Although prepared to run in the 2004 federal election, he lost the Liberal party candidate nomination to an unknown at the time, David Smith. This was due to new party nomination rules put in place by Paul Martin that changed the long standing policy of selecting the incumbent by acclamation, part of the infighting that was present within the party at the time. Many rural party members (who traditionally supported Mr. Bertrand) felt disenfranchised by this defeat because of the new party nomination rules which called for 3 polling locations spread out across the riding (Fort-Coulonge, Wakefield and Maniwaki) instead of the traditional 1 neutral polling site for both candidates. They believed this favoured the Maniwaki area party members (most of whom supported Mr. Smith) because of the greater concentration in their numbers in conjunction with their polling location.