The leader of the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ), François Legault, advocated freedom, but not without responsibility, in a speech in Beauceville.
“Freedom does not prevent you from being responsible,” he argued during his first campaign stop in Beauce, a region in the sights of the Conservative Party of Quebec (PCQ), Monday evening.
Through cameras, the Prime Minister addressed voters angry at the health measures taken by his government to slow the progression of COVID-19 over the past two and a half years.
“Me, I did not come into politics to put instructions, then close places, then force people to be careful. I did not come to politics for that, ”insisted Mr. Legault in front of dozens of supporters gathered inside the restaurant Le Normandie Sabreur.
When COVID-19 invaded Quebec, the government had no other choice, according to him, than to do its “citizen’s duty” and “save lives”, in particular by imposing the wearing of a mask, by imposing a curfew, prohibiting gatherings, limiting access of unvaccinated people to public places, etc.
“I am thinking of our elders: they are the ones who built Quebec. We had a duty to do everything to protect them. Freedom does not prevent you from being responsible, ”continued Mr. Legault, surrounded by deputies, such as Luc Provençal (Beauce-Nord) and Samuel Poulin (Beauce-Sud), who found themselves under heavy fire from the antimask and antivaccine reviews more often than not since March 13, 2020.
Behind the state orders, the caquistes, “we acted responsibly and I am very proud of it”, concluded Mr. Legault, before chanting “Long live the Beaucerons, long live the Beaucerons”.
Then, his campaign bus ended its race in Saint-Georges (Beauce-Sud) where, as in Beauceville (Beauce-Nord), the PCQ ranks second in voting intentions, just behind the CAQ, according to the aggregator. Qc125 surveys.
On Sunday, Mr. Legault argued that the leader of the PCQ, Éric Duhaime, had demonstrated during the pandemic that he did not have the stamp of a prime minister since he did not put the “common good” at the heart of his political commitment. “I can understand that there are people in Quebec who have been fed up with the measures [sanitaires]. Indeed, there are some who have tried to take advantage of this, and then to win votes, ”he said sorry.