Freshly polished Péladeau smooths way at debate
SHERBROOKE It was a humbler, more polished Pierre Karl Péladeau who turned up to debate Sunday, and he’s staking out his turf against more health privatization and ready to drill for oil in Quebec because it’s a “major asset for sovereignty.”
The effects of fresh coaching were on display as the five Parti Québécois leadership candidates parachuted into a Sherbrooke CEGEP for their second of five official debates leading to the May convention.
“I want to tell you a little secret,” Péladeau told delegates in a friendly tone in remarks closing the twohour debate. “I didn’t think public life could be so demanding. I see it now.
“We have to show an ability to listen, to understand complex issues and to make ourselves available to answer questions from voters.”
Standing nearby in the audience and later at his side at a news conference was a man named Steve Flanagan, a media and crisis management expert who made his name as the spokesperson for Hydro- Québec during the 1998 ice storm.
Flanagan arrived on the team a week after Péladeau’s embarrassing gaffe at a Université Laval debate where he said maladroitly that immigration is hampering sovereignty.
Péladeau, considered the leader of the race, was forced to apologize, a rare move for the rich media baron not used to being questioned.
On Sunday, however, the Flanagan re- tooling was starting to show with a more confident Péladeau walking onto the stage, ready to take position on issues and buck the views — without being nasty — of the other candidates.
Up first was his decision to take a stand on the question of drilling for oil on the ecologically fragile Anticosti Island at the outlet of the St. Lawrence River.
On the same day as he made public his platform on petroleum which foresees energy independence by 2050, Péladeau refused to rule out drilling there or near the Magdalan Islands.
Noting such a plan would have to include protecting the environment and garner a level of social acceptability, he said: “I think it would be a major asset, major, for sovereignty.”
“We cannot simply discard the enormous potential to make Quebec a rich and prosperous country,” he told the crowd of 600.
Péladeau trotted out facts, saying Quebec could be inspired by Norway, with its state- controlled oil multinational, Statoil, which has amassed an $ 880 billion reserve fund with its diverse oil developments, including plans to build the world’s first floating wind platform off the Scottish coast.
Other candidates, like Pierre Céré and Alexandre Cloutier, have come out against Anticosti drilling — the former PQ government which included Cloutier was for it — while candidates Bernard Drainville and Martine Ouellet are reluctant.
“Some people think Anticosti is the Klondike,” Ouellet said. “I disagree.”
Péladeau then tried to counter the impression he favours a greater role for the private sector in health care, a taboo in the left- leaning PQ.
“For my part I am not in favour of an increased role for the private sector,” he said trying to kill the controversy before being asked. He said quotes of him saying otherwise in the past were taken “outof- context.”
He went further, announcing that he believes it’s time Quebec blocked doctors from incorporating themselves because it drives up the costs of health care.
The tone was chummy, with Péladeau complimenting his competitors, thanking all his supporters including his wife, Julie Snyder, and their children. Later he refrained from his habit of snapping at reporters, whom he sometimes treats with disdain.
He did not take the bait when Céré appeared to target him when he said the PQ has to shake off its “ethnocentric” past, a reference to Péladeau’s immigration debacle.
“Absolutely, it’s important to listen,” Péladeau said at a news conference after the debate adding he wants to counter cynicism in politics among youth.