(Sherbrooke) A CAQ government would be more unifying by having more elected women, suggests François Legault, who put forward his women’s team on the last day of his campaign.
Posted at 4:35 p.m.
Updated at 5:18 p.m.
On Sunday, when a Léger poll published in the Quebecor media gave him 38% of the voting intentions, roughly the same percentage as that obtained in the 2018 elections, the CAQ leader maintained that he expected a tighter race. “I thought it would tighten up more than what you see today,” he said. He was quick to add that he takes “nothing for granted”, calling on voters to turn out in droves to the polls on Monday.
The Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) brought together 44 of its 69 candidates to welcome François Legault to Sherbrooke, one of the three stopovers of the day in Estrie.
My ambition is to make history with the greatest number of women elected to the National Assembly.
François Legault, head of the CAQ
Fifty-three women won a seat in 2018, representing 42.4% of the 125 deputies in the National Assembly. More women, “it will change the style in the National Assembly”, according to Mr. Legault.
The caquiste chief gave the floor to three candidates, who later accompanied him to a press briefing: Caroline St-Hilaire (Sherbrooke), Martine Biron (Chutes-de-la-Chaudière) and Sonia LeBel (Champlain ).
“We need to be numerous in the National Assembly, but also Mr. Legault at the decision-making table,” insisted Caroline St-Hilaire. François Legault reiterated his commitment to form a Council of Ministers made up of between 40% and 60% women, “the famous parity zone”. 55% of the 125 candidates from the CAQ are women.
The leader of the Caquiste has advanced on the impact that a greater number of women elected to his government would have, if he is returned to power. Based on his personal experience and defending himself from wanting to “generalize”, he argued that “often women are more unifying” and that his “challenge” is precisely to “bring everyone together” when the immigration and the defense of French are hot topics.
“I think we need to unite in Quebec. I repeat, that was my primary objective in founding the CAQ: take the best Liberals, the best PQ members, the best sovereignists, the best federalists and put them on the same team. There, we talked a lot about immigration, about how we do to protect French. Well, we have a challenge to bring everyone together,” he replied when asked how the presence of more women would change the image of his party.
Talk about immigration
He did not want to go back on his remarks according to which it would be “suicidal” for the Quebec nation to welcome more than 50,000 immigrants a year. His opponents accused him of divisiveness.
“I said what I had to say about it, and it’s not always easy to talk about how we defend French. But for me it is important. “, he said.
For Caroline St-Hilaire, “we have to talk about it positively”, about immigration, it is “a collective challenge”. Was this done during the campaign? “All in all, yes. Some days yes, some days no. But myself, I am not immune to sometimes talking about it negatively, “said the candidate in Sherbrooke, adding later that” negatively, it may not be the right term. We must remember, according to her, that we are talking about “individuals”, and not simply “numbers”, when discussing immigration thresholds. The former mayor of Longueuil and former elected Bloc member, who was a panelist on the show The game of LCN not so long ago, tries to dislodge the incumbent Christine Labrie of Quebec solidaire.
In the morning, the CAQ candidate in Maurice-Richard in Montreal, Audrey Murray, admitted that voters questioned her about Jean Boulet’s blunder concerning immigrants. But she believes that “the feeling on the ground is very positive” overall.
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, PRESS ARCHIVES
Audrey Murray, CAQ candidate in Maurice-Richard
People ask questions about immigration, and I am able, I know Mr. Boulet well, to put into context and talk about what we have done in recent years, having myself been involved in the public immigration policies. Mr. Boulet has done a lot for immigration. My colleague apologized. People talk to me about it, but at this point people are listening and have heard that he apologized.
Audrey Murray, CAQ candidate in Maurice-Richard
For the past four years, she has chaired the Labor Market Partners Commission — an organization that brings together representatives of employers, workers and government departments, among others. She is trying to wrest Maurice-Richard from the Liberals, who had a majority of just 530 votes in 2018. She said that, according to observers, her main opponent is Haroun Bouazzi of Quebec solidaire, assistant vice-president of the Development Bank from Canada.
François Legault went to Orford where he said he was not worried about the fate of his candidate, the incumbent Gilles Bélanger, who faces the former mayor of Magog, the liberal Vicki-May Hamm. Mr. Bélanger had won a majority of 4,569 votes in this riding, which was a longtime Liberal stronghold.
In a walkabout at the Magog public market – a rare exercise of its kind on his part during the campaign – François Legault told citizens that he expects “tight” fights in Laporte and Verdun, two liberal castles.
He ended his campaign in Saint-François, with a visit to an orchard in Compton. Québec solidaire is on the offensive in this riding where it presents the DD Mélissa Généreux, former director of public health for Estrie and professor at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Sherbrooke. The outgoing MP, the caquist Geneviève Hébert, won with a comfortable majority of 4,450 votes in 2018.