CAQ VIDEO WOOS ANGLOS
‘We want to open doors’
With the provincial election still 15 months away, the Coalition Avenir Québec party says it wants to swing the doors wide open to Englishspeaking Quebecers.
And to get the message across, the party announced it would be releasing an English video on social media Thursday morning designed to woo voters into having a look at the party, which now tags itself as a party that sees Quebec’s future within Canada and as the alternative to the governing Liberals.
It’s no coincidence that the party is getting active on the minority front just before Canada Day festivities this weekend, either.
“It’s (the video) coming now because we want to open doors,” CAQ party president Stéphane Le Bouyonnec said in an interview. “We want to give a signal that the CAQ is a party which is open and actively looking for candidates who can carry the colours in all regions of Quebec.”
The video features CAQ Leader François Legault making a speech in English to the party membership. As the video opens, a Fleurde-lis and a Maple Leaf flash up on the screen side by side.
“From now on, you have a real choice,” Legault says.
“If you wish for Quebec to flourish within Canada, if you have had enough of being stuck with the Liberal Party that is worn out, if you’re tired of being taken for granted, you now have an option. Join us.”
The CAQ’s latest initiative follows a series of recent polls suggesting Quebec’s non-francophone voting population may be shopping around for an alternative to the Liberals.
A Mainstreet poll conducted for the Montreal Gazette June 13-15 indicated Liberal support in the community has slipped, with the CAQ now polling at 23 per cent among non-francophone voters.
A second poll, by Léger conducted June 19-21, confirmed the Liberal slip, but it shows minority voters are all over the electoral map. Some are supporting the CAQ (eight per cent), and some are backing the rising left-wing party Québec solidaire (eight per cent) and the Quebec Conservative party (eight per cent).
The province’s fixed-date election law stipulates the next general election is not until October 2018, but Legault has said he does not trust Premier Philippe Couillard to respect the law. He says he wants the party to be ready by mid-August for any possibility, and that includes finding minority candidates.
The CAQ says there are ample signs of pre-electoral activity. In the two weeks since the legislature recessed for the summer, Couillard and his ministers have made a series of election-style announcements designed to polish the government’s image.
Parti Québécois Leader JeanFrançois Lisée is also out there, touring the province and meeting voters, but especially party members. Mired at 22 per cent in the polls, the PQ is headed for a September policy convention, which will include a confidence vote on Lisée’s leadership.
Le Bouyonnec said there are two fundamental reasons why the English-speaking community should have another look at the CAQ. One is that like many other Quebecers, anglophones know the Liberals are worn out after almost 15 years in office, he said.
And he said the CAQ now favours a “within Canada” policy while seeking more powers and autonomy for Quebec. He said those things should help anglophones get past the fact Legault was once a PQ cabinet minister.
Le Bouyonnec, a former CAQ MNA, said the party hopes to make the same kind of inroads in the anglophone community as the old Action démocratique party (ADQ), now merged into the CAQ, managed to do.
The CAQ has had anglophone candidates in the running before. In the 2014 election, freelance journalist Noah Sidel ran for the party in the riding of Notre-Damede-Grâce. And Quebec City freelance writer Mark Cardwell ran for the CAQ in Charlevoix riding against former PQ Leader Pauline Marois. Both lost.