The Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) assures that it never “intended to take advantage” of a lady appearing in one of its election advertisements, contrary to what his daughter said in an open letter, published in The duty, criticizing the sum granted to his mother.
Reading the letter signed by Chantal Landry, the daughter of the lady appearing in the advertisement, the political party was “surprised and pained”, wrote Monday Brigitte Legault, director general of the CAQ, on Facebook. “Until the publication of his open letter [le week-end dernier]Mme Landry never tried to contact us to share his point of view,” she said.
Since the publication of the letter, “we have indeed tried to contact the lady [de la publicité] in question,” says Mr.me Legault. The latter assures that if the Mauricie resident “shows any discomfort”, the party will find a solution “satisfactory for her and her family”.
In his open letter, Mr.me Landry considered the sum of $250 offered to his almost 80-year-old mother to be “derisory”. This is an advertisement and not a mere vox-pop, “Contrary to appearances,” she argues. “I understand that it is unethical to pay someone for their political opinions, but it is equally unethical to take advantage of an elderly woman with a modest income,” she lamented.
Although the lady initially refused any amount of money, the production team “however insisted on paying her a symbolic amount of $250 for each video that would eventually be released”, argues Mme Legault. “She finally accepted and will have received $500 in all. »
In the advertisement in question, the lady expresses her appreciation of Prime Minister François Legault. The video was the subject of parodies by comedians and generated many comments on social networks.
A vox pop in 2018
Brigitte Legault explains that a first interview was done with the lady in question during a vox-pop in 2018 in Shawinigan. It was then used in the advertising campaign of the caquiste training in the last elections. There was then “no script” and a symbolic sum of $ 100 was offered to people who appeared in CAQ advertisements, she underlines.
This year, a company specializing in the production of visual material commissioned by the political party again contacted the lady. At the end of May, a team came to her home to conduct an interview that lasted more than an hour.
The director general of the CAQ says that she called on this lady again in 2022, because of “her unusual verve, her expressiveness and her kindness”. “It was always clear that the interview would be used in publicity”, maintains Mme Legault.
Brigitte Legault also points out that the advertisement in question was entirely paid for by the Coalition avenir Québec, “without any connection with the government”, she specifies.
With Zacharie Goudreault and François Carabin