Quebec Election Day 23: Anglade faces questions about her political future

Quebec Liberal Leader Dominique Anglade faced questions Monday about her political future, as her party sputters toward election day and hasn’t been able to field a full slate of candidates.

“It’s not over until it’s over. So, yes, we have we have time ahead of us and a lot of events to debate – to debate those ideas in the next few weeks,” said Anglade at a campaign stop in Verdun. “My intention is to remain in office and to be premier of Quebec.”

Anglade said she plans to stay on as Liberal leader after the Oct. 3 election, but she maintained that’s because her party will win.

Recent polls have put the Liberals more than 20 percentage points behind the governing Coalition Avenir Québec, and the numbers indicate that Anglade’s own Montreal riding of Saint-Henri–Sainte-Anne is a three-way race.

“We’re taking nothing for granted,” but said her party remains very confident about winning Saint-Henri–Sainte-Anne.

“Being on the ground […] meeting with people, sharing the different positions that we had, the different ideas. Every time I talk to somebody about the ideas that we had, they’re like, ‘Oh, this is really great. I heard about it.’ […] So I’m telling all the Liberals everywhere, all of those that are sharing the thoughts that we have, to communicate with our families, recommend this to a friend, that’s how we’re going to do it on October 3rd.”

Anglade says a Liberal candidate whose paperwork was rejected by Elections Quebec is continuing to campaign and that the party will be challenging the refusal in Superior Court – the candidacy of Liberal Harley Lounsbury in the riding of Matane-Matapédia. And the party has had to replace another after a last-minute dropout.

Following Saturday’s deadline, the Liberals have fielded 124 candidates for the province’s 125 ridings – the only major party without a full slate.

With two weeks left in the campaign and the second leaders debate on Thursday, Anglade said she believes there’s still time to convince voters.

“Don’t underestimate the Liberals,” she said.

CAQ Leader and Incumbent Premier François Legault, meanwhile, has said the election is a two-way race between his centre-right party and left-wing Québec solidaire (QS). But on Monday at a campaign stop on Montreal’s South Shore said, “I respect my four opponents and I’ll work very hard until October 3 to try to win. So I respect the four opponents.”

Conservative Party of Quebec Leader Éric Duhaime said Legault wants to frame the election as a race between the CAQ and QS because the premier sees the left-wing party as the weakest.

“Mr. Legault likes to pretend that Québec solidaire is his adversary because he knows it’s the weakest. Because it’s the most radical, it will be easiest to knock down their ideas,” Duhaime told reporters in Quebec City Monday.

Legault is most worried about the Conservatives, Duhaime said, because the premier has been campaigning in Quebec City ridings, where the Tories enjoy the strongest support, instead of the Montreal area and other urban ridings held by QS.

Ce matin, j’ai parlé de ma grand-mère parce que je pense que c’est l’histoire de beaucoup de Québécois.

Pour me lire sur Facebook : https://t.co/bSEgRVmFZu

Avec notre plan libéral pour nos aînés, on touche toutes les étapes de la vie de ceux qui ont bâti notre Québec.#Qc2022 pic.twitter.com/vL6NVpX83G

— Dominique Anglade (@DomAnglade) September 19, 2022

Anglade was in Montreal to announce her party’s promises for seniors, which include payments of up to $2,000 a year to help people over 70 receive health care at home and avoid having to move to a seniors home. The Liberals, she said, would stop requiring people 62 and over to make contributions to the provincial pension plan, adding that the party would also double the amount people 65 and over can earn before having to pay income tax, to $30,000.

Legault was in the Marie-Victorin riding on Montreal’s South Shore on Monday afternoon, and said if re-elected, the CAQ is promising to create 20 new research chairs in Quebec studies to support research on Quebec’s reality and ambitions, whether in language, culture, history, geography, politics, economic or social development.

“The $40-million initiative aims to halt the decline in Quebec studies that has occurred since the 1990s,” said the CAQ in a press release. Each chair would get a maximum of $1.5 million over three years.

“It’s important that universities like McGill or Concordia – I think it’s important. And we see that everywhere in the world. It’s important to study what’s happening for the economy, for the culture, socially, for the language. So it’s not only for the languages, for many subjects. It’s important to know where we come from to better make good choices for the future,” explained Legault a press conference.

François Legault, Incumbent Premier and Coalition Avenir Québec Leader at a campaign stop in the Marie-Victorin riding Sept. 19, 2022. (CREDIT: Martin Daigle/CityNews)

Québec solidaire s’engage à déposer une loi contre le gaspillage alimentaire. L’objectif: réduire le gaspillage de 50% d’ici 2030. #qc2022 pic.twitter.com/7SbDynSVU1

— Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois (@GNadeauDubois) September 19, 2022

Québec solidaire is looking to reduce food waste by 50 per cent, by 2030 – if elected.

The say 15 per cent of food sold is wasted while it’s still edible – and about 1.2 tons of food are thrown away each year in the province.

Co-spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois says that there has been an increase in the number of people needing help from food banks and is proposing a law inspired by a similar one France passed in 2016 – to prevent large food organizations from throwing away unsold food, like supermarkets, restaurant chains, hotel chains, large processors and large distributors with sales of $100 million, as well as public institutions.

The initiative would come at an annual cost of $12.5 million for partner organizations.

They would have to transfer their unsold food to organizations that will redistribute it or to reuse.

Nadeau-Doubois says the small corner restaurant, independent grocery store or the village snack bar will not be affected by the measure.

Éric Duhaime said Monday that the Conservative Party of Quebec filed two access to information requests when it comes to the third-link in Quebec City.

CAQ leader and outgoing premier François Legault acknowledged Friday that there are no studies supporting his plan for a four-lane tunnel between Quebec City and Levis.

Point de presse : où sont les études ? https://t.co/iSxjTu2wkc

— Eric Duhaime (@E_Duhaime) September 19, 2022

The leader of the Parti Québécois, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, presented his proposal to tax the excess profits of oil companies at a rate of 25 per cent.

The party estimates the measure could allow Quebec to earn a billion dollars per year.

It is also committed to creating a competition bureau, like a federal once that already exists in Ottawa.