PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon denounces the “aggressive partisanship” at the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) where the Prime Minister’s bodyguards mobilized to “attack” an elected official.
“It’s happening right now and it comes from an unhealthy political will. This is not good for the climate,” declared Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon at a press briefing in Montreal on Monday.
Last week, exasperated by questions about financing at the CAQ, Prime Minister François Legault encountered and called solidarity MP Vincent Marissal a “national mud thrower”.
His press secretary, Ewan Sauves, added in the media that Mr. Marissal ran for politics “on a lie”, referring to the fact that he had denied having flirted with the Liberal Party of Canada.
Employees of the CAQ’s political offices continued the offensive on social networks all weekend, with one high-ranking officer even accusing Mr. Marissal of having “cut corners” when he was a journalist.
“It’s part of the political game,” Mr. Sauves said Monday afternoon in a message sent to The Canadian Press. Office employees […] are engaged citizens. This is also democracy.
“Now we realize that this is not the tone we want to give to the discussions. The goal is to set the record straight. We advocate a respectful tone,” he added.
Guilbault vs Bérubé
Last Thursday, the Minister of Transport, Geneviève Guilbault, addressed PQ MP Pascal Bérubé in a corridor of parliament, in front of the cameras, to remind him that he had also participated in a fundraising cocktail when he was Minister of Tourism .
Mr. Bérubé asked her if she wanted him to talk about her 42 fundraising cocktails.
Mme Guilbault was then preparing to hold a press briefing to respond to the bereaved couple who said they had to pay $200 to the CAQ to meet her. The story plunged the CAQ into embarrassment.
“The observation is alarming: the recent adventures in the National Assembly underline a chaotic start to the session for François Legault, leaving aside the real concerns of Quebecers,” lamented, in a message sent to The Canadian Press on Monday, the leader parliamentarian of the Liberal Party of Quebec (PLQ), Monsef Derraji.
“The housing crisis and labor shortage demand urgent action, but the government appears distracted by partisan bickering. […] It is time for the government to refocus on the concrete needs of the population and regain the control necessary to respond effectively to these challenges,” he added.
The CAQ in turmoil
The CAQ has been in turmoil since January 23 due to controversies over its fundraising methods.
The Canadian Press revealed messages from CAQ deputies who invited municipal elected officials to party fundraising cocktails, suggesting that it would be an opportunity to advance issues.
Two CAQ elected officials, Sylvain Lévesque and Louis-Charles Thouin, are the target of an investigation by the Ethics Commissioner of the National Assembly.
The Election Act provides that any citizen can contribute up to $100 per year to a political party, but without compensation.
The Canadian Press also learned that nearly half of the mayors, or 503 out of 1,138, have contributed to financing the CAQ since the 2021 municipal elections, for a total of nearly $100,000.
The sun had also revealed that Mme Guilbault and his colleague at the Economy, Pierre Fitzgibbon, were by far the most popular ministers invited to CAQ fundraising cocktails. Incidentally, these are two ministries which award a lot of subsidies, the PQ then underlined.
Québec solidaire accused the CAQ of having set up a financing “stratagem,” while the PQ spoke of a “systemic” financing method.
For months, the CAQ has seen its support plummet in the polls. François Legault’s party would now obtain 25% of voting intentions, compared to 32% for Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon’s PQ, according to the most recent Léger poll.