Parti Québécois MNA Bernard Drainville to quit politics

Parti Québécois MNA and former leadership candidate Bernard Drainville is stepping down.

Drainville, 53, first made waves in politics when he was elected in the Marie-Victorin riding in 2007 after quitting his job as a journalist at CBC's French-language network, Radio-Canada.

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He is expected to announce Tuesday that he will replace the one-time deputy premier and cabinet minister, former Liberal MNA Nathalie Normandeau, as a talk-show host on Quebec City's FM93 radio station, according to La Presse Canadienne.

Normandeau was let go by the station in March after she was arrested by the province's anti-corruption unit, UPAC.

'It's a shock'

Jean-François Lisée, one of Drainville's colleagues and a PQ leadership race candidate, tweeted his gratitude to Drainville for his contributions to the party and to Quebec's political landscape.

In a Facebook post, Lisée wrote that, while the two did not always agree, he admired Drainville.

"It's crazy all that we owe to you, Bernard," Lisée wrote. "It's a shock, Bernard. A real shock."

Members of the PQ have mostly stayed tight-lipped but François Legault, the leader of Coalition Avenir Québec, wished Drainville good luck.

"Thanks Bernard Drainville for your reform to political financing and your necessary debate on the Charter of Values," tweeted Legault.

Drainville is expected to make his announcement Tuesday morning.

Failed secular charter

Drainville is best known for the failed and highly controversial secular charter legislation he tabled in 2013 when the PQ was in power. 

The original charter of Quebec values, which Drainville championed as a cabinet minister, would have prohibited civil servants in public institutions from wearing ostentatious religious symbols.

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Following premier Pauline Marois's resignation, Drainville launched his own leadership bid, six months after the PQ lost the provincial election in April 2014.

During the leadership race, he unveiled a plan to launch a renewed bid for a secular charter, but that never came to fruition. In April 2015, he pulled out of the race to support front-runner Pierre Karl Péladeau.

When Péladeau quit politics in May, Drainville was touted as a potential candidate to replace him, but he decided not to run.