Couillard under fire for support from Porter
Accuses Marois of slinging mud
ST-JEAN-SUR-RICHELIEU — Philippe Couillard believes voters will punish the Parti Québécois for their “dirty politics” and hand the Liberals a majority government on April 7.
But as polls suggest the possibility of yet another minority government looming, politicians who were at each other’s throats for weeks may have to play nice if they want to accomplish anything in the National Assembly.
Couillard wouldn’t address that scenario Thursday as his bus stormed across a half dozen ridings, telling party members he has a gut feeling the Liberals will win big on election day.
“We will form a majority government, we will take a four-year vacation from elections to focus on the economy and jobs,” he said at campaign stops in Sherbrooke, St-Jean-sur-Richelieu and La Prairie.
The Liberal leader came under fire Wednesday after receiving unsolicited support from alleged fraudster Arthur Porter.
In one of the more bizarre moments of the campaign, Porter endorsed Couillard from his prison cell in Panama — where he is fighting extradition to Canada on bribery charges. Porter and Couillard started a consult- ing firm together in 2010, but documents show the business never got off the ground.
“My mother had an expression she used to use: Birds of a feather flock together,” PQ Leader Pauline Marois said, referring to the Porter endorsement.
Couillard again seemed visibly slighted by Marois’s attack, claiming Quebecers will “sanction” her for flinging mud.
“If some nights, Madame Marois finds her campaign a bit difficult, there’s one of the reasons,” Couillard said of the Porter comment. “It’s such a mediocre way to speak about someone else. Quebecers will judge someone like that.”
It didn’t take long for the winter campaign to descend into a kind of verbal street fight. For weeks the party leaders have all but directly accused each other of criminal behaviour. On Sunday, Marois sought to link Couillard to the brutal practices of the Saudi regime (the Liberal leader worked as a consultant for the Saudi Arabian government in 2010).
Couillard has also found himself the target of Coalition Avenir Québec Leader François Legault throughout the campaign. Two weeks ago, Legault accused the Liberal leader of having “no balls” during a radio interview.
An Ipsos Reid poll released Wednesday suggested the Liberals would either win a slim majority or a minority government. In the event his party forms a minority government, it appears Couillard may have to mend fences to get legislation passed after the election.
But Couillard wouldn’t even entertain that notion Thursday.
“For the changes we need, which are not marginal, we need a majority government,” he repeated. “A majority government would be best — it would give Quebecers the stability they need.”
The Liberal leader did, however, say that he would be open to taking ideas from the PQ and CAQ.
Couillard was in Sherbrooke on Thursday to announce a Liberal government would appoint a cabinet minister in charge of small business. He promised to give a $150,000 tax break to investors in tech startups. The Liberals, he said, will also spend $150 million to aid new technology projects.
With just three days to go until the election, Couillard’s Liberal bus embarks on a blitz across Quebec, hitting 30 ridings by bus and airplane before settling in Roberval to vote on Monday. The Liberals have kept the busiest schedule of all the major parties, logging thousands of kilometres on Quebec’s roads.
“I’m anxious to sleep in my bed and my wife is anxious to have me home,” Couillard said. “But I find I’m doing OK, it’s the young folk that are having trouble keeping up.”
With each of the five campaign stops he made on Thursday, Couillard hammered away at the PQ, claiming they have a secret agenda to force Quebecers into a sovereignty vote. Marois gave Couillard a little extra ammunition Thursday afternoon when she said she’d give Quebecers a tax break after balancing the budget.
The PQ leader hadn’t once mentioned tax breaks throughout the campaign, which made the promise seem less like a platform point than a Hail Mary pass, according to Couillard.
“Madame Marois says she wants to lower taxes, but do we believe her? No!” he shouted alongside volunteers in La Prairie. “The only other time we heard her mention taxes was when she wanted to raise them retroactively.”