The heads of the three main parties are beginning to sound like broken records with just over two weeks left in this election campaign.
Liberal Leader Philippe Couillard was repeating a familiar refrain during a campaign stop in Roberval, a riding the Saguenay–Lac St. Jean, where he is running.
In nationalist territory, Couillard qualified his remarks on a possible referendum, saying that Quebec could financially survive sovereignty. However, he added that the economic consequences would still be severe.
Noting that Quebec would overcome the financial difficulties that would follow a declaration of sovereignty, Mr. Couillard repeated a position already exposed by his predecessor, former Liberal Premier Jean Charest.
“Yes, of course, Quebec has the capacity to be, but at what price?” he said.
Couillard said he believes Quebec’s independence is useless because Quebecers are happy and thriving in Canada.
“If we were humiliated, oppressed, in a dramatic situation, we could take a collective decision to leave, he said.
“We are a free people, we are a happy people, we are a prosperous people . . . I see no reason for denying Quebecers their Canadian citizenship.”
Meanwhile, Pauline Marois seems to fear support for her party may be heading to the left.
The leader of the Parti Quebecois has even appealed the co-leader of the left-leaning Quebec Solidaire, Francoise David, to stop attacking her and her training.
Marois says the PQ and Quebec solidaire are both progressive and pro-Quebec independence and must work together to avoid a Liberal government.
Although Quebec solidaire only holds two seats in the Quebec legislature, polls suggest the party's popularity has climbed in recent weeks.
Quebec solidaire could steal away votes from the party's left-leaning voters in the April 7 election.
David has argued the PQ has shifted its policies to the right since taking government in 2012.
And the head of the Coalition Avenir Quebec, Francois Legault has been attacking his opponents’ credentials.
According to him, Marois and Couillard do not have the skills to manage Quebec because they are a social worker and physician, respectively.
“I have experience in (business) recovery, and I think to be able, in Quebec, to have a real recovery plan, it is better to have an accountant, an entrepreneur, a manager, than to have a social worker or a doctor (at the helm).”
Legault defending his badmouthing of his adversaries, saying he’s simply describing reality.
But, he said, more important than training and career choices in choosing the next premier of Quebec, is a criterion works in his favor, according to him: passion.
He maintained that he has always been passionate about economics, as far as he remembers.
“There is no one who can deny that this is my passion, economics and management. This is what I chose as a career before politics. That is a fact.”'
Legault argued that his rivals don’t have that same passion for economics and management.
For them, he said, job creation will be “part-time work.”
