Quebec Liberal Leader Charles Milliard is pitching his party as the only resolutely federalist option in Quebec as it will likely face off against the separatist Parti Québécois in the general election scheduled for October.
“On the referendum issue, the (Coalition Avenir Québec) is indecisive. Some say they are in the ‘No’ camp. Others are proud sovereigntists,” he told the few hundred Liberal faithfuls gathered at the party convention in Sherbrooke, Que.
Labour Minister Jean Boulet recently said he would vote “No” in an independence referendum, while Culture Minister Mathieu Lacombe said he would vote “Yes.”
“On an issue as fundamental as the future of our nation, there can be no ‘Noui’ camps,” Milliard quipped.
He also took a swipe at the PQ leader, accusing him of being “completely out of touch with the realities of Quebecers” and saying the Liberals “do not want to separate Quebec, we want to fix Quebec.”
“We are proudly regionalist, nationalist and federalist. Fully, clearly and unambiguously,” he added.
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The separatist PQ, which currently holds seven seats at the Quebec legislature, has been at the top of the polls for months, with the Liberals coming in a close second.
The Liberal party held its convention on Friday and Saturday to lay out its electoral priorities.
Most of those priorities revolve around the economy, with Milliard promising tax cuts for small and medium-sized businesses, as well as cutting red tape and ending “over-regulation.”
Milliard also promised to tackle the housing crisis with 100,000 new housing starts per year.
Though his plan to protect French has not yet been made public, Milliard says it’s “better” than those of the governing Coalition Avenir Québec’s and the Parti Québécois’.
Benoît Dubreuil, Quebec’s French language commissioner, said earlier this week that current language laws are not enough to stabilize the status of French in the province.
“I’m not proposing the same recipe and we’re going to have different results,” Milliard told journalists on Saturday.
Some of Quebec’s language laws, including the law beefing up the Charter of the French Language known as Bill 96, have been challenged in court.
Liberal members of the legislature voiced their opposition to a bill expanding French language laws to vocational training and adult education tabled earlier this week.
Liberal Jennifer Maccarone said she also believes that the cap on enrolment in English-language CEGEPs under Bill 96 should be lifted. The law also requires all students to take three French courses or to complete three courses from their program in French.
A few weeks ago, Milliard wavered on the use of the clause overriding Charter rights for Bill 96. He initially said he was in favour of retaining a clause to protect the law from legal challenges, breaking a 2022 election promise made by the Liberal party.
His stance caused a stir within his caucus and among the anglophone community. He then said he would amend Bill 96 and then determine whether the use of the clause was still necessary.
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