and oversight of public contracts.
