Pauline Marois made a surprise appearance on Saturday at the Parti Québécois (PQ) convention in Trois-Rivières to praise the models of Childcare Centers (CPE), while a strike strikes this network.
“The CPE model is an unfulfilled dream for me,” said the former PQ premier in a videoconference speech.
The one who is qualified as the “mother of childcare centers” regrets that the current Caquista government does not further develop this network.
“I leave it to you, but it does not seem to have gone in the right direction. “
The CPE model has not fully come to fruition and it is for this reason that she considers it an “unfinished dream”. For example, Ms. Marois wants it to also become a center for early childhood where a psychologist could have come to help a parent, or who could have offered vaccination services and CLSC services.
“I wanted the parents to be responsible. I wanted flexibility, adaptation. “
Ms. Marois was the last PQ leader to govern Quebec, from 2012 to 2014.
Free education
In the morning, the PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, has reservations about the free education offered by his youth wing.
In the press, he questioned the relevance of universal free access that would even be offered to wealthy families.
“With limited resources, we will not start paying for (higher) education to families who could afford it four times,” he said.
Shortly after, the president of the youth wing of the party, Marie-Laurence Desgagné, suggested that free education would be implemented gradually, if of course the Parti Québécois forms the next government in 2022.
“Our goal is not necessarily to apply free education overnight, if the activists are not there,” she said in the press.
Asked about the cost of universal free access, Ms. Desgagné said the proposal had not been quantified.
Removal
Another proposal from the PQ Youth Committee was rejected. They wanted a process to be put in place for the dismissal of elected officials during their term of office if they made actions deemed unacceptable by the population.
Delegates cautioned against the “pernicious effects” of such a procedure: citizens could thus constantly challenge the legitimacy of duly elected MPs. In addition, federalists could use it to their advantage, fear the PQ.
“We are embarking on a guerrilla war that we will not need,” said a well-known activist, Paul Crête.
Budget, currency, army
As in any PQ congress, there was talk of clarifying the contours of a sovereign Quebec, its currency, its army, its pension plan, its borders and its political system. The activists voted for the preparation of a “data sheet” used to present this portrait.
“It is not for the militants of the Parti Québécois to choose for all that,” said one of the opponents of the proposal, who saw it as a convenient “trap” to be exploited by the opponents of the PQ.
PQ activists are gathered to prepare for the general elections next October.
A series of proposals must be debated, whether on reducing the demand for transport, free feminine hygiene products, the end of segregationist practices in private schools.
Since 2012, the PQ has recorded a constant decline in the votes collected and it does little better than 13% according to the latest Léger poll.
In an interview with The Canadian Press on Friday evening, PQ MP Sylvain Gaudreault said that it is the “renewal congress”, while agreeing that the PQ must stop its fall in voting intentions.
As environmental spokesperson, he relies heavily on a series of orientations to make a real green shift in the environment and the economy.
Since its historic defeat in 2018, the PQ has gone from the official opposition to the third opposition in the House and it has lost three deputies. They are now only seven to defend the sovereignist option in the National Assembly.
In the 2022 election, five parties represented in Parliament will court voters, if we also include the new Conservative Party and its MP.