Quebec election: Immigration, climate change major topics early on in leaders debate
Posted September 15, 2022 9:34 pm.
Last Updated September 16, 2022 3:53 pm.
Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) Leader François Legault was forced to defend his comments on immigration as the first leaders debate of the Quebec election campaign began Thursday evening.
Early in the Face-à-Face Québec 2022, moderator Pierre Bruneau asked Legault if he believes there is more violence in Montreal than in other parts of the province because the region receives more immigrants.
“That’s not what I said,” Legault responded.
“Yes or no?” Liberal Leader Dominique Anglade asked.
“What I said is that all the countries in the world have to ensure that new arrivals are integrated into the values of where they will live, look at what’s happening in Sweden,” Legault said without giving details of the situation in that country. “And, in Quebec, our priority is to integrate in French.”
Earlier this month, a right-wing bloc that includes a nationalist anti-immigration party won a narrow majority in Sweden’s parliament, a major political shift in the Scandinavian country, which had a decades-long history of welcoming refugees but is grappling with a crime wave linked with immigration.
Last week, Legault said Quebecers “don’t like violence” when talking about the challenge of integrating immigrants.
Meanwhile, climate change was also one of the main topics early on in the debate.
While Anglade attempted to sell her vision of making Quebec a global leader in the production of green hydrogen, she faced questions from Legault about how a Liberal government would produce enough electricity to reach that goal.
Conservative Party of Quebec Leader Éric Duhaime spoke English amid the French debate.
“You betrayed English Quebecers on that bill,” he told Anglade about Bill 96, noting the Liberals recommended amendments “that made it worse.” And, said it’s not the fault of English Quebecers that French is in decline.
Duhaime said his party offers an alternative to Anglophone Quebecers.
During a media scrum after the debate, the five leaders took stock of their performance and reinforced their priorities.
Duhaime addressed the fact that there will not be an English-language debate this election campaign, unlike in 2018.
“I thought it was important to talk to English Quebecers as well tonight, because unfortunately, Mr. Legault refuses to talk to 1 million Quebeckers. He refused an English debate, unlike in 2018. I thought it was completely unacceptable that he changed his mind on that issue,” he said.
Legault took the opportunity to defend the protection of the French language.
“What we see right now is that the percentage of Quebecers speaking French is decreasing year after year. The trend is not good. So we have to change something. We have to make sure that more immigrants coming in Quebec speak French. If we want to protect our language,” he said.
“I think I managed well because we presented a number of solutions to the problems that people are facing today. When you think about the economy and inflation, what are we going to do about this? When you think about a labor shortage, what is it that we’re going to do about it? We had concrete proposals,” Dominique Anglade said.
For Québec solidaire, the priority is the environment.
“We want to make Quebec one of the greenest places on Earth, and I think people are ready to change. What we need to do as a government is give them the possibility to change their everyday habits. That’s what our plan is about. I’m very proud of that plan and I think Mr. Legault underestimates the the fact that Quebecers are ready for change,” said Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois.
“There are fundamental choices for Quebec’s future that were raised about the future of the French language, the future of Quebec within Canada and internationally, the future of the environment. I’m glad that I had the opportunity to say exactly what I think about it. Then it’s up to everybody to make their choice,” added Parti Québécois leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon.
Legault, the only participant who has debated before as a provincial party leader, has a sizable lead in the polls over his four main opponents.
A Leger poll for Quebecor media published earlier Thursday shows a slight drop in support for the CAQ, down four points to 38 per cent. They are followed by the Liberals at 18 per cent, Quebec solidaire at 17 and the Conservatives at 15 per cent. The PQ trails the pack at 11 per cent.
The online survey of 3,100 Quebecers aged 18 and older between Sept. 6 and 12, cannot be assigned a margin of error because internet-based polls are not considered random samples.
A second French debate, on Radio-Canada, will take place on Sept. 22.
With files from The Canadian Press
