(Quebec) After a difficult second week, and on the eve of the by-election in Marie-Victorin, the Legault government hastily announced that ministers Marguerite Blais and Danielle McCann would not stand for re-election.
Posted at 10:13 a.m.
Updated at 7:02 p.m.
The government confirmed their departure on Friday morning, information first released by The Journal of Quebec. It has long been assumed that M.me McCann (69) and Mr.me Blais (71) were not going to seek another mandate – the opposite would have been a huge surprise – but they had not made the official announcement yet. Announcements were scheduled later.
The two main interested parties were unaware that their departure was going to be revealed now.
PHOTO ERICK LABBÉ, THE SUN
Danielle McCann
“I would have liked to announce it to the citizens of my county in 1erbut I will not represent myself, ”wrote Mme McCann on Twitter. “I will be a grandmother in the spring. This is one of the most beautiful news, and which pushes me to devote myself to my family. I will give an update to the citizens of Sanguinet soon, ”added the Minister of Higher Education, former holder of Health.
In an interview, Marguerite Blais, Minister responsible for Seniors and Caregivers, has confirmed that she will leave politics at the end of her mandate.
“The Prime Minister has known since day one that I was serving a term” and “it was written in the sky” that there would not be a second, said the minister. If she had never publicly confirmed it so far, it was to make an announcement in due time only, according to her words.
“The surprise is that it may not come out when we would have liked”, she dropped, while saying to herself “serene” in relation to the turn of events.
“I am not leaving because of my difficult week at the National Assembly. I have nothing to reproach myself for what I did during my mandate. She was bombarded with questions by the opposition about her management of CHSLDs during the first wave of the pandemic. The Liberals demanded his resignation, as did that of Danielle McCann.
During the pandemic, “I did everything I was able to do in my sandbox, in my mandate”, insisted Mme Blais, while refusing to return to the sequence of events in the spring of 2020 during the tragedy at CHSLD Herron.
“What happened at the CHSLD Herron is appalling. My thoughts are with the families. It is a very big sorrow that I have compared to that. Unfortunately, I can’t rewrite history, but I’ll let the coroner do her job and then file her report. »
Balance sheet
Marguerite Blais underlined having, during her mandate, launched the construction of seniors’ homes, adopted a policy for caregivers and tightened the law on mistreatment of seniors and other vulnerable adults. She has been on sick leave twice during her tenure – returning to work in February following burnout.
Since its March 22 budget, marked by $500 in aid to deal with the rising cost of living, the Legault government has been going through a difficult period. He got entangled in his explanations of his management of CHSLDs – in particular Herron – during the first wave of the pandemic. And he was forced to back down on the Quebec tramway file. He abandoned the conditions he wanted to impose on Mayor Bruno Marchand to go ahead with the project – an idea that members of the Quebec caucus were keen on, but which did not have the support of tenors in the region. from Montreal. Prime Minister François Legault has decided, as he said himself.
After Monday’s by-election in Marie-Victorin, which could lead to a close fight between the Coalition avenir Québec and the Parti Québécois, the government intends to present an update on its Québec tunnel project at the end of the week. -Lévis, a less imposing version but also less expensive than the estimated bill for the moment up to 10 billion.