PQ’s Boisclair tells rivals to unite with him
Marois casts herself as party’s ‘ bridge-maker’ Final candidates’ debate in leadership campaign
GATINEAU, QUE.—
André Boisclair appealed to his rivals last night to pull together and unite should he win the Parti Québécois leadership race.
Saying he had offered hope and energy to Quebec, attracting 32,000 new party members, he promised to “ devote the same energy to uniting us.”
It was an acknowledgment the party has been bitterly divided by its leadership campaign, which ends Nov. 15 following voting from Nov. 13- 15.
His principal rival, Pauline Marois, told the party she was best able to bring the party together.
“ I can make a bridge between those who built this party, and the younger generation,” she said during the seventh and final debate between the candidates. On health care, Boisclair argued that Quebec needs to become independent in order to be able to deal with rising health- care costs.
“ We need the whole toolbox,” he told several hundred party members who attended the debate. “ We need sovereignty.”
Boisclair, who is the best organized of the candidates and widely believed to be the frontrunner, said Quebec has to deal with the challenge of an aging population, and must focus on prevention.
Marois, a former minister of health, made a commitment to dedicate 5 per cent of the budget to prevention, to guarantee that everyone has access to a family doctor, and to encourage homecare partnerships between the government and non- profit organizations. She promised a citizen’s commission to study the choices, and argued that a leader was needed who could bring people together.
Marois got a shot in the arm when, in his concluding remarks, left- wing candidate Pierre Dubuc urged his supporters to vote for her. The debate, like the previous six, focussed on health and followed some of the same patterns as previous debates. Former cabinet minister Richard Legendre leaned heavily on the report by François Legault last spring that argued an independent Quebec would have $5 billion more a year to spend. Former senior public servant Louis Bernard argued that too much attention is given to the weaknesses of the health- care system and not enough to its strengths. The other candidates took strongly ideological positions — Ghislain Lebel argued there should be recognition that Quebec already has a partially privatized health- care system. Dubuc, Gilbert Paquette, JeanClaude St- André and Jean Ouimet all argued fiercely for a complete public system. But there was no reference to the issue that has dominated the front pages of Quebec newspapers for the past week: the controversy over Boisclair’s admission that he used cocaine when he was a PQ cabinet minister.
Several former cabinet ministers have called on Boisclair to step down from the race, because his handling of the issue has rendered him vulnerable.
Daniel Paillé, a minister in Jacques Parizeau’s government, challenged him in an open letter.
“ Prove your leadership — and step down for the sake of the cause,” he wrote. Over the last few days the intensity of the campaign has increased. A number of minor candidates and some wellknown PQ members say Boisclair is too vulnerable. Some have suggested the RCMP or the federal Liberals might come out with new, damaging information about Boisclair, either during the next election or during the next referendum.
For weeks, the campaign looked like a cakewalk for Boisclair.
Young, handsome, openly gay, with a telegenic 500- watt smile and a freshly minted degree from Harvard, the 39year- old’s popularity seemed to grow in the face of media attacks on his admission.
At the same time, Marois, who has served effectively in every major portfolio — finance, health and education — had been unable to gain any traction. The controversy burst into the open a week ago, when four of his opponents in the race called on him to be more open, or to withdraw.
Boisclair complained the strategy was damaging the party, and his supporters accused Marois of putting the minor candidates up to the attack, a charge she vociferously denied. But Lebel, Dubuc, Gilbert Paquette and Ouimet — the also- rans in the race — reiterated that Boisclair would hurt the sovereignist option if he won the leadership.