CAQ leadership race: Fréchette, Drainville take questions from young CAQ members

Christine Fréchette and Bernard Drainville both promise to uphold Bill 94, which reinforces secularism in schools, even as staff shortages worsen.

The two candidates for the leadership of the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) participated in a “virtual assembly” organized by young CAQ members on Saturday.

This was the first event bringing them together since the start of the race. For an hour, they answered questions from young people, but without ever attacking each other.

When asked, “Do you fully accept the consequences of Bill 94?”, Drainville and Fréchette both answered “yes.”

Bill 94, passed on Oct. 30, 2025, without the support of the Liberal Party or Québec solidaire (QS), extends the ban on wearing religious symbols to all staff in public schools.

At a time of labor shortages, at least 500 people will lose their jobs in the Montreal school system if they refuse to remove their religious symbols, Radio-Canada reported on Thursday.

The information was clear, however, and was communicated to the school system last year, argued Fréchette, who insists that she will not bow to popular pressure and will uphold the law no matter what.

Drainville echoed this sentiment. On Saturday, he reiterated that women who have been fired since the law came into effect had “chosen” to lose their jobs.

“If you don’t agree to remove your religious symbol during working hours, you lose your job, but that’s your decision,” he said, adding that he had never backed down from any pressure.

On Thursday, QS accused the CAQ of committing “massive discrimination,” while the Liberals said they expected “service disruptions” in schools.

At least one young minister

The young CAQ members also had questions about the unemployment rate (high among young people), the birth rate (low in Quebec), and access to home ownership.

They asked the candidates to commit to appointing at least one person under the age of 30 to the cabinet, a request that Fréchette and Drainville quickly agreed to.

“It’s important that you have a voice at the table,” said Drainville.

The Lévis MNA proposed helping young people buy their first home by advancing them up to 20 per cent of the cost of a new property. The government would recover 20 per cent of the price upon resale.

For her part, Fréchette reiterated her promise to reimburse them for a large portion of their real estate transfer taxes.

On the issue of employment, both candidates agreed that opportunities for young people would increase if immigration were reduced.

They promised to make the government more efficient by removing civil servants’ lifetime tenure (Drainville) and cutting jobs in ministries and agencies (Fréchette).

“We haven’t been good at making the government more efficient,” Drainville admitted. His rival acknowledged that the CAQ had been “a little too interventionist.” “I promise to be a little more restrained,” she said.

Furthermore, the candidates vying to succeed François Legault believe that the issue at stake in October’s election will be “stability.”

“We will be nationalist and we will perform well economically, because there are many challenges and that will become the issue at stake,” said the member for Sanguinet.

“Faced with this threat from the south, (…) I think we need a party that embodies stability,” added her opponent.

Drainville presented himself as someone capable of “staying calm” and “weathering storms.” He later acknowledged that his rival was particularly ‘studious’ and “hard-working.”

The exchanges were moderated by political analyst and former communications director for Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Dimitri Soudas.

According to the most recent Pallas-Data-Qc125-L’Actualité poll, 51 per cent of CAQ respondents have a favorable opinion of Fréchette, compared to 24 per cent for Drainville.

Two more traditional debates will be held on March 21 in Quebec City and March 28 in Laval. The election of the new CAQ leader and premier of Quebec will take place on April 12.

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews