LAVAL - Liberal candidate Gaetan Barrette, the former president of the federation of Quebec’s medical specialists, voted yes in the 1995 referendum, says Parti Quebecois minister Bernard Drainville.
Drainville says Barrette asked an intermediary to set up a meeting with Drainville in 2012 to discuss the possibility of Barrette running for the PQ.
According to the PQ minister, Barrette, who ultimately ran for the Coalition Avenir Quebec before joining the Liberals in this election, was “shopping a job as minister of health.”
Drainville argued Barrette’s decision to join the CAQ showed that he did not feel the PQ was open to his demands.
During this meeting, prior to the 2012 campaign in August that allowed the PQ to form a minority government, Drainville questioned Barrette on sovereignty.
Barette, who at the time was still president of the medical specialists federation and resigned recently to be the Liberal candidate, said he voted yes in 1995.
“I asked ‘Listen, are you a sovereignist?' And he replied ‘I voted yes in 1995,’” Drainville said. “So it would be interesting to ask (Liberal Leader Philippe) Couillard if there are sovereignist candidates in his party.”
On the sidelines of the PQ’s national council where the electoral platform would be adopted, Drainville explained that Barrette let it be known that he wanted on portfolio in particular.
“He wanted to be minister of health, he told me at one point “If I join your party, it’s not to be Minister of Agriculture’”, Drainville said.
“He wanted to be minister of health and he must not have liked the answer we gave him because he finally chose the CAQ.”
Drainville made the remarks after a French-language television station broadcast an interview with Barrette during which he claimed to have been approached by the PQ in 2012.
“In 2012 at my office I had a visit from Bernard Drainville and (cabinet minister) Agnes Maltais and a telephone call from (Premier) Pauline Marois to ask me to be minister of health for the Parti Quebecois,” he said.
Barrette made this statement to demonstrate that he had been courted before leaving the CAQ in favour of the Liberals.
Barrette is running for the Liberals in the South Shore riding of La Piniere.
In its 25-year history, the riding has only ever voted Liberal.
He replaces Fatima Houda-Pepin, who left the party because she did not agree with the Liberals' stance on the Charter of Values.
-- with files from CTV Montreal
