Charest promises Montreal a $500-million investment
Calls for ‘prosperous urban centre’
QUEBEC CITY — Early this week, Jean Charest spent nearly a full day in Quebec City attempting to court voters in the provincial capital. He promised tens of millions in new funding to develop everything from riverside parks to a new indoor ice rink, all the while lauding the city’s beauty and prosperity.
On Thursday, it was Montreal’s turn.
Standing in a rooftop garden at the Palais des congrès, Charest pledged no less than $500 million in new investments for Quebec’s largest metropolis. The money will go to sprucing up the city in advance of Montreal’s 375th anniversary in 2017, installing hundreds of recharging stations for electric cars and renovating the aging network of métro stations, among other projects.
“We need a prosperous urban centre,” Charest said, describing Montreal as the main driver of the provincial economy and a “magnificent” place to live and work.
Thursday’s announcement, while clearly designed to court urban voters, was made far from any area where actual voters might be able to witness it. Asked why he had chosen such an isolated location, seven floors above street level on a terrasse protected by several layers of security, Charest skirted the question, saying simply that his party is running its campaign as planned.
The Liberal leader was also asked why Montrealers should put any stock in Liberal promises when their city remains paralyzed by an endless string of road construction projects.
“Governments over the last 50 years have not invested enough in the infrastructure in Montreal, and that’s governments of all stripes, including Liberal governments,” Charest responded. “We now have a deficit of
“It’s like the renovation of a house, and we’re in the middle of it.”
JEAN CHAREST
infrastructure maintenance that we are addressing … so it’s like the renovation of a house, and we’re in the middle of it. It isn’t always an easy period for those who live in that house, but it is necessary.”
The ridings on Montreal Island have long been considered Liberal bastions, but the tide may be turning as the upstart Coalition Avenir Québec continues to eat away at the party’s support base. There are reportedly mounting fears within the Liberal ranks that voters, particularly anglophone voters who have long felt they had no choice other than to vote Liberal, are taking a hard look at the CAQ as a viable alternative.
A CROP poll published Thursday in La Presse shows the PQ ahead in overall voter intentions with 34 per cent support. The CAQ is up to 25 per cent, likely too close for comfort for the Liberals, who fell to 27 per cent.
Following thursday’s press conference, Liberal candidate Henri-françois Gautrin acknowledged that there is a sense of unease within his party.
“There is a slight turning of the Liberal vote toward a moment where people are perhaps undecided,” he said in reference to the anglophone vote in particular. Englishspeaking Quebecers perhaps feel “they are being taken for granted,” Gautrin said, and need to be “reassured.”
While the funding pledged this week may reassure those voters, it seems Charest may also be hoping to scare them.
“Vote for the CAQ, and you’ll end up with the Parti Québécois,” he warned, referring to the possibility that voters who cast their ballots for Legault’s party may split the vote between the Liberals and the CAQ, handing the PQ a decisive victory on Sept. 4.
“They could wake up the next morning with a very bad surprise,” he said. “They risk encouraging mad a memaro is and finding themselves facing a referendum.”