Lisée drops anti-Muslim candidate and pushes for unity on NAFTA
Anyone who has ‘a problem with Islam has a problem with the PQ platform’
A Parti Québécois candidate who posted on social media that Islam should be banned “like we ban pit bulls” will not be allowed to stand for the party, leader Jean-François Lisée said on Wednesday morning.
Pierre Marcotte was the only person to seek the party ’s nomination in Drummond—Bois-Francs, and received the approval of the local riding association, but Lisée said Marcotte’s opinions were disqualifying.
“This person will not be a Parti Québécois candidate; he does not represent the values of the Parti Québécois and, as of this morning, he is no longer a candidate,” Lisée said during a campaign stop in Nicolet.
In social media posts, Marcotte described Islam as a “menace” and said immigrants to Quebec should be forced to eat bacon.
Lisée said his first reaction to seeing Marcotte’s social media posts was “disgust.”
“We consider Islam to be a religion as respectable as the others. It is the radicalism of a fringe that causes a problem, not the religion itself,” Lisée said.
Marcotte is also alleged to have ties to the far-right group La Meute.
This is the second time a PQ candidate has been accused of making Islamophobic comments on social media. In May, Muguette Paillé stepped down as the party’s candidate in Maskinongé after her posts came to light.
Lisée said he doesn’t believe the party has an Islamophobia problem.
“Anyone who believes that there’s a problem with Islam has a problem with the PQ platform,” he said. “And that’s fine.”
Meanwhile, the PQ leader continued to call for the main party leaders, particularly Philippe Couillard, to join him in a common front on NAFTA.
The declaration proposed by Lisée on Tuesday would see all the leaders agree to oppose a new NAFTA deal if it allowed for increased imports of dairy products. Imports — and production — of dairy products in Canada are limited by the supply-control system, which has been criticized by the United States administration.
On Tuesday, Couillard shot down the idea, but on Wednesday said he was open to signing a joint letter with the other three leaders, but would not hold a joint news conference, as Lisée requested.
“We’re moving forward,” Lisée said. “Yesterday, he said he wasn’t interested.”
Still, at 5 p.m., Lisée said he had not yet heard from the Liberal leader.
“The image of four leaders, in the midst of a campaign, who are together to read a common declaration is the image we want to send to Ottawa and Washington,” he said.
Couillard and the PQ leader are also at odds over Quebec’s ability to block the trade deal. Lisée said because the deal touches on areas of exclusive provincial jurisdiction, it requires the approval of the National Assembly to apply in Quebec.
Couillard has said there will be political consequences if supply control is abandoned.
One of Lisée’s goals has been to avoid making the same mistakes his party made in 2014 — when a PQ minority government called an early election that led to the party’s worst showing in more than 40 years.
Early in the campaign, Lisée said he has a book of those mistakes and plans to do the opposite.
With just over half of Quebecers predicting a minority government, according to a poll conducted for the Montreal Gazette and Le Devoir, Lisée said if his party came out ahead, it would make compromises to ensure it didn’t trigger an early election.
“If Quebecers elect a Parti Québécois minority government, we will respect that and we will govern in a minority for four years,” he said.
Lisée said that’s “in the first chapter” of the book.