PQ leader dismisses loss of editorial endorsement from Le Devoir, defends decisions on excluded candidates

"I think it's up to people to determine" who they want to support, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon says after the newspaper endorsed the CAQ on Saturday.

Author of the article:

La Presse Canadienne

Stéphane Rolland

TROIS-RIVIÈRES — Parti Québécois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon brushed off failing to obtain the editorial endorsement Saturday of Le Devoir, a publication that has long supported the sovereignist party, and defended his decision to not insist two candidates he booted from the party withdraw as candidates.

Le Devoir backs CAQ

“In the coming days, you will hear plenty of people saying we should vote for someone,” he told reporters in Trois-Rivières. “I think it’s up to people to determine if they want to support whoever at the end of this campaign. I won’t comment on each analyst.”

In his editorial, Le Devoir director Brian Myles supports the Coalition Avenir Québec as the next government and says Québec solidaire has the maturity to be an official opposition.

The endorsement does not affect Le Devoir’s newsroom coverage of the campaign.

Two candidates excluded

On Friday, St-Pierre Plamondon removed two candidates for comments written or shared on social media about women who wear Muslim headscarves. The two candidates refused to withdraw from the election and their names will remain on the ballot.

“They asked me to judge them on the whole and not just on publications from 2015, and I accepted that demand,” he said Saturday in Trois-Rivières.

Québec solidaire co-spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois said the decision showed a lack of leadership. “It’s not a real decision,” he said Friday. “Either Mr. Plamondon keeps them in his team, and in that case, stands by them … or he decides to remove them from his team, but in that case he doesn’t get their votes. He can’t do both at the same time.”

St-Pierre Plamondon said he made his decision and “the people will judge if this decision is adequate and reasonable under the circumstances.” He accused other parties of “throwing mud” and promised his party would not take per-vote subsidies received from the excluded candidates, or if it was not possible to refuse them, he would donate them to charity. He would also ask that those votes not be taken into account to determine the order of opposition parties if two parties have the same number of seats, as the PQ and QS did after the 2018 election.

In a series of social media posts in 2015 and 2016, the PQ candidate in Rousseau, Pierre Vanier, doubted the intelligence of women who wear the veil and accused Muslims of “killing democracy.” His partner, Catherine Provost, who is the candidate in L’Assomption, also shared similar content.

Convince others, leader tells voters

St-Pierre Plamondon called on PQ supporters to convince those around them to vote for the party. “The challenge is to transform this wave of sympathy into a result. There’s only a weekend left.”

He invoked the “Opération convaincre” campaign of 1995, in which PQ premier Jacques Parizeau challenged voters to convince the undecided. “We must go talk to those who might not vote,” St-Pierre Plamondon said. “Go speak of the importance of voting and voting for a democracy that is sound and an opposition that is strong and constructive, that of the Parti Québécois.”

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