Leadership Campaign
Following the resignation of ADQ leader Mario Dumont after the 2008 general election, Taillon announced his candidacy for the leadership. His campaign manager was MNA François Bonnardel.
Taillon was ultimately elected leader by two votes cast, over second-place rival Éric Caire. The election result has been highly controversial, as it was later reported that a television personality, in an on-air stunt, voted in the election under the name of recently deceased Gabonese strongman Omar Bongo. Later reports also revealed that the party president, who was supposed to be neutral in the race, helped raise money and organize for Taillon. Following the narrow victory, Taillon named a new shadow cabinet that did not include a critic's role for his leadership rival, Caire. Caire later resigned from the party to sit as an independent MNA, joined by caucus colleague and supporter Marc Picard.
On November 10, 2009, just 23 days after his election as party leader, Taillon announced a new leadership race, citing the party infighting and alleging irregularities in the party's financial affairs, dating back to 2003, which he had called in the Sûreté du Québec to investigate.
Read more about this topic: Gilles Taillon
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