CAQ leadership debate: Fréchette accuses Drainville of letting his ego affect his judgment
QUEBEC — The first Coalition Avenir Québec leadership debate turned heated Saturday with candidate
Christine Fréchette
accusing her opponent,
Bernard Drainville
, of letting his ego interfere with the choice to back the construction of a new tunnel between Lévis and Québec City.
But Drainville fired back, accusing Fréchette of putting in danger Quebec’s drinking water in wanting to reopen the thorny issue of shale gas fracking in Quebec.
In a lively 90-minute debate before 300 CAQ members in a converted church, Fréchette and Drainville sparred, for the most part politely, but on certain issues more aggressively.
Fréchette fired the first shot on one of the few issues where the two candidates totally differ:
the CAQ’s old promise, broken and then brought back to life in a panic, to build a new third automobile link
under the St. Lawrence River.
While Drainville favours the CAQ’s most recent plan to build the tunnel a bit west of the downtown, Fréchette has proposed a route farther east. Fréchette says she has consulted groups affected by the project and nobody favours the corridor Drainville does.
She also proposes to finance the project in partnership with the private sector, a statement Drainville says would effectively kill the project for good.
“We choose the corridor for the people, for the people who are here, not based on your ego,” Fréchette fired at Drainville as the debate kicked off.
Drainville’s response was just as blunt, saying Fréchette’s plan is “pie in the sky,” because of its size, which he said would be six kilometres longer than the Golden Gate Bridge in California.
“As for ego, Christine, I don’t think it’s a good idea to dip into personal attacks,” Drainville said. “I think we need to stay respectful because we will all need to work together after this.”
Fréchette, however, noted recent estimates peg the cost of the project at about $11 billion.
“Are we ready to sacrifice 325 schools to finance the third link,” Fréchette asked?
It was their first real clash of the campaign that, until now, has mostly played out in the media.
The leadership race was sparked by the
Jan. 14 resignation of Premier François Legault
. On Friday,
Legault announced he intends to stay on as the MNA
for the riding of L’Assomption until the election.
CAQ members will learn who replaces him April 12
.
Drainville had his own plan of attack, questioning Fréchette’s recent commitment to have less government intervention in the economy following huge losses at the Northvolt battery plant.
He asked why Fréchette didn’t distance herself sooner from the CAQ government’s style of managing the economy.
Drainville also honed in on Fréchette’s recent statements in favour of reopening the debate into shale gas fracking in Quebec.
He said launching the debate means his opponent is in favour of the allowing fracking, even though polls show widespread opposition to the controversial plan.
“It’s a big No to risking our drinking water for hydraulic fracking,” Drainville said.
The debate, to be followed by another next weekend in Laval, comes as the party struggles to drum up interest in its political option before the fall election campaign.
To date, Fréchette appears to be leading the race in a number of key areas.
On Saturday, she announced a new caucus supporter, Treasury Board President France-Élaine Duranceau. That brings her total caucus support to 35 MNAs. Drainville has a total of 15.
Fréchette has also raised more money than Drainville. At least count, she had about $80,000 in the bank for the campaign compared with $46,000 for Drainville.
This story will be updated.