Some candidates with baggage kept safely on board while others dumped
Jean-François Lisée and François Legault have thrown some questionable candidates overboard while keeping others safely on board. Here’s how the Coalition Avenir Québec and Parti Québécois leaders have handled seven recent candidate controversies.
PARTI QUÉBÉCOIS
Muguette Paillé
Role: Personally recruited by Lisée to be a candidate in Maskinongé riding.
Issue: An anti-extremist blogger exposed her online footprint, which included vitriolic and hateful comments about Muslims. When one man characterized Muslims in Quebec as “invaders,” she commented “Quebec for Quebecers of the Quebec nation.” Result: The PQ said she withdrew her candidacy.
Pierre Marcotte
Role: Candidate in Drummond— Bois-Franc riding.
Issue: An anti-extremist blogger exposed Marcotte’s Islamophobic comments and his sharing of content from far-right and conspiracy sources. In one post, he said Islam should be banned “like we ban pit bulls.”
Result: Lisée said Marcotte would no longer be a candidate because “he does not represent the values of the PQ.”
Michelle Blanc
Role: Candidate in Mercier riding. Issue: On social media, she used the N-word to refer to an African and implied an anti-extremist blogger is a pedophile. She apologized to the blogger.
Result: Still a candidate. “There has to be room for human error in politics,” Lisée said.
Guy Leclair, incumbent MNA Role: Candidate in Beauharnois. Issue: He was arrested and charged with drunk driving in July and police reported he refused a breathalyzer test. Leclair was convicted of drunk driving in 2011.
Result: No longer a candidate. Leclair stepped down late Wednesday night. “I think that after 10 years in politics, for his career to end like this ... it sucks,” Lisée said.
COALITION AVENIR QUÉBEC
Stéphane Le Bouyonnec Roles: Party president, co-founder, former MNA and candidate in La Prairie riding.
Issue: He was a shareholder in a loan company that charged interest rates of up to 780 per cent annually in Ontario. The practice is legal in that province. In Quebec, the maximum interest rate is 35 per cent. Result: He quit as president and candidate. Legault said Le Bouyonnec “acknowledged his mistakes and decided to withdraw.”
Stéphane Laroche
Role: Candidate in Saint-Jean riding.
Issue: He owns a bar that was cited by provincial agencies for admitting minors and for paying female staff members less than their male counterparts. The bar held annual “Nain-Jean-Baptiste” events that involved people of short stature. Nain translates as dwarf in English.
Result: No longer a candidate. “The lack of transparency and the lack of respect for pay equity have no place in the CAQ,” the party said.
Éric Caire, incumbent MNA Roles: A CAQ ethics critic and the party ’s candidate in La Peltrie riding.
Issue: Took a $55,000 loan from a mayor in his riding and repaid it after Quebec’s ethics watchdog told him there was a potential conflict of interest.
Result: Still a candidate. Legault said the loan had “the appearance of a conflict of interest” but there was no suggestion of corruption.
RAINBOW COALITION
At least 25 LGBTQ+ candidates are running in the Oct. 1 election. They are represented in all four party slates, though Québec solidaire has the most LGBTQ+ contenders — 12, according to Fugues magazine.
POUTINE PREFERENCE
CAQ Leader François Legault told reporters he was on a diet and couldn’t have a poutine when his campaign bus stopped at the Ti-Oui Snack Bar two weeks ago in St-Raymond, near Quebec City.
On Wednesday, reporters spotted him devouring a poutine when his bus stopped at Patate Mallette in Beauharnois, near Valleyfield.