Party leaders use youth meeting as pre-election warm-up

It was polite and non-confrontational, but gave voters a taste of what’s to come.

The four main political party leaders got together Friday evening at Concordia University to “dialogue,” with youth on their issues.

The evening, which drew a crowd of 700 youths, was billed as nonconfrontational, despite the fact the election call is less than a week away. It was co-sponsored by the independent Institut du nouveau monde (INM) and Le Devoir.

“You are not here to throw mud at each other,” moderator Brian Myles, editor of Le Devoir, told the four leaders sitting politely side-by-side on the stage in the D.B. Clarke Theatre at Concordia’s Hall building.

But while Philippe Couillard for the Liberals, François Legault for the Coalition Avenir Québec, Jean-François Lisée for the Parti Québécois and Manon Massé for Québec solidaire, emerged from the exercise largely unscathed, they did manage to test their lines in front of a live audience.

The four, who at times slipped into their first names, will soon square off for televised debates, so Friday evening was an ideal warm-up.

The youth vote has become a key factor in the looming election. According to Quebec’s chief electoral office, 28 per cent of the eligible voting population in this election is between the ages of 18 and 35.

It was Legault who discovered his party’s plan to impose French and values tests on new arrivals is not particularly popular with Montreal’s youth, who greeted his plan with loud boos when he tried to explain it.

But he said the way Quebec manages language training for new arrivals is not working with 59 per cent of immigrants not able to speak it.

And he made no apologies for his nationalism, either.

“It’s possible to be nationalist and not be a sovereignist,” Legault (a former PQ cabinet minister) told the crowd.

“Someone of good faith should be able to learn French in three years (the period the CAQ plans to give immigrants to learn another language).”

The brief incident gave Couillard — who also faced some boos from the crowd for his government’s austerity agenda — to say a better place to teach immigrants French is in the workplace and “not to isolate them for three years in a classroom.”

“It’s clear the plan does not please some people, but several people came to see me after and say we agreed with you,” Legault told reporters later.

“We can’t have a repeat of last year where 59 per cent of the 50,000 immigrants don’t speak French. If we let so many people in who don’t speak French it’s just a matter of time before French disappears.”

But there were a few light moments, such as when Massé reminded her opponents how important it is to reform Quebec’s electoral system to make it fairer for small parties.

“Don’t you agree boys?” Massé fired across the stage.

And Legault appeared to say something nice about Couillard at one point.

“I will start with a compliment,” Legault said. “The Liberals did a good thing in reducing the debt.”

With Couillard smiling, Legault then added, “but ...”