Jean Charest fights back in Quebec election debates

Down in the polls, Quebec Premier Jean Charest came out swinging in the leaders' debate last night. He claimed that the PQ (Parti Quebecois) main objective was to separate from Canada,. He also pointed out that a past PQ government was corrupt.

Charest took an aggressive stance against his opponents. A skilled debater, Charest tried to neutralize constant attacks upon his own government for corruption by pointing out that in 2006 a report found that the PQ had acted illegally in its financing activities. Charest's Liberal government is plagued by corruption charges especially in the Quebec construction industry. Charest also pressed hard on the sovereignty issue trying to portray the PQ and leader Pauline Marois as wanting to hold a referendum on sovereignty as quickly as she can. The PQ is leading at present in the polls.

Ironically Marois tried to steer clear of the sovereignty issue. She was criticized not just by Charest but by another separatist party the left-leaning Quebec Solidaire.co-leader Francoise David:

“What I can’t understand is why you can’t clearly commit to a public consultation to define how you plan on achieving sovereignty,."

Marois no doubt realizes that there is more concern with jobs and the economy of Quebec among voters than independence for the province. She is not anxious to hold a referendum that she could very well lose.

While Jean Charest predicted he would be the target of all the opposition parties he shared that status with the Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The PQ leader in particular promised that she would stand up for Quebec against the federal government and gain more power for Quebec. Marois chastised both the leader of the CAQ and Charest

:“I won’t get on my knees like Mr. Charest has done and abandon the fight against Ottawa as [Coalition Avenir Québec Leader François] Legault has done..I will fight for the interests of Quebec.”

The PQ promises that it will seek transfer of more powers from the federal government to the province if elected. The party wants power to regulate immigration as well as unemployment insurance. If the federal government refuses to transfer the powers the PQ will use this as an argument that Quebec should become independent.

Charest faces not just his usual rival the PQ this election but also the Coalition Avenir Quebec a party that trails the Liberals only slightly in the polls. The party is led by a former PQ cabinet minister Francois Legault. The party is regarded by many as an alternative to the two old line parties who many see as corrupt. The Liberals appear to be losing votes to the party among non-francophone voters. This could create problems for Charest and help the PQ win. However Legault lacks charisma and some thought he would not do too well in the debates.

Legault however seemed to hold his own in the debate. He made cogent points against Charest's economic record pointing out that during Charest's tenure Quebec disposable income per person went from fourth place to ninth place with only the tiny province of Prince Edward Island being lower. Charest has been touting his economic record as a reason to re-elect him. Charest in the exchange was able to catch Legault off guard when he asked if Quebeckers were richer today than when Legault's former party was in power. Legault admitted that they were. Even though this is hardly relevant since Legault is not part of the PQ now it no doubt may have helped Charest fend off the attack.

Almost twenty per cent of voters are undecided. Three parties remain relatively close in the polls although the PQ has a definite lead. There will be three more debates with one on one debates with leaders. Quebec Solidaire with just one seat in the legislature will not be in those debates.

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/331156#ixzz246LL4yAb

A breakthrough for Quebec Solidaire

This is from canadianmedicine.

Khadir's election shows that there is considerable concern about the rightward drift of medicare within Quebec. It also shows that when the proper candidates are put forward that a left party need not imitate the third way sellouts characteristic of Labor in the UK.

TTuesday, December 9, 2008

Left-wing MD elected as Quebec gives Liberals a majority
In yesterday's Quebec election, voters returned Jean Charest's Liberal Party to majority status in the legislature by a small margin, largely thanks to the epic collapse of the right-wing ADQ.The election results marked a number of milestones. Turnout was the lowest since 1927; Mr Charest became the first Quebec premier in over 50 years to win a third mandate; and Mario Dumont, the only leader the ADQ has known, quit as head of the party after they lost 34 of the 41 seats they held going into the election.But the most important milestone with regard to the future of the province's controversial healthcare debate was the election of the physician Amir Khadir (right) in the Montreal riding of Mercier as the first-ever representative elected from Québec solidaire, the left-wing, feminist, separatist party established in 2006.The Montreal Gazette described his victory party last night as follows:
Greeted with rock star adoration by the young, hip crowd, the outspoken Iranian-born physician hailed his victory and advances in a handful of other ridings as signs Quebecers are thirsting for a new political order – one where “the economy services society” rather than the other way around.Dr Khadir, who moved to Quebec as a child, attended medical school in Montreal and went on to become a microbiologist and infectious-diseases specialist. He currently works at a hospital in the Montreal suburb of Lachenaie, and told Pierre Foglia of La Presse that he wants to keep working there one day out of fifteen. (An admirable goal, no doubt -- but we'll have to wait to find out whether it's really doable for an opposition member in a National Assembly held by only a slim majority.)His medical experience extends far beyond the Montreal area. As a member of the humanitarian medical aid groups such as Médecins du monde, the group founded by a breakaway faction of Médecins sans frontières physicians including now-French Foreign Minister Dr Bernard Kouchner, Dr Khadir has worked in Iraq, Palestine, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, Cuba, Nicaragua and India.Most pertinently for his new job in government is his membership in a Quebec advocacy group known as the Coalition of Doctors for Social Justice. The group has in recent years emerged as one of the province's loudest groups opposing what it sees as, at a minimum, the Liberal government's failure to protect the public healthcare system from encroaching privatization caused by chronic funding and staffing shortfalls, or, worse, as the government's sometimes active though subtle encouragement of medicare privatization, as in the case of the post-Chaoulli Bill 33.Québec solidaire's health platform reflects Dr Khadir's thinking on the subject: he has called for banning all forms of private healthcare for medically necessary services, increased funding for prevention, and a huge expansion of the public insurance plan's coverage that would include a number of delisted services including dentistry, optometry and psychotherapy. Of course, with only one party member elected to the National Assembly, those goals won't be realized as Dr Khadir might like them to be. But given his background and his campaign's focus on the healthcare system and its continuing problems, Quebecers should expect to hear a lot of his criticism of the government's work on the health portfolio. In this campaign video, Dr Khadir outlined his thinking on healthcare with a didactic presentation (in French) on a whiteboard: Dr Khadir's radical approach to the healthcare system, by virtue of being so far left, might permit the PQ to shift its position to the left in response. "It’s the job of the left to move the center,” as the Montreal-born left-wing journalist Naomi Klein said in a New Yorker profile this month. “Get out there and say some crazy stuff! And then, suddenly, it’ll seem more reasonable for politicians to take riskier positions.”Photo: Québec solidaire
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