The Liberals won a landslide majority government in this election, and Pagé served as a backbench supporter of Robert Bourassa's administration.
Pagé supported the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement in October 1987, saying that it would not affect Quebec's agricultural programs.
[11] The deal later met with opposition from some in the agricultural sector, and Pagé called on the federal government to ensure that guarantees over import restrictions were included in the final settlement.
[15] In 1987, Pagé led cabinet in passing an order in council that required margarine produced in Quebec to be a different colour from butter.
)[20] The Bourassa government imposed a rezoning moratorium and commissioned a task force to find ways of ending speculation on such property.
[21] Pagé supported the Bourassa's government's shift toward Quebec nationalism after the failure of the Meech Lake Accord on reforms to the Canadian constitution in June 1990.
[27] In May 1991, Pagé rejected a Parti Québécois suggestion to bus non-francophone immigrant students to schools in predominantly francophone neighbourhoods.
[28] He considered, but ultimately did not accept, changes to a clause in Quebec's Charter of the French Language that required all immigrant students to attend French-language schools.
[33] He acknowledged that he had introduced an identical motion eleven years earlier, though he said his purpose (like that of the Equality Party) was simply to embarrass the government of the day.
[3] Pagé was the president and chief executive officer of Donohue Inc., a pulp and newsprint company based in Quebec City, from October 1992 until his sudden resignation in August 1994.
[38] He announced in March 1993 that the company would post a profit after two years of losses, due in large part to rising lumber prices.
[40] He made a guest appearance at a Bloc Québécois policy convention in 1995, although he said that his intent was to discuss non-partisan issues and that he had not become a Quebec sovereigntist.
[43] In March 1998, he was nominated to the board of Searchgold Resources Inc.[44] He led a group of investors in purchasing the Montreal-based airline firm Inter-Canadien later in the same year, and he later served as the company's vice-president.
In this capacity, he announced a support price increase for skim milk powder and butter in late December 2001 that was criticized by both producers and consumers.