It is rare for a successful business leader to plunge into politics. Even more rare for a CEO to seek the leadership of a party sure to be in opposition for another three years.

And Pierre Karl Péladeau, who seems certain to be anointed the new Parti Québécois leader in a May leadership vote, has set the bar high for Quebec’s 2018 election. The overarching issue, Péladeau, formerly Quebecor Inc. president, has said bluntly, will be the question of “the sovereignty of Quebec.”

Two years ago, Péladeau, then 51, announced he was giving up the day-to-day running of Quebecor to become chairman of the media and communications conglomerate founded by his late father, Pierre. A month later, Quebec premier Pauline Marois named Péladeau chairman of Hydro-Québec, the province’s electrical utility.

Péladeau remained chairman of both Quebecor and Hydro-Québec until March 2014, when he surprised Quebecers and corporate Canada by announcing that he was running for the PQ.

Péladeau the CEO had steered clear of politics. A backer of the Workers Communist Party (of Marxist-Leninist persuasion) in his student days, he did not contribute to the PQ as Quebecor’s CEO. Instead, he gave $3,000 to Mario Dumont’s right-of-centre Action démocratique du Québec political party.

Péladeau, the businessman, boasted that he did not vote.

The most likely factor in his sudden embrace of the PQ seems to be his relationship with Julie Snyder. A Quebec TV personality and an open PQ supporter, Snyder has been Péladeau’s life partner for 14 years.

Snyder went on stage, hugging Marois, before Marois’ 2012 election win and, a year later, Snyder organized les Janettes, high-profile Quebec women who endorsed the PQ’s ill-fated Charter of Quebec Values.

Snyder’s Facebook page describes Snyder as a “public figure.” She would not shy away from campaigning actively in the 2018 election campaign for the independence goal. (She first came to notice as a non-singing Quebec version of Lady Gaga, known for her outrageous costumes.)

Péladeau shares none of Snyder’s flamboyance, but maybe her pizzazz is what his new career choice needs.

Péladeau, taking over the family business after his father died in 1997, bought the Sun Media newspaper chain in 1999. In 2001, with backing from the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, Quebecor bought Vidéotron ltée, Quebec’s dominant cable distributor – and, with it, the top-rated TVA television network, on which Snyder is a regular headliner.

Péladeau, while no longer holding executive positions within Quebecor, remains its controlling shareholder and admits he still is involved in management.

Recently, Quebecor retreated from English Canada, selling the Sun Media newspaper chain to Postmedia Network Inc. and shutting down the money-losing Sun News Network.

Jean-François Lisée, a former PQ minister, became an instant outcast within the PQ after suggesting Péladeau must choose between politics and media ownership. Still, Péladeau says, when he is PQ leader, he will place his media interests (estimated at about 40% of the Quebec market) in a blind trust.

That solution begs the question about the nature of his continuing influence and the role of Snyder on the TVA network.

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