PQ’s Lisée says he’ll do opposite of 2014 campaign
Jean-François Lisée has a plan to win the election on Oct. 1: do the opposite of what the Parti Québécois did in the 2014 campaign.
The PQ leader told reporters Sunday he keeps a book with a list of what the party did in that election — which began with the sovereignists ahead in the polls, but ended in their worst defeat since 1989.
Lisée said his plan is to consult the book and make sure not to repeat any of what was done during the ill-fated campaign.
“It’s a small book, but there’s a lot in it,” he said, before a rally at Collège Rosemont. “What not to do in a campaign, I’m doing the reverse. … Let’s just say 2014 wasn’t the best campaign in PQ history.”
On the question of Quebec sovereignty, the PQ’s raison d’être, former leader Pauline Marois stumbled out of the gate.
After a rousing speech in which star candidate Pierre Karl Péladeau pumped his fist and shouted the PQ’s goal was to “make Quebec a country,” Marois was peppered with questions about a potential referendum on Quebec independence.
She refused to engage with the issue — inviting more questions about it — or speculated on what sort of currency or passports an independent Quebec would use — inviting more questions about it.
The end result was the PQ spent most of the early campaign clarifying and contradicting its positions on its signature issue instead of outlining their vision for the province.
Lisée’s plan for sovereignty — though slightly convoluted — is at least attached to a timeline: no referendum during a first PQ mandate, a congress on sovereignty in 2021 and a vote to separate from Canada after the 2022 election.
Former Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe was at Sunday’s rally and said he finds Lisée’s approach to sovereignty much better than Marois’s.
“He’s doing what (PQ leader Jacques) Parizeau did in 1989,” Duceppe said. “He said there will be no referendum in the first mandate. The first condition to win a referendum is to have confidence in yourself.
“Let’s let Quebecers gain confidence in themselves before acting.”
Duceppe didn’t mention that, in 1989, the PQ lost to the Liberals by a nine-percentage-point margin. They did, however, gain six seats in the National Assembly.
The PQ’s biggest platform point in 2014 — the controversial Charter of Values — also ended in disaster for the party. The charter, championed by Lisée and former PQ MNA Bernard Drainville, was ostensibly to ensure the religious neutrality of the state. But in practice, most of its provisions applied to Muslim women — who would have been barred from wearing any kind of head covering while working for the provincial government.
Though the PQ appealed for public calm during a charter debate, there were a number of high-profile instances of Muslim women being shouted down on city buses, spat at and subjected to a variety of humiliations. Drainville retired from politics shortly after the election, and Lisée held on to become leader of a party with only 28 seats in the National Assembly.
If the charter and religious neutrality were signature issues in 2014, they have been pushed far down the list of priorities in this campaign. Most of Lisée’s stump speeches ignore the issue altogether or include a brief mention of a “secular state” and “Quebec values” buried somewhere in the end of the address.
He has also taken care to give space for his soft-spoken lieutenant Véronique Hivon, who presents the party as being “for all Quebecers” — including religious, linguistic and ethnic minorities.
Pressed to reveal what’s in the supposed book of 2014 mistakes, Lisée fired off a cheeky reply.
“I’ll save it for my memoirs.”