A small group of Quebec right-wing activists and politicians hopes to create a grassroots political movement in the province.
Six people have launched the Réseau Liberté Québec, or Quebec Freedom Network, a movement being compared to the fiscally conservative Tea Party movement that emerged in the United States last year.
Eric Duhaime is one of the Quebec Freedom Network's founding members.
He has worked as a political adviser for Action Démocratique du Québec, or ADQ, the conservative party whose power has dwindled in the national assembly since its initial rise in 2007.
In the 2007 elections, the ADQ won 41 seats and wrestled Official Opposition status away from the Parti Québécois, but the party now has only four elected members.
Duhaime, who worked with federal cabinet minister Stockwell Day during his leadership of the Canadian Alliance, said the new movement wants to bring right-wing ideas into the public spotlight and open up the political landscape and debate.
"We all agree on one common ground — the fact that the state needs to be smaller in many many ways," Duhaime said.
"Some of us are going to push on health-care reforms, some others are going to talk about tax reforms."
Members want to tackle different issues at the same time, he said.
Duhaime also said the movement wants to address what he called a left-wing bias in Quebec media.
The Tea Party movement has gathered steam in the U.S., with a series of local and national protests against, among other things, health-care reform, tax increases and emissions trading.
Conference set for October
The Quebec Freedom Network is organizing a conference for Oct. 23 in Quebec City to bring together people with similar views.
Kory Teneycke, former communications director for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, will be a keynote speaker. Teneycke is in charge of developing media giant Quebecor's proposed 24-hour TV news channel, modelled after Fox News in the US.
The Quebec Freedom Network hopes at least 200 people will attend the conference and pay a fee of between $25 and $35 to get in.
Founding members donated $500 each to help get the network off the ground.
