Moreau likes his chances in bid for provincial Liberal leadership
Polling in 3rd place, but has the backing of 13 MNAS
He might be in third place in the latest public opinion polls, but provincial Liberal leadership candidate Pierre Moreau says he is confident he has a good shot at winning the party’s March 17 leadership vote.
“I think it will be a very tight race. I am convinced there will be more than one (ballot), and our strategy is based on there being a second (ballot),” Moreau told The Gazette’s editorial board Thursday.
Moreau is encouraged by the fact that he has the support of 13 MNAs in the Liberal caucus, almost as many as front-runner Philippe Couillard, who has 14. He said that should have some influence on Liberal delegates, because his caucus colleagues have seen up close how he works and what he stands for.
Moreau, 55, was first elected to the National Assembly in 2003, after practising for 22 years as a lawyer specializing in municipal law. He was defeated in the Montérégie riding of Marguerite-d’Youville in 2007 by an Action démocratique du Québec candidate, but was re-elected in 2008 in Châteauguay.
He became government whip, then minister for Canadian intergovernmental affairs, and he was minister of transport until the Liberal government was defeated last fall.
Moreau told The Gazette his experience in Châteauguay has convinced him the Liberal party needs to stop taking the support of anglophones for granted. After winning by only 495 votes in the traditionally safe Liberal riding, he made a point of attending every anglophone gathering he could. The Lib- erals need to show the anglophone community and other minorities they are valued in the party and in the province, he said.
Moreau resisted taking pointed shots at his competitors, painting himself as the only candidate who could work well with both his rivals.
Couillard and Raymond Bachand have been at odds over comments Bachand made in the English debate on Jan. 26 about Couillard’s past association with embattled former McGill University Hospital Centre director Arthur Porter.
Moreau did differentiate himself from his competitors on two issues. He said both Couillard and Bachand want to boost spending on health, while he believes the system could be made more efficient in various ways, such as by expanding the role of pharmacists.
And Moreau said it is time to question the role of CEGEPs in Quebec’s relatively low university graduate rates, something neither of his rivals have been willing to do.