Anne Casabonne joins the troops of Éric Duhaime and the Conservative Party of Quebec (PCQ). The actress, who had described the vaccine against COVID-19 as “big shit”, will be a candidate in the riding of Marie-Victorin.
Posted at 12:03 p.m.
Updated at 1:51 p.m.
Éric Duhaime wants to make this by-election, the date of which is still not known, a “referendum between those who want to live in a permanent state of emergency, who want to have a discriminatory vaccine passport and who are content with a monopoly inequitable public in health, and the PCQ”.
“This is the first time in two years that voters are going to put an X on a vote and really say what they think about it,” he said at a press conference on Monday to introduce candidate Casabonne, who made headlines in September for making anti-vaccine remarks.
Mme Casabonne, she defended herself and explained that her text, which has gone viral, in which she describes the vaccine against COVID-19 as “filthy” and “big shit”, was in fact a satire to denounce the will of the Legault government to suspend unvaccinated employees from the health network. “My character was inspired by the late Pierre Falardeau, a monologue that I did in one of his films and which said shit all the time,” she said. The candidate did not want to say if she was herself vaccinated, and does not intend to encourage the population to go and be vaccinated.
She goes into politics with a “sense of urgency” to protect in particular “the physical integrity and the psychological integrity” of citizens. She believes that there are no longer any political parties in the National Assembly, but “124 François Legault” and “that everyone is sitting in the same combine harvester of rights”. The one who has “always” voted for the Parti Québécois is turning her back on this political formation which makes Quebecers “less free” by supporting health measures, she said.
It should be noted, however, that the Liberal Party, Québec solidaire and the Parti québécois have all asked, at one time or another, for the lifting of the health emergency or have criticized certain measures, such as the curfew.
“Accepted anti-vaccine discourse”
Mr. Duhaime, he denies being anti-vaccine. He recalls that he himself is vaccinated and that there is a “consensus” of science in favor of vaccination, but he does not want to promote it. “Every person is different. I had myocarditis at 6 years old, I needed reassurance from my doctor,” he said.
For political scientist Éric Montigny, this candidacy rather sends the message of an “assumed anti-vaccine discourse”. The scientific director of the Research Chair on Democracy and Parliamentary Institutions at Laval University draws a parallel with Maxime Bernier, who abandoned the libertarian discourse to turn to a “conspiratorial” discourse. “This is the tangent that Éric Duhaime chooses to take,” emphasizes Mr. Montigny. “The image is strong and it speaks. It is not because we erase a Twitter account or a Facebook account that we erase past statements, ”he said.
The appointment of Mr.me Casabonne ensures that all opposition parties have so far announced their candidate in Marie-Victorin, whose seat has been vacant since the election of Catherine Fournier as mayor of Longueuil. François Legault has already assured that his party will be in the race, with “probably” a woman in the ranks. However, no choice has yet been made. Sarah Beaumier, who had not ruled out being a candidate, however, will not be in the game, according to our information.