Dominique Anglade to be first to throw hat into Quebec Liberal leadership race

Dominique Anglade, a former provincial Liberal cabinet minister, is poised to become the first person to announce her bid for the leadership of the Quebec Liberal Party (PLQ).

The MNA for Saint-HenriSainte-Anne is expected to make her leadership run official Thursday morning at a news conference in Shawinigan, according to Radio-Canada.

Anglade is among the best-known figures in the pool of potential leadershipcandidates. She served as minister of economic development, innovationand tradeunder Premier Philippe Couillardand is currently the party's spokesperson oneconomic and immigration issues.

She was a founding member of the Coalition Avenir Qubec, running unsuccessfully for that party in Fabre in 2012 and serving as CAQpresident from2012 to 2013 before defecting to the Liberals.

Within the Liberal Party, she's known for advocating for a stronger position on religious symbols.

The PLQhas traditionally opposed barring police officers, judges and prison guards from wearing religious symbols while at work.Angladehas said she is open to thoserestrictions, although she is opposed to the CAQ government's newlaw on religious symbols, which extends thatban to public teachers, as well.

Anglade, an engineer by training, worked as a consultant, and after leaving the CAQ in 2013, she headedMontreal International, an agency that promotes international investment in the city.

Should she win, Anglade would become the first visible minority to lead one of Quebec's major political parties.

New leader will be chosen next year

The Liberal leadership race officially begins this fall, with a leaderto be chosen at a party convention in spring 2020.

The PLQ has been under the direction ofinterim leaderPierre Arcand sincethe party suffered a historic defeat in the 2018 provincial election.

The party lost more than half its seats in the October vote, after which Couillardresigned as party leader and gave up his seat in the National Assembly.

Since then, a number of people have expressed interest in the leadership role, including Anglade and former health minister Gatan Barrette, former culture minister Marie Montpetit and first-time MNA Marwah Rizqy.

Pierre Moreau, Andr Fortin and Sbastien Proulx, all prominent former Liberal cabinet ministers,haveannounced that they don't intend to run.

The rules of the leadership race were made public at a party meeting in May.

Instead of using aone-member, one-vote method for choosing their leader,the Liberals have opted for a point system.

The winner must receive more than 50 per centof the total points accumulated from 125 ridings.

There will be a total of five debates, one of which will be in English.