The five main candidates in Arthabaska are at least on one thing: sovereignty is not a priority for the voters they met this summer. “There is a discussion to have on the referendum,” even believes the PQ Alex Boissonneault.
During a final debate on LCN’s airwaves, the candidate and leader of the Conservative Party of Quebec, Éric Duhaime, took advantage of a question on the subject to accuse his piquist rival of having tried to hide, during the electoral campaign, “the referendum obsession” of Paul St-Pierre Plamondon.
After a false departure at the start of the debate, where he presented himself wrongly as “candidate for the Coalition Avenir …”, to immediately recover by blaming a return from sound to ear, the ex-Radio-Canada Animator Alex Boissonneault quickly found himself on the defensive.
“There will be a blue book which will be presented in the coming months to answer specific questions about the issue of sovereignty,” said the candidate of the Parti Québécois.
“If we do not constantly talk about it, it is because people understand that in this by -election, it is a question of choosing a good deputy in whom we trust them to represent them in the National Assembly,” continued Mr. Boissonneault.
“So you will slow down your leader on his referendum obsession,” said Duhaime. “You will tell your chief not to make the referendum during the first mandate,” continued the conservative chief, taking up the sense of the question launched by host Philippe-Vincent Apoisy.
“There is a discussion to have on the referendum, on sovereignty, then dropped the candidate of the PQ. But the question today is to know who is there for the right reasons, to represent people. ”
The region first
The liberal candidate Chantale Marchand then imposed herself by saying that during her door-to-door, “no one told me about sovereignty”.
Solidarity candidate Pascale Fortin abounded in the same direction. “I think, as Mr. Boissonneault said, the objective at the moment is more to speak for the Arthabaska region,” said the one outside the country at the end of the electoral campaign.
The candidate of the Coalition Avenir Québec, Keven Brasseur, said that the trade war with the United States is more an issue for voters.
“People say to me:” We don’t want a referendum in this context, we want a strong government “,” he said, praising François Legault’s efforts with the other Canadian provinces in these uncertain times for the economy.
Arthabaska voters are invited to the polls this Monday, August 11. A little more than an in -four voter expressed their choice during voting in advance, last weekend.
The constituency located in Center-du-Québec, which includes the municipalities of Victoriaville, Princeville and Plessisville, has been vacant since the resignation of Caquist deputy Eric Lefebvre, who left his duties to go to the federal.
Pressed by the opposition for months, the Prime Minister sparked the by -election at the beginning of July.