(Quebec) Dominique Anglade returns to the base game of the Quebec Liberal Party (PLQ) by choosing to launch his campaign on the theme of the economy, accusing François Legault of not tackling the labor shortage . If the Liberal leader promises to give money back to Quebecers hit by the rising cost of living, she maintains that it will not be at the cost of a bigger deficit or austerity policies.
Posted at 11:50 a.m.
“The economy is going to be the issue at the ballot box,” the Liberal leader said on Parliament Hill, in front of her campaign bus, before hitting the road for a rally in Montreal on Sunday.
“When we talk about the economy, it’s about making sure that we respond [à la hausse] the cost of living first and foremost. It means that Quebecers must have money back in their pockets,” she said, lamenting that some are forced to choose between “paying the rent and buying food.”
We expect this election campaign to have a lot to do with the pockets of Quebeckers. In its platform unveiled this spring, the QLP proposes to reduce the first two tax brackets by 1.5 percentage points ($46,295 and less, and above $46,295 and less than $92,580). This would represent a tax reduction of up to $1,000 per year. The party agrees to pay an allowance of up to $2,000 per year to people aged 70 and over.
Dominique Anglade chose former finance minister and outgoing MP Carlos Leitão as campaign chairman. This is not a sign that his party could use austerity policies to return to balanced budgets if elected.
Now is not the time to cut expenses based on that. On the contrary, people need air.
Dominique Anglade, leader of the PLQ
Earlier this month, Mr. Leitão, who is not running, suggested that the tax cut promised by his party could “probably” lead to “a small deficit”. “If, by doing this, we find that at the end of the year 2022-2023 we would still be slightly in deficit according to the Balanced Budget Act, so after payment of the generation funds, “so, be it” . It’s not something that would stop us, because we’re proposing to lower taxes,” he said.
Dominique Anglade did not go in the same direction on Sunday. “When we say that we are going to put money back into the pockets of middle-class Quebecers, it is also because we are going to look for it elsewhere, especially in tax havens, especially in large corporations so that the wealthiest have to pay a certain amount,” she said.
A new, higher tax bracket for people earning over $300,000 would be created, according to the Liberal platform.
In an arrow in the direction of François Legault, Dominique Anglade argues that “no one can call themselves a party of the economy if they are not able to recognize that the main obstacle to economic development is the shortage of labor ‘work “.
Seemingly positive economic indicators are misleading, she said. ” Unemployment ? It is low and will continue to be so because there is a labor shortage. We have more jobs that are not filled than unemployed. This is an unprecedented situation,” she noted.
He still has about ten candidates to announce while all the other parties have a full team. This is a situation that has already existed in the past, she said. In 2014, the party had presented after the call of the elections the economic trio formed by Carlos Leitão, Martin Coiteux and Jacques Daoust, for example. The announcement of economic candidacies is looming for the next few days? “We already have a seasoned economic team”, with, among others, Frédéric Beauchemin, former managing director and head of capital markets at Scotiabank, replied Ms.me England.
The Liberal leader sweeps away the unfavorable polls. “An election campaign, we start the counters from scratch,” she said. Everyone starts on an equal footing. »
I start this campaign on the offensive. It’s a race to form the alternative to François Legault, it’s to be a government.
Dominique Anglade, leader of the PLQ
She will kick off her campaign in Montreal, where the vast majority of her incumbents are but also where strongholds are threatened. The fight promises to be tight in his own riding, Saint-Henri–Sainte-Anne.
The Liberal rally will be held in a safe place, in LaFontaine, a Liberal stronghold since 1985 whose territory covers the borough of Rivière-des-Prairies–Pointe-aux-Trembles. It’s a way to encourage the presence of maximum activists for Day 1 – after all, the party is at an all-time low of 20,000 members according to its own figures and has only had around 2,200 donors so far This year.