With election looming, party ready to rumble: Couillard
In rousing speech at party convention, premier puts focus firmly on election
QUEBEC The Liberals have 312 days ahead to prove they merit the renewed confidence of Quebecers and the party is up to the task, Premier Philippe Couillard said Friday.
In a rousing speech to nearly 1,400 Liberals to open the party’s 33rd policy convention, Couillard cranked up the volume saying only the Liberals are prepared to create a Quebec that is “modern, welcoming, able to overcome obstacles and without limits.”
And he said what bolsters its ability to manage the future is the 150 years it has under its belt as Quebec’s oldest and largest political party.
“My friends, we have 312 days,” Couillard said standing on a massive stage under a giant map of Quebec. “312 days to again merit the confidence of Quebecers, 312 days to project us into the future with Quebecers. “The countdown is on.” It was the kind of speech his party — moribund and mired in past ethical controversies but also trying to renew and modernize itself after close to 15 years in office — wanted to hear.
BYELECTION DEFEAT
Outgoing president Gilbert Grimard alluded to the troubled waters, which included a recent byelection defeat.
“Faced with adversity, we remained united,” Grimard said warming up the audience.
But the crowd was at its most enthusiastic when Couillard took aim at new arch foe, the Coalition Avenir Québec and its leader, François Legault. Couillard did not once mention the Parti Québécois.
Portraying Legault as an angry man mired in the past, Couillard said his best talent is “scrapbooking the latest polls and newspaper clippings into party policy.”
“Sovereignist, autonomist, now federalist?” Couillard said. “Does anyone here believe him? Look at his position on Netflix. He changed opinion three times in the same day.”
He said Legault’s ‘free ride,’ in public opinion is over because the Liberals are on his case.
“From now on, we’re not letting anything slide,” Couillard said.
The Liberals pulled out all the stops for the convention, which is supposed to be a mix of policy and fun to mark their 150th anniversary.
Looking relaxed and minus the usual tie, Couillard walked into the hall hand-in-hand with his wife, Suzanne Pilote, who is rarely seen at political functions.
The evening opened with a new ‘feel good’ video showing a warm and fuzzy Couillard, sitting in his home in St-Félicien and playing with his grandchildren.
But controversy is never far off for the Liberals, and this time it lies in its decision to invite Jean Charest, who was leader of the party from 2003 to 2012 to the birthday party. Charest is to speak Saturday evening.
With Charest under investigation by the anti-corruption unit, the Couillard regime has done its best to distance itself from those years.
Earlier in the day, Legault again questioned Couillard’s judgment in inviting him.
“What we’re seeing (with Charest’s presence) is that it’s the same party that has been in power for 15 years,” Legault said in Sherbrooke. “I think people are ready for a big change.”
But arriving for the convention, Liberals including Couillard rallied around their old leader, who remains immensely popular among Liberals because he is seen as a winner.
“I think all Liberal citizens of Quebec have the right to join the celebrations, including Mr. Charest,” Chomedey MNA Guy Ouellette said.
Agriculture Minister Laurent Lessard concurred, saying he believes Charest did great things as a political leader.
The rank-and-file Liberals, however, are focused on the weekend ahead and the 2018 general election. Couillard used his speech to warn the party to not make the same mistake as Montreal mayor Denis Coderre and campaign on their past record.
The Liberals will thus spend their time hashing out new policies. Some of them deal expressly with the English-speaking community, as the party keeps up efforts to rebuild bridges to fend off the CAQ’s advances with the same electorate.
Earlier, the minister responsible for the English-speaking community, Kathleen Weil, introduced William Floch, who has been hired to run the province’s first secretariat for relations with the Englishspeaking community.
The secretariat was a Couillard promise from last June.
Introducing Floch, a former federal civil servant specializing in official languages, Weil joked Quebec now has “another English-speaker in government.”
Floch, in fact, is a rare breed in the civil service and his job will be to advance issues affecting the community — from access to health care, to better language training to enter the workforce.