The leaders of Quebec's new third party have named the agriculture critic from the former Action democratique Quebec (ADQ) to keep that post.

Janvier Grondin, the MNA for the Beauce-Nord riding until jumping last week to the Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ), was named Wednesday as critic for agriculture, food and fisheries and critic for seniors in the shadow cabinet of the CAQ, which has now formally absorbed the ADQ.

Grondin, a former mayor of St. Jules, was a director with the provincial farmers' organization, the Union des producteurs agricoles (UPA), from 1986 to 1988. First elected to the Assembly in 2003, he was named the ADQ's ag critic by then-leader Mario Dumont following the 2008 provincial election.

Grondin previously served as vice-president of the provincial legislature's ag, fisheries and food committee from May 2007 to November 2008. He also sat as an ag committee member from late 2004 through most of 2005 and was renamed to the committee in May last year.

CAQ leader and founder Francois Legault, a former Parti Quebecois cabinet minister during the Bouchard and Landry administrations, also formally named Chauveau MNA Gerard Deltell as the CAQ's parliamentary leader and Lotbiniere MNA Sylvie Roy as the party's house leader. Legault does not have a seat in the Assembly.

The merger with the ADQ gives the CAQ nine sitting MNAs, including six current and former ADQ members and three former PQ members.