Former Parti Quebecois Premier Jacques Parizeau, 82, is not supporting the party he once led.
Instead he’s backing former PQ MNA Jean-Martin Aussant’s fringe-separatist group known as Option Nationale.
Parizeau, who led the province for 16 months from September 1994, contributed $200 to Aussant’s campaign, to help him get elected as candidate in Nicolet-Becancour.
Parizeau’s wife Lisette Lapointe, 69, who quit the PQ after four years in office to sit as an Independent MNA in June 2011, is actively supporting the Optional Nationale, going door-to-door to help the vote.
And although Parizeau did not make a public comment, his wife wrote on Twitter that the former premier is supporting Aussant, “because he wants Aussant to make it to the National Assembly.”
When asked about her party’s failure to attract the support of its former leader, PQ leader Pauline Marois said she respected Parizeau’s choice and had not sought his support in the campaign.
Marois, campaigning in Mauricie, was pleading for the support of sovereignists and progressives to allow her to form a majority government.
She called CAQ rival Francois Legault, a “bully with questionable judgment,” who wants to “create division and social disorder.”
-With a file from The Canadian Press
