Anglade rallies Quebecers to unite behind her as Liberals languish in polls

QUEBEC — In the wake of the latest Léger poll, which indicates support for the Quebec Liberal Party remains mired at 16 per cent and is even lower for its leader, Dominique Anglade tried to rally Quebecers to unite behind her team.

“First of all we must come together, because the majority of Quebecers do not want to have François Legault as premier,” she told reporters in Montreal Tuesday morning before departing for election campaign stops in Quebec City. “Therefore we should really unite ourselves and make sure we have a strong voice against François Legault — that’s the message.”

The Léger poll released Tuesday shows Legault’s Coalition Avenir Québec dropping by five points since the campaign’s start but still with a commanding lead at 37 per cent support, while the Liberals, Québec solidaire (17 per cent), the Conservative Party of Quebec (15 per cent) and the Parti Québécois (15 per cent) are in a near dead heat for the race to determine who will become the official opposition.

Asked who they would most prefer to see as leader of the opposition, Anglade ranked a distant third behind Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois of Québec solidaire and Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, who as leader of the PQ has seen a late campaign surge on the strength of his performance in the leaders’ debates. Conservative Leader Éric Duhaime came in just behind Anglade in the poll.

The Liberal leader was ranked in last place, just behind Legault, in respondents’ opinion of who had the best campaign in the last week. St-Pierre Plamondon was first.

Anglade responded Tuesday that what her team is hearing on the ground is growing concern about Legault being elected and increased interest in the Liberals’ platform and ideas. She encouraged Quebecers to get out and vote (and not be like Ontario, where only 43 per cent of the population turned out for recent elections)

“We are the only party that is saying that we want to work with everybody, the federal government, the municipalities, that is not trying to create a divide between English and French, immigrant and non-immigrants,” Anglade said. “Quebec wants to have a party that will be different, that will listen to their concerns and try to bring together all their strengths instead of dividing them. And that will have the real perspective of the population for the economy.”

Anglade has been on a television and radio blitz for the last several days — she had seven interviews scheduled for Tuesday alone — trying to get out the Liberal message and rally a divided populace behind her. But with support among the crucial block of francophone voters remaining at seven per cent, she faces a steep hill in the last week of the campaign.

On Tuesday afternoon, she visited the Quebec City area riding of Jean-Lesage. The riding had been a Liberal bastion since it was created in 2003 until Québec solidaire took it in 2018, narrowly beating out the CAQ.

Poll aggregator Qc125.com has the Liberal candidate in last place in the leadup to the Oct. 3 vote, with only six per cent support.

rbruemmer@postmedia.com 

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