Couillard kicks off bid for re-election in Quebec

QUEBEC • The Quebec election campaign began Thursday with Liberal Leader Philippe Couillard pledging to “ease the lives” of Quebecers.

The premier also wasted little time making it clear what a prominent plank in his strategy will be during the 39-day campaign: attacking the front-running Coalition Avenir Québec.

He accused François Legault’s party of plunging Quebec back into confrontation with its views on Indigenous Peoples, medical specialists and civil servants.

“I don’t call that stability,” said Couillard, adding he is proud of his government’s accomplishments since its election in 2014.

The party’s leading objective is “easing the life of Quebecers,” he said, promising to release pledges on each day of the campaign of “concrete measures” to that end.

“More time. Yes. More money. More access to services. More ways to move around in order to fulfil projects. We will ease the lives of everyone.”

With the exception of the recent PQ minority government, the Liberals have been in power since 2003, but recent polls have suggested the Coalition is ahead in popular support. The last survey in mid-august put the party six points ahead of the Liberals and in reach of forming a majority government, although nearly half of those surveyed said they could change their minds.

Legault, the multimillionaire co-founder of the Air Transat airline, has positioned the Coalition as the safe middle ground between the Liberals and his former political party, the pro-independence Parti Québécois.

His offer to Quebecers ahead of the Oct. 1 election is simple: the Coalition is a federalist, economic-minded alternative to the Liberals and a nationalist substitute for the PQ .

Legault, who was once a staunch sovereigntist as a cabinet minister in the PQ governments of Lucien Bouchard and Bernard Landry, now says he has no time for debates on Quebec independence. “Never, ever, will a Coalition government hold a referendum on Quebec sovereignty,” is Legault’s latest line.

The 39-day campaign is the longest possible under Quebec electoral law and strategists have said it means more time to put the Coalition under the microscope. Couillard has said the extra days were necessary because of the Labour Day weekend and the time needed to prepare for three debates.