The Coalition Avenir Quebec feels an election call coming soon.
The first step: putting up a billboard by the Jacques Cartier Bridge to promote its "Taxpayers' Charter."
The sign will prompt Quebecers to demand a government that focuses on the economy instead of identity issues.
“We had, in the last year and a half, many tax increases,” said CAQ leader Francois Legault. “It's about time we settle about the Charter [of Values] and focus on the taxpayer situation.”
The CAQ met in caucus this week in St-Eustache.
Legault said high taxes have affected Quebecers' purchasing power, which in turn has been detrimental to the province’s economy.
So, his plan moving forward is a bold one.
“We want to abolish the health care tax, we want to abolish school taxes, and we want to stop increasing tariffs more than the inflation,” Legault said.
Opposition parties have ridiculed the CAQ’s platform, criticizing the party’s inability to articulate where it would find the income required to compensate for the cuts.
Quebec is currently expected to face a 2.5 billion dollar deficit this fiscal year.
But, as the CAQ gears up for an election, it has made sure to point to the weaknesses of its opponents – Philippe Couillard’s Liberal Party, and Pauline Marois’ Parti Quebecois -- that have come courtesy of information revealed in the Charbonneau Commission.
“What the Charbonneau Commission demonstrates right now is that we need to do things differently,” said Maud Cohen, CAQ’s president. “We need to have parties that are independent from the parties in societies like unions and companies.
Legault is expected to meet with Quebec’s finance minister Nicolas Marceau to set his conditions, if the party is to back the PQ’s upcoming budget.
