(Terrebonne) The battle of Terrebonne has begun: without having yet named a candidate, PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon launched his party’s campaign for this by-election on Thursday afternoon, showing his confidence in winning.
He got off a bus with his three deputies as if during a national election campaign, cheered by a good hundred supporters gathered under a warm sun in the old town centre of the municipality of Lanaudière.
“Our first figures are encouraging,” he said at a press conference, referring to the crowd that came to greet him.
“We are here to win, we have people here for the victory. […] The Parti Québécois thinks like a winner.
Let us recall that the resignation on Tuesday of Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon, who was the member for Terrebonne, forces the holding of this by-election.
The four PQ elected officials originally met for two days on Wednesday and Thursday in Rouyn-Noranda to prepare for the parliamentary session next week.
But following the announcement of Mr. Fitzgibbon’s resignation on Wednesday, Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon announced that the four elected officials would head to Terrebonne on Thursday morning to launch the PQ campaign.
The government has six months to trigger a by-election once a seat is left vacant, but the PQ leader demanded a rapid trigger, like the municipal elected officials of Lanaudière who do not want to be deprived of a representative in the National Assembly for too long.
The PQ leader has expressed the wish to present a candidate in Terrebonne, given that his caucus is made up of four men. But the candidacy committee is currently working to determine who the potential candidates will be and whether there will be a nomination.