Legault’s numbers don’t tell the whole story
Last week, we put into context some of the numbers Coalition Avenir Québec Leader François Legault uses when discussing immigrants and the French language. Here’s a look at another number. On Friday, Legault suggested 15 per cent of new immigrants to Quebec are unemployed during their first years in Quebec. He used the figure when discussing his plan to cut immigration by 20 per cent (10,000 fewer immigrants per year).
But just as newcomers tend to learn French the longer they stay in Quebec, so too do they tend to find jobs as they settle into the province.
Here are the Statistics Canada unemployment rates for Quebec in 2017:
6.1 per cent: overall unemployment rate.
15.8 per cent: among immigrants for less than five years.
7.6 per cent: among immigrants for between five and 10 years.
7.1 per cent: among immigrants for more than 10 years.
DEBATE PREP
A new Montreal Gazette-Le Devoir-Léger poll indicates 52 per cent of Quebecers will watch the leaders’ televised debates.
The three debates, the first of which is Thursday, could prove pivotal, with 44 per cent of voters saying the head-to-head encounters will or could influence how they vote on Oct. 1.
Mark your calendars: Thursday, Sept. 13, 8 p.m.: The first French-language debate will be presented on Radio-Canada and the websites of various other media outlets.
Monday, Sept. 17, 5:30 p.m.: The first-ever English-language televised leaders debate will be presented at montrealgazette.com, as well as on CTV, CBC-TV and Radio, Global, City and CJAD. Thursday, Sept. 20, 8 p.m.: The second French-language debate will be aired by TVA and LCN.
DEFENDING BLANC
Michelle Blanc, the Parti Québécois candidate whose contentious online posts about Africans, Jews and Hitler have outraged many, is running in a riding that the PQ probably doesn’t expect to win.
Election prediction site Qc125 suggests Blanc, a staunch defender of the PQ’s charter of values in the last election, will be beaten, by a mile, by Québec solidaire’s Ruba Ghazal, a business-administration specialist who moved to Canada from Lebanon at age 10. Mercier, which takes in a large part of Plateau-Mont-Royal, was the riding of Amir Khadir, the former QS cospokesperson who is not seeking re-election. Khadir won the riding by more than 6,600 votes in 2014.
AD WATCH
All four parties have posted new videos on social media in recent days.
Though it’s promising not to hold ■ a referendum, the PQ touted independence, suggesting Quebec as a country could defend “our jobs, our regions, and our people.”
The CAQ used a vox pop-type ad ■ showing voters ready to dump the Liberals and ridicule the PQ.
QS highlighted the star power of ■ co-spokesperson Gabriel NadeauDubois, the former student leader.
The Liberals focused on their ■ defence of milk quotas for Quebec farmers in NAFTA talks.
SUBBAN VS. PACIORETTY
CAQ Leader François Legault praised the Canadiens’ early morning trade of Max Pacioretty to the Vegas Golden Knights on Monday. “Like with Quebec, we need change!” he tweeted.
Legault was a big fan of Pacioretty ’s former locker-room rival, P.K. Subban. During the last election campaign, Legault wore a Subban jersey on the ice in a game in Terrebonne. Earlier, he tweeted that Subban was “the best Canadiens player since Patrick Roy.”