The Big Issue: Language and Identity Issues

We're taking a look at a big issue in the election campaign: language and identity issues. The Parti Québécois has proposed applying Bill 101 to CEGEPs. Jean Robert is the director of Cegep Champlain St. Lawrence in Quebec City and joins us to tell us more.

Later in the campaign, Parti Québécois leader Pauline Marois dropped a bombshell when she announced her government would require French proficiency of all allophones and anglophones who want to run for elected office - municipal or provincial - in Quebec.

But after a huge outcry, the PQ attempted to clarify the party's position: the official line is now that anglophones 'de souche' and members of First Nations already living in Quebec would automatically be granted citizenship and would be exempt from the French language requirement.

Jean-François Lisée is a candidate for the PQ in the riding of Rosemont and joined us to talk about his party's policies on language.

To continue these conversations around language and identity politics in the election campaign, Quebec AM joined four candidates from various parties. Yves-François Blanchet, Parti Québécois MNA in the riding of Johnson. Geoffrey Kelley the incument Liberal MNA in the riding of Jacques Cartier. And in studio we are joined by Hugues Beaulieu, CAQ candidate in the riding of Jean-Talon and Catherine Dorion, Option Nationale candidate for Taschereau.