The planks have been laid down for the 2003 Quebec election and the parties are now standing on them, testing them to find out which are the strongest and which will deliver the greatest number of votes.

But building those platforms is a bit different this time around.

For one thing, it's the first time since René Lévesque was elected premier that there are three viable parties in the running.

As well, the issues of language and Quebec's sovereignty are taking a back seat to other concerns. Even Parti Québécois leader Bernard Landry has been playing down the sovereignty issue, preferring instead to focus on social programs and good government.

To that end, Landry said you need to support a sovereign Quebec to be a PQ member or candidate, but it's not necessary to vote for his party.

As a result, other issues are hitting the headlines.

"We're going to see more of a debate between what the proper role of government should be, how big government should be, how much spending should be set aside for health, education, those big ticket items," says Antonia Maioni, a political scientist at McGill University.

The main items getting play on the campaign trails are family, health, education and the economy.

But the emphasis on each issue varies from party to party.

For the Liberals, the top priority is health care. Their plan calls for an investment of more than $7 billion within five years. The money is earmarked for hiring more doctors and nurses, and shortening waiting times in hospital emergency rooms.

Economic concerns top the list for the ADQ. Dumont's focus is to strengthen the provincial economy by paying down the debt and cutting taxes.

The PQ is playing up the issue of reconciling family and work, including proposals for a four-day work week for parents of young children.

At the start of the campaign, here's where they stood:

	ADQ				Liberals				PQ
	Health Education Economy Family				Economy Family Health Education				Family Economy Education Health

Health
The Liberals are focussing on health, mentioning it at almost every stop. While the ADQ is talking about fixing emergency rooms, it's saving its energy for economic issues. As for the PQ, with the problems in the province's hospitals over the last few years, it's perhaps not in the party's best interest to remind voters of patients waiting in hospital corridors.

That image is likely one of the reasons the Liberals are standing so solidly on their health-care proposals and why the ADQ is making public pronouncements on the matter at all. Still, the ADQ is also a bit shy on the issue, knowing that its plank calling for more private sector health-care services is not the most popular with voters.

MORE: Assessing the health promises

Economy
This is the ADQ's main issue. While all the parties call for fiscal responsibility, the ADQ is the only party making promises about paying down the provincial debt. It aims to reduce the general tax burden by reducing the debt. It also wants to eliminate subsidies to businesses, thereby getting rid of public bureaucracies administering Liberal and PQ governments' "immoderate taste for intervention."

MORE: Anybody but the ADQ: unions

The Liberals also want to reduce Quebecers' taxes, promising to bring them into line with the Canadian average within five years by reducing personal income taxes by $1 billion annually.

The PQ, on the other hand, is not interested in reducing taxes or the debt. The party's proposals seek to encourage employment and the economy through subsidies to business, increased job training and running a zero-deficit budget.

MORE: Tackling Quebec's tax burden

On the job-training front, the PQ wants increased access, the ADQ wants reduced government involvement. The Liberals want to get more money to the trainees and to invest in more technical and vocational training.

Family
The PQ is using the issue of family and work to attract younger voters and to shift the election into a discussion of the future, away from harping on the past. The centrepiece of their strategy is a four-day work week for parents with children 12 years old and under. As an alternative to this, the ADQ is offering to increase the number of allowed family days to four weeks, from two. However, the PQ is also offering an increase, but only to three weeks.

MORE: The four-day work week

Mario Dumont started out slamming the popular $5-per-day day care, calling it a "Soviet-style" system. Since then, he has said he would expand the popular program to 200,000 spaces, while also providing vouchers to parents whose children aren't in $5-per-day spots. The Liberals will maintain $5-per-day system, saying they would also "advocate a greater reliance on private child-care centres."

MORE: The $5-per-day day-care system

Education
This is the orphan issue of the main issues. All the parties have a position, but none is its champion. All of the parties are offering to increase education budgets, but significant in its difference is the ADQ proposal to develop a system of vouchers that parents could use to get educational services. So for example, a child with special needs would get more than the average student, and parents could take that money to the most attractive school for their children.

Unlike the others, the ADQ is proposing a system of province-wide standardized tests.

And at the university level, both the PQ and Liberals promise to maintain the current tuition freeze, while the ADQ proposes tying tuition to the cost of living.

MORE: Making the grades: the promised fixes for education

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[Runs 4:11]

AUDIO: Education has been a hot topic for the past few years, mainly because of the PQ's substantial reforms. None of the parties wants turn back the clock on those reforms. But they are making suggestions -- from education vouchers to help with homework to longer school hours. Susan Bell takes this look at how each party is trying to entice voters with its vision of education.
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