(Terrebonne) “We always have to win it”: the leader of the Parti Québécois, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, said he was ready and motivated to win one by-election at a time, Thursday, in Terrebonne. Two days after the resignation of “super minister” Pierre Fitzgibbon, the PQ already has its list of potential candidates to run in the now orphaned riding.
The Parti Québécois brigade was greeted as heroes when it descended the steps of its bus in Terrebonne. Arriving directly from Rouyn-Noranda, Paul St-Pierre-Plamondon launched his campaign for the by-election in the riding, to the animated cheers of a hundred citizens.
An election that the Parti Québécois is demanding as soon as possible, even if the party has not revealed who is on its list and when the preferred candidate will be announced.
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
Paul St-Pierre Plamondon
It is not because a person decides to give up his mandate, to give up the people who voted for him, that Premier François Legault must add to it by depriving the people of Terrebonne of an MP.
Paul St-Pierre Plamondon
Mr. St-Pierre-Plamondon was accompanied by MPs Pascal Bérubé, Joël Arseneau and Pascal Paradis, as well as party spokesperson Méganne Perry-Mélançon. In his speech, the PQ leader focused on his party’s undeniable presence in the riding, which has almost always been PQ since the party’s existence.
“Our social project, the independence of Quebec, has always been very close to the people here,” said Mr. Plamondon.
Terrebonne in trouble, according to PSPP
“The CAQ is overwhelmed in several issues affecting Terrebonne,” lamented Mr. St-Pierre-Plamondon in his speech.
He accuses the Legault government in particular of having harmed public transportation in the city, but also of having failed to improve emergency room waiting times, daycare spaces or the decline of the French language.
“Terrebonne is one of the places in Quebec where the housing crisis is the worst,” also noted the PQ leader.
The election must be called within the next six months, according to the law, but Prime Minister François Legault has still not mentioned a more specific date.
However, he confirmed earlier in the day that Christine Fréchette would take over from Pierre Fitzgibbon as “superminister” of Economy and Energy. Immigration, which Christine Fréchette had previously led, will go to Jean-François Roberge, current Minister of the French Language.