Neither the PQ nor the PLQ has a team capable of managing Quebec, says Legault
Posted September 28, 2025 2:03 pm.
Neither the Quebec Liberal Party (QLP) nor the Parti Québécois (PQ) has a team capable of governing Quebec, CAQ leader François Legault said in a speech to his supporters in Gatineau on Sunday.
Comparing himself, as he did in 2016, to fictional boxer Rocky Balboa, who is able to take a punch and stay on his feet, Legault went on the offensive.
“Do you see a government team that is ready in the PLQ or the PQ? Do you see anyone in the PLQ or the PQ who would be ready to manage health care, the economy, a pandemic?” he asked.
He accused Liberal leader Pablo Rodriguez of not really wanting to defend secularism, while PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon is obsessed with his desire to hold a referendum on sovereignty, according to him.
The Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) team is the only one capable of tackling the current “economic crisis,” he argued, even opening the door on Sunday to a reduction in the tax burden on Quebecers.
“I have asked our Minister of Finance to find a way, in the coming months, to put money back into the wallets of those who are struggling,” he said to applause.
“Make no mistake: the old parties are just waiting to regain power so they can start dipping into people’s wallets again. (…) The only bulwark protecting Quebecers’ purchasing power is the CAQ!”
CAQ members gathered at their convention this weekend to discuss public safety issues in particular.
In an unprecedented move, a minority of activists questioned Mr. Legault’s leadership, while poll aggregator Qc125 suggests that the CAQ is a sinking ship.
“He’s had his day. He’s starting to show his age,” said activist Alain Charlebois, from the riding of Laporte, speaking off-mic. Such an outburst had never before occurred at the CAQ.
Legault made his entrance on Sunday to the theme song from the movie “Rocky,” “Eye of the Tiger,” striking a boxer’s pose as he took the stage.
He vowed to fight for the CAQ to win a third consecutive term in 2026. Contrary to his usual practice, the premier chose to leave without meeting with reporters at the end of the convention.
Mental health bill
Earlier in the day, Lionel Carmant, the minister responsible for social services, announced that he will table a major mental health bill this fall.
This is the promised overhaul of Bill P-38, the Act respecting the protection of persons whose mental state presents a danger to themselves or others, which was passed more than 25 years ago.
On Saturday, the CAQ adopted a resolution calling for a review of this Act “so that police officers have more resources to ensure that people with mental health problems receive care.”
They emphasized that “under current law, Bill P-38 makes it difficult to provide care to people in crisis if they do not consent to it.”
“It is in the best interest of a patient in crisis to be treated, rather than to continue to pose a risk,” argued the policy and succession committees, which initiated the resolution.
The CAQ denounced the “revolving door syndrome, where patients leave a facility shortly after being admitted and return because they do not receive adequate care outside.”
“We need to review our approach to intervening with people in crisis in order to better protect the public, but also the vulnerable people who are the first to suffer,” the resolution states.
Acknowledging in a press scrum that the issue is sensitive in terms of human rights, Carmant assured that he wanted to “do things properly.”
–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews
