Prime Minister François Legault was right to attack the Parti Québécois (PQ) during the CAQ convention last weekend, because he is “well and truly his main opponent”, PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon said on Monday. .
“We can say that Mr. Legault really has no choice but to name the PQ as his main opponent. We see it in the financing, the polls, but also in the presence of the PQ in all the regions of Quebec and the way we have [les] to defend”, underlined Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon, during a press briefing at the National Assembly.
A Léger poll published at the beginning of May places the PQ in second place in terms of voting intentions in Quebec (22%), behind the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ), which would collect 36% of support.
During the convention that took place in Sherbrooke, Mr. Legault fired several arrows at the PQ, stating in particular that “to be in government, you have to bring together enough people, enough nationalists”. “That’s the CAQ: the largest gathering of nationalists in Quebec,” he added.
These are “very partisan” attacks, retorted Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, whose party has three deputies in the National Assembly. “We are bringing together more and more people at the PQ, it is an observation. But I want to remain on the accounts that the CAQ must render to us in relation to promises and formal commitments for which we do the opposite. »
Despite the government’s backtracking on its flagship promise to build a third highway link between Quebec and Lévis, Mr. Legault garnered the support of 98.61% of party members gathered in congress.
“There is a contrast between this vote of confidence and the news for a month in terms of broken promises,” said the PQ leader. The latter also believes that the salvos launched at the PQ are a way of diverting attention “from a government that is increasingly losing the confidence of the population”.
An independent expert called
Paul St-Pierre Plamondon also demanded the appointment of an independent expert to examine the cancellation of five calls for nominations for the post of judge since 2020 by the Minister of Justice, Simon Jolin-Barrette.
This person — who could be a retired judge or an ethics specialist — would have the mandate to “rethink the process that eliminates all candidates from a first call for candidates, based on the minister’s discretion to reasons for which we will never know the merits or not, ”he said.
During the CAQ congress, the minister explained that “all sorts of circumstances can arise for which a competition must be republished”.
However, according to the PQ leader, Mr. Jolin-Barrette is circumventing the “spirit” of the recommendations of the Bastarache report in 2011. This led to the creation of an independent committee which recommends to the Minister of Justice candidates for the judiciary.
Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon called on the government to put an end to “partisan appointments”. Last Friday, The sun revealed that Simon Jolin-Barrette had recommended a longtime friend, Charles-Olivier Gosselin, as a judge in the criminal division of the Court of Quebec.
“He is a quality candidate and the appointment was made on merit and the relationship between him and me was not taken into consideration to make the recommendation,” pleaded the minister last weekend.
However, he was open to modifying the regulations governing the selection process for candidates for the office of judge. A provision could be included in situations where the minister finds himself faced with the name of a candidate with whom he has personal ties, he said.
With Alexandre Robillard