Liberals downplay poll that shows CAQ surge
With the Liberals ducking for cover in the wake of a poll showing them in a free fall, the spin from two of Quebec’s opposition parties was they must be doing something right to be gaining voter support.
But Parti Québécois Leader Jean-François Lisée, who woke up Wednesday to discover his party is bleeding votes left, right and centre to his opponents, downplayed the whole messy business and said the new Mainstreet poll is just one of many.
“I have come to have more trust in the voters than in pollsters,” Lisée told reporters in the wake of the poll showing the PQ is now in third place in voter intentions, behind the Coalition Avenir Québec and the Liberals.
“There are good ones, there are ones which are less good. We know who we are. We know what we want to propose. I have enough experience to stay Zen when facing polls.”
Lisée, nevertheless, took aim at CAQ, which is now leading in voter intentions, saying once Quebecers get a better look at the party’s ideas, they will come running back.
“Our message is not extremist, it is not a kind of demagoguery,” Lisée said. “Our message is responsible.”
He said the CAQ’s idea of cutting taxes looks good at first blush, but when people realize that will mean a lack of money for health care, children, waiting lists and emergencies, they will think twice.
“Ask me (about polls) on Oct. 1, 2018,” Lisée said in reference to the date of the next general election.
But the Mainstreet poll, produced for the Montreal Gazette and Postmedia, made big waves in the tight-knit world of Quebec politics and was the talk of the town on radio and television.
For many, it was a surprise. The poll shows the CAQ and Liberals are now in a statistical tie in voter intentions. Bolstered by a nine-percentage-point increase in support, the CAQ is now sitting at 32 per cent in voter intentions while the Liberals, who lost eight percentage points in the same period, are at 31 per cent.
The PQ is sitting in neutral at 24 per cent of voter intentions, while Québec solidaire climbed two percentage points and is at 14 per cent.
Pollsters say there is a direct link between recent ethical issues dogging the Liberals and the results.
With CAQ Leader François Legault absent Wednesday, it was up to CAQ MNA Simon Jolin Barrette to comment.
He said the CAQ’s hard work over the last few years is starting to pay off.
“Quebecers (in the next election) have a chance to make a change and to get away from what they have seen over the last 40 years (where the Liberals and PQ alternated as governments),” Jolin-Barrette said.
Describing the ethical behaviour of the Liberal regime over the years as “disgusting,” he said Quebecers want a clean government and not more of the same — and that explains the poll numbers.
“We need to do a big cleanup,” Jolin-Barrette said.
Québec solidaire’s Amir Khadir was also beaming — especially at the news non-francophones now represent 11 per cent of his party’s support.
“I’m grateful,” he said. “That means my appeal (for minority voters) responded to a need. I don’t know what is the impact of my appeal, but one thing is sure, everybody in Quebec, including the anglophones, are realizing that the Liberals cannot continue to govern and act using a misappropriation of power in their own interest.
“We have to teach them a lesson. They have to go into the opposition for a long time to renew themselves and clean up a party which is rigged with scandals and corruption.”
He also attacked the CAQ. “They are offering very superficial answers to complex problems, as do other right-wing parties around the world,” Khadir said. “We need a party which is transparent, honest, has never had problems of integrity and has solutions for justice.”
The least loquacious were the Liberals. Approached in the hallway of the legislature, many issued a “no comment” when asked about the poll. Premier Philippe Couillard was absent.
Some Liberal officials — who asked for copies of the poll early in the morning — said while they are surprised by the decline of the PQ, the sudden jump of the CAQ vote leaves them skeptical.
Ministers toed line: it’s just one poll.
“For the last four years, every day has been an election campaign,” Transport Minister Laurent Lessard said. “It’s at the end that the people judge us.”
“On the fundamentals ( job creation, economy), things are good,” said Liberal house leader Jean-Marc Fournier. “When it comes to polls, you know politicians are not the best to comment. You are better at that.
“But I would suggest you look at more than one poll. Look at many of them. You will see there is a high, there’s a low. I’ll let you make the comments on that.”
The Mainstreet poll was conducted May 11-12. A total of 1,501 people were surveyed. The poll’s margin of error is plus or minus 2.53 per cent 19 times out of 20.