Towards the elections | Anglade attacks the caquist “cult” dedicated to Legault

They aspire to become Prime Minister. In a few days, they will travel across Quebec to convince voters to give them their confidence. The Press met them. Today, the leader of the Quebec Liberal Party, Dominique Anglade.

Fanny Levesque
The Press

Tommy Chouinard
The Press

(Quebec) Dominique Anglade throws down the gloves a few days before the election call. The Liberal leader accuses the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) of devoting a “cult of personality” to François Legault, which “hides the real issues” that Quebec must tackle.

“We will soon be told that he will turn water into wine”, unchecks the Liberal leader. Sitting in a small restaurant in the Grand Marché de Québec, Dominique Anglade cannot believe the CAQ’s advertising campaign, which revolves around the leadership of François Legault – a revealing choice, according to her.

The concept is almost always the same: the advertisement opens with a shot of a microphone, then a candidate explains why he trusts the head of the CAQ.

“I thought it was a parody”, launches Dominique Anglade, immediately referring to the advertisement where the candidate in Viau, Justine Savard, tells that her daughter took her first steps by walking towards François Legault – a video that the CAQ has since withdrawn. The leader of the Liberal Party of Quebec (PLQ) sees only one explanation: “it’s a cult of personality”.

“Meanwhile, we are not talking about all the teachers who will be missing at the start of the school year. […]people who have lost their family doctor, crime that is rising in Montreal, ”she pleads.

This “cult” dedicated to François Legault would even explain, according to her, the leap of recruits like Caroline St-Hilaire and Martine Biron, who had criticized the third Quebec-Lévis link and who now support it. “Ambitions before convictions”, sums up Dominique Anglade.

“What unites them? The cult of personality, magic. That’s it, we’re in a kind of mirage that still hangs on that, ”she replies.

“The empty chair, no thank you! »

She also criticizes François Legault for the decision not to grant any pre-campaign interviews, including with The Press as part of this series. “It will never be my conception of politics”, assures M^me England.

“It’s a government that forgot to connect with the population,” she insists. “Heille, you have to be arrogant no worse to refuse the debate of the Institut du Nouveau Monde [qui s’est tenu vendredi dernier]the debate on the environment, the Anglophone debate, ”lists the Liberal leader.

Wouldn’t she have done the same if an Anglade government was enthroned at the top of the polls? “No, no, that will never be my personality. She recalls that as Minister of the Economy, in 2017, she had accepted the invitation of Everybody talks about it to comment on the salary increases for Bombardier, to which the Couillard government had just granted new public funds.

“People said to me: ‘Dominique, you must not go there.’ […] You think ? I’ll go there myself. The empty chair, no thank you! »

She prides herself on having organized “town hall”, a kind of kitchen assembly, “everywhere she went” this summer. An exercise where she could lend herself to criticism and had to answer “really difficult questions” from citizens.

“That’s what we have to do if we want to bring the world back to real issues and find solutions. I know that I am exposing myself, but it is inconceivable in the situation in which we find ourselves to do everything to keep power and to do as little as possible, ”she said, sending a point to her opponent caquiste.

Dominique Anglade will come back to this several times during the interview: the CAQ is a “comm” government, like “a theater set”, which is not interested in the “real issues”. The Liberal is thus seeking to place her proposal “vote true, real issues, real solutions” in opposition to the CAQ balance sheet.

She promises to tackle the cost of living crisis as a priority with a tax cut and a recurring allowance for seniors, in particular. The PLQ would bring back the “abandoned” promise of the CAQ to provide all Quebecers with a family doctor within five years. And would rely on its “ECO project”, which provides for the nationalization of green hydrogen, to create wealth.

“Is the economy doing well? “, she launches, taking up the speech of the CAQ. “You’re raising funds and you’re not meeting the needs of the population, and sitting on your steak, you look at it and tell yourself that the economy is doing well, that the unemployment rate is low. Let’s see? There is nobody [pour travailler], the unemployment rate may well be low! »

“Replace François Legault”

At the head of the PLQ for two years, Dominique Anglade has tried to make a more left, more nationalist turn. But his intentions did not allow him to broaden his voter base and even caused him to lose support among Anglophones. Results: Liberal castles are in danger on the island of Montreal and Laval.

The 48-year-old chef is even threatened at home in Saint-Henri–Sainte-Anne, according to the most recent projections from the Qc125 site. Never mind, she claims to have only one objective on October 3: “to replace François Legault”. Dominique Anglade admits that “it’s a huge challenge”, but that “it’s doable”.