Bourdon ‘has no moral compass,’ Lisée says
Quebec’s election campaign has barely began and it’s turned into a choice between bad and worse.
With his party polling a distant third in the polls Friday, this was Parti Québécois Leader JeanFrançois Lisée’s message. Lisée says the front-running Coalition Avenir Québec and Liberals are so confident of victory that they’ve taken the voters for fools.
“When you’re too confident, Quebecers don’t like that,” said Lisée. “It’s not in the bag just yet. Don’t buy your new office curtains and chose your cabinet, it’s not over. Quebecers still get to chose.”
A Crop-Cogeco poll released Friday pegs Liberal support at 36 per cent of likely voters with CAQ notching 38 per cent. The PQ is polling at distant third with just 15 per cent support.
Hoping to paint his rivals as morally bankrupt, Lisée pointed to a recent controversy over Liberal star candidate Gertrude Bourdon.
The PQ leader said Bourdon lacked conviction, wasn’t qualified for public office and strongly implied she’s a liar. Before announcing her run with the Liberals, Bourdon shopped her services to the CAQ.
What’s worse, said Lisée, she met with the PQ earlier this year and spoke about potentially running for the party in a vacant riding in the general election.
He claims PQ MNA Agnès Maltais told him Bourdon declared herself a sovereigntist just a few months back.
“In a witness box that pits Agnès Maltais against Gertrude Bourdon, I believe Agnès Maltais,” said Lisée, during a stop at the 440 Market in Laval. “She told the sovereignists that she was a sovereignist and the federalists that she was a federalists. That disqualifies her as a candidate.”
Liberal Leader Philippe Couillard announced Friday that Bourdon — the director of the CHU de Québec-Université Laval hospital — would replace Gaétan Barrette as health minister if the Liberals form a government this fall.
The PQ’s health care plan is to freeze a controversial $2-billion pay raise for Quebec’s doctors and invest the money into home care.
Bourdon is running in the Quebec City riding of Jean Lesage but Lisée says her willingness to switch camps so close to the elections is a sign of political opportunism.
Her flexible loyalties call into question her views on the province’s health-care system and whether she has the courage to lead, the PQ leader said.
“Either you’re for the Barrette reforms or you’re against them,” he said. “You can’t hold two diametrically opposite positions in the same week. If I’m elected premier, (Bourdon) won’t hold any position where she can influence policy. She can run a hospital but she has no moral compass.”
“I’m hard on Madame Bourdon, but I have to be.”
The CAQ and Liberals both lean centre-right on economic issues and have swapped candidates ahead of this election and the previous campaign. Barrette, for instance, ran with the CAQ in 2012 before being elected with the Liberals in 2014.
Dominique Anglade was president of the CAQ before jumping ship and running for the Liberals in 2014. Meanwhile, the CAQ snagged former Liberal cabinet minister Marguerite Blais and prominent donor Nadine Girault ahead of this election.
“You have the CAQ and Liberals trading candidates like it’s no big deal,” said Lisée. “Quebecers want a real choice and they deserve a party with convictions.”
The PQ leader kicked off its day in Montreal’s Gouin and Mercier riding before heading to a lunch with volunteers in Chambly. Lisée then visited the 440 Market alongside his Laval candidates. He ended the day at a rally at a community centre in the Laval-des-Rapides riding.