Quebec party leaders travel province on final day before the vote

MONTREAL — Quebec’s political party leaders made last-minute pitches to voters ahead of Monday’s provincial election.

Coalition Avenir Québec Leader François Legault was in the Montérégie region southeast of Montreal, where he’s touring several ridings he hopes to win over from the Parti Québécois.

Local PQ candidate Alain Therrien even showed up to Legault’s first event, accusing the CAQ leader of being unrealistic in his plan to simultaneously cut taxes and raise services.

Liberal Leader Philippe Couillard was farther east in the region for a blitz of at least six towns.

He continued to attack Legault, accusing him of having forgotten the province’s senior population during the 39-day campaign.

Parti Québécois Leader JeanFrançois Lisée, meanwhile, went to his hometown, Thetford Mines, where he introduced reporters to his mother.

Legault, whose formerly frontrunning party is now neck-andneck with the Liberals in the polls, still expressed hope for a majority government.

“We will have a (Coalition) majority if people vote massively,” he said Saturday during a visit to an apple orchard in Compton, in Quebec’s Eastern Townships.

A Coalition government would force newcomers to pass a French-language and Quebec values test within three years of their arrival.

The latest polls from Ipsos, Leger and Le Journal de Montréal put the CAQ and the Liberals within one or two points of each other ahead of Monday’s vote.