“Rigor. Rigor.” If it is brought to power in 2026, the Quebec Liberal Party will be subject to the same “budgetary rigor” (or almost) that made the mark of Philippe Couillard’s government.
The PLQ delegates intend to find the zero deficit in “present[ant] during the first year of his mandate a plan to return to a balanced budget” which “preserves the essential services provided by the government of Quebec, particularly in education and health”.
“Rigour, rigor, I think that’s the key word” of the PLQ, indicated the interim leader of the PLQ, Marc Tanguay, in the entrance to Château Bromont on Saturday.
Some 400 Liberal delegates gathered this weekend in this Estrie resort to lay the foundations of “a new economic plan for Quebec”.
“We cannot forgive François Legault for making us run a historic deficit of 11 billion dollars and telling us: “We will have a plan in a year.” He doesn’t even know [si] in four, five years, it will be in balance [budgétaire]», lamented Mr. Tanguay.
The leader of the official opposition in the National Assembly fears seeing “the extent of the “François Legault damage”” at the dawn of the next general elections, scheduled for Monday October 5, 2026.
The CAQ “waste” must stop, said Mr. Tanguay, pointing (by way of example) to the $396 million allocated in different measures to attract higher registrations, particularly in teacher training programs. .
“Liberal governments have always been responsible and rigorous” with the finances of the Quebec state, underlined Mr. Tanguay, who however rejects the “negative label” of supporter of austerity attached to the PLQ in the years of the Couillard government. (2014-2018).
10e anniversary of the victory of the Couillard team
Former Prime Minister Philippe Couillard traveled to Château Bromont. Liberal activists — including former heads of government Daniel Johnson and Jean Charest — will pay tribute to him Saturday afternoon, 10 years after the election of his team concerned with “real business” and his “famous economic trio of the time, sir [Jacques] Daoust, [Carlos] Leitao and [Martin] Coiteux”.
Even though he was ousted from power in 2018, Mr. Couillard was a “great” prime minister, according to Marc Tanguay. “Philippe Couillard, in more than one way, is a source of inspiration” for today’s Liberal team, including his “rigor in the management of public finances,” he also underlined. “History will be responsible, I think, in due time, for recognizing — and we already recognize it — the benefits of Philippe Couillard’s government. […] Once again, everything is not perfect, but we had a government which had control of public finances, which provided better services than today.