After focusing his attacks on Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois during the last leaders’ debate, François Legault fired red balls at his conservative opponent Éric Duhaime on Friday to counter the threat he represents for the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) in the surroundings of the capital.
“Voting is like paying taxes: it’s a civic duty. The best way to block Éric Duhaime’s Conservative Party (PCQ) is to support the best team in the Quebec region, that of the CAQ, ”we can read in a new CAQ advertisement on Friday.
Attacks in which the leader of the PCQ sees a symptom of a debacle. “The CAQ’s smear campaign has begun. It smacks of panic, obviously,” he noted.
In the morning, François Legault had compared Éric Duhaime to Donald Trump, saying that he had disqualified himself as a politician by his irresponsibility during the pandemic. “It is not in this way that the voters will change their opinion”, reacted on this subject the leader of the PCQ. “It is not by comparing myself to foreign politicians – that has no relation – it is not by making negative campaigns that opinion can necessarily change. »
Mr. Duhaime made these remarks at the end of an event at the Palais des Congrès in Montreal, before returning to the road for Lévis, where he must hold the last major rally of his campaign. The caravan of the Coalition avenir Québec was also heading towards the greater Quebec City region this weekend.
Finally, remember that the two leaders clashed at length during the leaders’ debate on the theme of the third link, which mainly concerns the greater Quebec City region. According to the polls, the two parties would be neck and neck in the riding of Chauveau, where Mr. Duhaime is seeking to be elected, as well as in Beauce.
Duhaime keeps his distance from the Dehors la CAQ convoy
On another front, Éric Duhaime spoke for the first time on Friday morning on the Dehors la CAQ road convoy, which intends to demonstrate on 1er October in François Legault’s riding of L’Assomption.
The day before the leaders’ debate, Mr. Duhaime’s press secretary had told the media in writing that the Conservatives were “in no way connected” to the event. However, some instigators of the event do not hide their allegiance to the party of Éric Duhaime. This is particularly the case of Yanick Ouellet, one of the leaders of the convoy in eastern Quebec: he is also one of the organizers of the Conservative campaign in Matane-Matapédia. Or influencers Carl Giroux and Sébastien Desautels (one of the organizers of the first “freedom convoy”), who invite Internet users to participate in PCQ rallies.
On Friday, Mr. Duhaime refused to dissociate himself from the convoy. “I don’t separate myself. People have the right to protest. […] People who want to demonstrate peacefully, there is no problem. I invite people as I have always done for the demonstrators, that it is done calmly and in order. »
With Alexandre Robillard