Photo: Karoline Boucher The Canadian Press The leader of the Quebec Liberal Party, Marc Tanguay, presented the party's end-of-session results on Friday, June 7, 2024, to the Quebec Legislative Assembly.
Isabelle Porter in Quebec
Published yesterday at 12:36 p.m. Updated yesterday at 11:18 p.m.
- Quebec
Invigorated by the movement in their race for leadership, the Liberals end the parliamentary session by exposing the “fatigue” of Prime Minister François Legault as opposed to the “extraordinary year” that awaits their party.
“I tell you as I see it. François Legault seemed tired to me during the last parliamentary session. Very tired,” said the interim leader of the Liberal Party of Quebec (PLQ), Marc Tanguay, during the review of the session on Friday.
“Faced with its repeated failures , at a given moment, he reaches the end of his logic of trying to shovel responsibility onto everyone. Faced with this, the PLQ is exhilarated.
“Exhilarated” because after a long crossing of the desert, the leadership race is starting to arouse interest.
The PLQ has “an extraordinary year” ahead of it, said Mr. Tanguay, who is already dreaming of the party returning to power in 2026.
The future government, he said, “will be able to put the house in order” and “take care of our people by providing services.”
Quebecers “doubly losers”
Since the budget and the “record deficit of $11 billion” that marked it, the PLQ presents itself more than ever as the party of the economy and budgetary rigor. “Quebecers are doubly losers. We have a record deficit […] we have no plan to return to a balanced budget, and services are more in disarray than ever,” said Chief Tanguay, who represents the riding of LaFontaine.
“We are waiting three hours longer in emergency rooms,” he stressed before recalling that dropout rates remained very high.
For the rest, the PLQ is pleased to have been a hard-working and diligent opposition in the sometimes dry and thankless work of studying bills. “We have tabled bills, we have tabled amendments for several refusals and we will continue to think about them. »
Finally, Marc Tanguay stressed that his party was more than ever a point of reference for opponents of the sovereignist project, “the only resolutely federalist party” which “will to respond, every day, to Paul St-Pierre Plamondon”, who “wants to relaunch us [in] separation”.