ABOVE: (Apr. 5, 2014) The Liberals lead in the polls with a 40 percent share of the vote. A series of missteps from Pauline Marois, plus a drop in support for separatism, has the Parti Quebecois trailing. Global’s Billy Shield reports.
MONTREAL – Pauline Marois entered the riding of Nicolet-Becancour Saturday, currently held by the Coalition Avenir Quebec, with a loud reminder for a lunchtime crowd gathered at a diner:
“No PQ, no Charter,” she shouted.
Yet if the Parti Quebecois fails to make any gains in this election, the debate and controversy surrounding the proposed Quebec Charter of Values could be remembered as one of a string of campaign blunders the PQ made.
WATCH: Political mudslinging in Quebec
A recent EKOS poll pegged the Liberals as the frontrunners in the April 7 provincial election, with the PQ almost 14 percentage points behind them with 26.3 per cent of the vote.
EKOS currently puts the Coalition Avenir Q at 21 per cent of the vote, and Quebec Solidare with 9.6 per cent.
It’s a far cry from the robust majority the PQ was projected to have in the early days of the campaign.
Over the past month, talk of Quebec sovereignty went from being a front-burner issue when star candidate Pierre Karl Peladeau climbed aboard the party’s campaign bus to something only murmured now.
“Since the debates, people are getting interested in other subjects,” said CAQ leader Francois Legault, during a campaign visit in Montreal Saturday.
INTERACTIVE MAP: Quebec provincial election ridings
Throughout the campaign Legault has been positioning himself as above the sovereignty debate, and interested in putting the province on secure economic footing.
He’s been taking shots at his two more-established rivals.
“Jean Charest presented himself with a board saying that ‘I will create 250,000 jobs,'” he quipped. “I think it’s the same board that Couillard used during this campaign. He recycled – it’s good for the environment but nothing new.”
As for Liberal Leader Philippe Couillard, he was in the swing riding of Levi, trying to make a late-campaign push for the Quebec City area.
READ MORE: Couillard seen as one of the most openly federalist Quebec politicians
Throughout the campaign he’s consistently raised the spectre of a referendum.
“Madame Marois should probably think of something else to talk about the last day of the campaign,” he said.
READ MORE: Léger poll puts Liberals in the lead and shows CAQ making comeback
After she ate a quick lunch at the diner in Nicolet, Marois was off to another swing riding – Maskinonge – hoping that a few choice words will recapture the robust momentum the PQ enjoyed, and that the numbers swing back her way come Monday.
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