The interim leader of the Parti Québécois has been forced to issue an appeal for calm after a spat between the leading candidates over identity politics snowballed.
Meanwhile, a Léger Marketing survey done for Alexandre Cloutier’s campaign and obtained by La Presse reveals candidate Cloutier would have a better chance of beating the Liberals than candidate Jean-François Lisée.
The poll suggests Lisée’s efforts to woo nationalists in the Coalition Avenir Québec party by playing the identity politics card has fallen flat.
Taking to his Facebook page late Friday after the race got uglier and uglier, PQ interim leader Sylvain Gaudreault said a robust exchange of ideas between the candidates — there are four — is necessary to get to know them.
“However, it’s important to do this calmly, with serenity and respect in a spirit of collegiality and unity,” Gaudreault writes.
The feud, between Cloutier and Lisée, really kicked off Tuesday at a candidate’s debate in Drummondville where Lisée started introducing identity politics to the race.
After Cloutier accused Lisée of wanting to stir up acrimony in the population with his plan for secularism — Cloutier said Lisée wants to create a Charter of Values 3.0 — Lisée lashed back forcing Cloutier to flip-flop on the position he held on religious symbols in the last leadership race.
In the 2015 leadership race, Cloutier favoured extending the ban on religious symbols beyond the domain of judges and police officers — the formula the Bouchard-Taylor commission pitched in 2007 — to teachers as well.
In Drummondville, Cloutier reversed himself on that saying there was no consensus on the idea.
“Bravo,” Lisée said sarcastically as Cloutier stewed on the other side of the stage.
The feud continued all week. At a separate event Thursday, Lisée dipped into the identity pool again, floating the idea of banning face coverings such as the burka in the public space as have a number of European countries.
He said if he became premier he would propose a “conversation,” on the issue. He described the issue as a matter of public safety suggesting such clothing might allow someone to conceal a weapon.
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That was when supporters of each camp dove in. Taschereau MNA Agnès Maltais — who supports Cloutier — lashed out at Lisée saying he is making an ill-founded connection between the burka and violence.
She said such a rapprochement is beneath a person who seeks to lead a political party and possibly become premier.
“People might think terrorists are hiding underneath the burka and would launch terrorist acts,” Maltais said. “Listen, this is not the comics. This is the real world where people need to get along in Quebec.”
“Nobody fighting terrorism says such a situation exists. Why such a statement? To go get votes? Come on.”
Maltais said she was responding as the PQ point person for secularism and not as a Cloutier supporter by Lisée responded saying she is exaggerating his statement. He said the responsible thing to do is being in experts and ask them about the issue.
“If there is no problem, there is no problem,” Lisée said adding he doesn’t see what is divisive about a discussion.
However, in an interview with Le Devoir published Saturday, Lisée showed no signs of backing down saying, “We’ve seen AK-47’s under burkas in Africa.”
But there was another incident which played out on social media late Friday.
Apparently retaliating for the Maltais outburst, Lisée tweeted: “Quite the offensive by the Cloutier team against me. I wonder if this orchestration foresaw the public support of imam Adil Charkaoui.”
A controversial figure, Charkaoui is suspected of having participating in the radicalization of some youths at Collège Maisonneuve. He was arrested on a security certificate under suspicion of terrorism-related activities in 2003. He successfully challenged the certificate several years later and now lives in Montreal.
Furious, the Cloutier camp issued a statement demanding an immediate retraction and apology from Lisée.
“Mr. Cloutier has never had any contact, near or far, with Mr. Charkaoui — and never received his support,” the statement said. Cloutier has called a news conference Saturday in Montreal to respond.
The Léger poll testing various political scenarios shows the PQ under Cloutier’s leadership would garner 28 per cent of the vote compared to the Liberals with 31 per cent. The CAQ would have 23 per cent.
Under Lisée, however, support for the PQ slides three percentage points to 25 per cent while the Liberals are unchanged at 31 per cent. The CAQ in fact goes up by two points to 25 per cent.
