(Ottawa) The Bloc Québécois will work hard this week in the hope of sending a strong signal to Estrie, a region where the party wants to make gains at the expense of the Liberals in the next general election.
“Yes, we have our sights set on Estrie,” admits Bloc leader Yves-François Blanchet in an interview with La Presse Canadienne.
And the Bloc will not do things by halves. Not only will he hold his pre-sessional caucus in Sherbrooke, but he also organized a conference on energy in Bromont and no less than thirty meetings of deputies with civil society here and there.
The Bloc are face to face with the Liberals in voting intentions in several coveted ridings in the region. And they know it very well.
“Brome-Missisquoi, Sherbrooke (and) Compton-Stanstead are obviously places where we will go and challenge people more often,” says Mr. Blanchet.
We might as well immediately send distinguished greetings to Liberal MPs Pascale St-Onge, Élisabeth Brière and Marie-Claude Bibeau respectively.
All of this “starts from a disappointment”: that the distribution of seats in Quebec remained the same during the last general elections in 2021. “We had hopes for Estrie,” said Mr. Blanchet. We must have gone about it incorrectly. »
He notes that the approach will be “a little different” this time. The Bloc members will discuss extensively the “Estrie and Sherbrooke identity” which is “entrepreneurial and economic”.
And Yves-François Blanchet does not hesitate in an interview to praise “this innovation, this proximity to international axes in terms of development” of the region. This is “properly remarkable,” he said. As for “high technology between Bromont and Sherbrooke”, it is “recognized” and constitutes “a cutting-edge sector to work on”.
“Conservative thugs”
One week before the start of the parliamentary term, the Conservatives’ progress in voting intentions nationally does not overly worry the Bloc, assures Yves-François Blanchet.
“A rise of the Conservatives positions us to win Liberal seats, then a rise of the Liberals positions us to win Conservative seats because our voting intentions are either stable or increasing,” he said.
According to the most recent survey from Abacus Data, Pierre Poilievre’s conservatives would collect 40% of the vote. They are followed by Justin Trudeau’s Liberals at 26% and Jagmeet Singh’s New Democrats at 19%.
In Quebec, the Bloc leads in voting intentions. This same poll gave them 30%, the Liberals 28%, the Conservatives 25% and the New Democrats 12%. But a few days earlier, the gap was more significant as the Léger firm placed the Bloc at 36%, the Liberals at 30%, the Conservatives at 18% and the New Democrats at 10%.
In recent days, Pierre Poilievre has increased attacks against the Liberals, but also against the Bloc Québécois. In particular, he has repeatedly described carbon pricing as a “Blanchet-Trudeau tax”.
“Justin Trudeau and the Bloc who punish your work, take your money, tax your food, and double the price of your housing,” said the Conservative leader to his activists gathered at a conference in Quebec.
This change in tone had not gone unnoticed by Yves-François Blanchet when he conducted the interview a few days earlier. He already said he expected “extremely tense” relations this fall with “the conservative thugs” with whom “it’s a clear break.”
Mr. Blanchet criticizes them for not behaving in a “noble” way by producing “negative advertisements based on lies”.
Regarding carbon pricing, for example, “they (the Conservatives) are extirpating what suits them to associate me with Trudeau who, currently, obviously, is not at the height of his popularity.”
“Obviously, with this nonsense, we get disgusted on social networks,” he sighs.
In any case, Mr. Blanchet says he does not believe that Pierre Poilievre will form a majority government.
In fact, it would be “very, very bad” for Quebec if any party held a majority of seats in the House of Commons, according to him. And conversely, a minority government would be a scenario in which the Bloc has a greater balance of power to “impose its will on important issues for Quebec”.
“I don’t see Quebecers being subject to conservative values, oil values, anti-abortion values, the conspiracy values of the conservatives. I think they have no desire to be subject to a Trudeau government that many people are completely fed up with. »
It will be a busy political week as the Liberals will also hold their pre-sessional caucus in London, Ontario. Next Monday, elected officials will return to the House for the resumption of parliamentary work.
This is a corrected version. In the previous version, The Canadian Press erroneously reported that voting intentions for the Bloc Québécois were 26% in Quebec, according to a survey by the Léger firm. In reality, they were 36%.
