PQ, ADQ take hits from their own camps
Liberal Leader Charest focuses on economy
Last Updated: Monday, November 10, 2008 | 9:21 AM ET
The Canadian Press
The Parti Québécois and l'Action Démocratique du Québec were both blindsided by unwelcome comments on Sunday, including one from within embattled ADQ Leader Mario Dumont's own camp.
In comments to journalists, ADQ member Luc Bouthillier compared the party to a sinking ship.
Bouthillier, who is on the party's executive committee, said it was possible the ADQ would go through troubled times in the coming years, adding the party — founded in 1994 — was still finding its feet.
Dumont is also facing further attacks from former party members.
Jocelyn Dumais, a star candidate for the ADQ in 2007, said on Sunday he predicted the party would collapse after the Dec. 8 elections.
The ADQ might only hold on to four or five of its seats in the national assembly because it disappointed voters, he said. When the election was called last Wednesday, the party had 39 seats, with the governing Liberals holding 48 and the PQ 36.
There were two vacancies.
Dumont led a stunning assault in the 2007 election, when the Liberals were reduced to a minority — Quebec's first minority government in more than a century.
But last month, two members of his team jumped to the Liberals and the party is slumping in the polls.
Won't back any party
The province's most powerful labour union — la Fédération des travailleurs et travailleuses du Quebec — which boasts over half a million members, refused to back any of the three major parties.
In the 2007 provincial election it threw its support behind the PQ and did the same for the Bloc Québécois in last month's federal election.
Union leaders wouldn't explain their decision and were refusing media interviews.
Campaigning in Montreal, PQ Leader Pauline Marois brushed off the union's snub, saying she wasn't disappointed with the decision.
"I have a good relationship with all the Quebec unions," she said. "I regularly meet with their leaders. What interests me is that their members vote for us."
Marois announced her support for home daycare and health-care workers who are currently fighting the governing Liberals for the right to unionize.
Speaking to about 450 supporters, she also attacked the Liberals on broken campaign promises, including a commitment to freeze daycare fees, $5 billion in tax cuts and a pledge not to hold general elections until 2010.
Outside the packed hall, about a dozen separatists gathered to protest the rejection of former-MNA Jean-Claude St-André as a candidate and the PQ's decision to put the referendum debate on the back burner.
"Violence doesn't help a cause but sometimes it's inevitable," said protester Luc Bertrand.
"Sometimes there are just people who refuse to understand."
The PQ refused St-André's nomination in favour of former Green party leader Scott MacKay, because of St-André's hardline stance on sovereignty and a reported $50,000 debt to the party.
It was the second day the controversial candidate nomination dogged Marois.
On Saturday, St-André's supporters were involved in a shoving match outside Mackay's official nomination meeting in the suburban riding of L'Assomption.
In Gatineau region
Liberal Leader Jean Charest spent Sunday campaigning in Quebec's Gatineau region, where he slammed the ADQ's economic platform, saying the party planned to butcher government programs.
"We're looking at a coming economic storm and Mr. Dumont wants to create a tsunami," said Charest.
The ADQ announced Saturday it wanted to cut government spending and corporate subsidies by $2 billion.
Charest wondered why they would reduce funding for companies when it was most needed.
"Have you thought about the disaster that would create?" Charest asked. "Dumont wants to cut Quebec companies off at the knees."
