(Trois-Rivières) While activists voted on Saturday against the proposal for free education carried by the youth wing of the Parti Québécois, the leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon said he was going to meet the young people of his training in order to “Rewrite the goals” with them.
“From this evening, I sit down with the young PQ and we rewrite the objectives [afin qu’il] may be less black or white, ”said Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, during a press briefing at the end of the congress. The PQ leader said he wanted to achieve the common goal of “equal opportunities for all”.
Earlier in the afternoon, activists voted against the proposal to “guarantee free education from primary to university”, after a long debate. At the microphone, Jordan Craig Larouche, activist of the youth wing, argued that free education was in “direct continuity with the fundamental principles on which the Parti Quebecois was founded”. The young activist added that it was difficult to pay “$ 2000 in tuition fees when you earn $ 15 an hour”. “We are not all rich sons and daughters,” he said.
This proposal “is not justifiable in a context of rising prices everywhere”, retorted Jocelyn Caron, president of the national executive council of the PQ. He proposes to ensure that money is not a “brake” for anyone in terms of access to education. Another activist opposed to free education argued that it was “infinitely more useful to have targeted measures” such as loan and grant programs.
Earlier in the morning, during a press scrum, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon said he had “difficulty in conceiving that we could pay university to a family that earns $ 500,000 a year”. The leader of the Parti Québécois believes that choices must be made and that free education was aimed at “families with less means”. He suggested that the affected households would be those below the median income.
Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon recalled that before offering free education for all, there were other priorities such as “the protection of children and the elderly”.
Asked whether, according to her, the position of the leader was in contradiction with the objective of the youth wing, Marie-Laurence Desgagné, president of the National Youth Committee of the Parti Quebecois, specified that the free service would be “gradual”. “This is not irreconcilable with the position of the leader, who first proposes to offer free education to those who need it most”, she maintained, before the start of the congress.
Mme Desgagné added that the objective was not necessarily to apply free education overnight “if Quebecers are not there”.
The “mother of childcare centers” at the congress
“The childcare centers are us”, recalled Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon, about the creation of this network ago. 25 years. “We are telling Quebecers that every child has the right to quality and that every parent has the right to find a place for their children,” he said.
Former chef Pauline Marois also made a surprise appearance by videoconference at the congress. Described as “mother of childcare centers”, she said that the model of early childhood centers was an “unfinished dream” for her. The former head spoke of the desire she had to set up vaccination or psychological counseling services in childcare centers.
While a strike is raging in the network, Mr.me Marois is sorry that the government of François Legault does not develop it further.
With The Canadian Press