ST-BRUNO – Quebec premier Pauline Marois seemed to have an extra spring in her step Monday.
She’s likely enjoying the attention her new star candidate, media baron Pierre Karl Peladeau, has brought her party.
READ MORE: PQ announces star candidate: Quebecor mogul Pierre Karl Peladeau
Peladeau was again by Marois’ side as the Parti-Quebecois unveiled its “economic team.”
At a news conference in south shore St-Bruno, he was the first person she announced as part of her team.
Reporters grilled Marois and Peladeau about his media company Quebecor.
On Sunday, Peladeau resigned as the company’s president of the board of directors in an effort to avoid a possible conflict of interest, but he’s refusing to sell his shares of the communications giant.
He said that he’s not budging, even if the province’s Ethics Commissioner forces him to do so.
“I think of Paul Martin when he was prime minister,” Peladeau told reporters.
“He put all of his economic interests in a blind trust, why should there be a difference here?”
When asked about the issue, Marois said that she will abide by laws when the time comes to select her cabinet.
“That’s if we are elected,” Marois said with a laugh.
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Another controversy arose at Monday’s news conference that centres around Bill 14.
READ MORE: Quebec Liberals react to Peladeau’s jump into politics with attack ad
Marois announced she will reintroduce the controversial piece of legislation if she wins the election on April 7.
Last April, another member of her economic team, Simon Prevost, slammed the proposed law.
On Monday, Prevost told reporters that “businesses in Quebec should primarily work in French.”
Regarding the PQ economic plan, the party said it will focus on protecting Quebec head offices from becoming targets of hostile takeovers.
READ MORE: Calls for Videotron boycott after Peladeau joins the PQ
Youri Chassin from the Montreal Economic Institute said that similar attempts to do so have failed.
“The recipe that is proposed now is about the same that has been tried over the past decades, with poor results,” Chassin told Global News.
The Parti Quebecois dismisses that, calling its economic team the “best in Quebec’s history.”
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