Former Quebec premier Pauline Marois has emerged from private life to defend a cause dear to her heart.
Marois has been recruited by a labour union to make a video pitch in favour of the public daycare system that she helped create in 1997 when she was the province’s family minister in Lucien Bouchard’s government.
On behalf of the union representing 10,000 workers in the network, the Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN), Marois makes a direct appeal to the current premier, Philippe Couillard.
“Mr. Premier, don’t let them (people in the system) down,” Marois says.
The title of the campaign is “Un réseau qui fait grandir,” (a network that helps us grow), which was kicked off Feb. 28.
Marois reminds Couillard of all the good things the public daycare system has done in Quebec over the years.
She says Couillard has a “real jewel,” in his hands, a system that reduced poverty “among single mothers who are the head of their family, immigrant women and families in general.”
Together, the system helps level the playing field in Quebec and creates equal opportunity, Marois says.
The video is available on the CSN’s Facebook page and website at www.csn.qc.ca. It follows a massive postcard-writing campaign sponsored by the union.
Distributed across the province, the cards are addressed to the premier and are to be hauled into the National Assembly the day before the Couillard government tables the provincial budget.
The budget comes down this Thursday.
