Four independent MNAs join Legault's Coalition

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After François Legault doubled the size of his caucus on Monday, with the addition of four independent MNAs to his newly formed Coalition-Avenir-Québec, the party leader called on disgruntled Liberals to also jump on board.

The four independents – two recent renegade Parti Québécois MNAs and two Action Démocratique du Québec legislators who left the party years ago – are following in the footsteps of the recently disbanded four-member ADQ caucus. That party joined the Coalition last week.

Mr. Legault is now inviting Liberals, upset with the way Premier Jean Charest has handled allegations of corruption and collusion in the construction industry, to consider their options over the Christmas holidays.

"We have to see if at this point the Liberals are still ready to stay with Mr. Charest or whether they think about their principles and decide to be with us," Mr. Legault said.

If there was any doubt about Mr. Legault's right-of-centre political ideology, one of the four independents who joined the Coalition on Monday tried to set the record straight. Éric Caire, a right-wing former ADQ member, said the CAQ embraced his vision of promoting more private health-care services.

"Never have I been so close than with François Legault from putting into practice my objective … that is to allow a mix of private-public health-care services. I never even came that close when I was with the ADQ," Mr. Caire said on Monday.

Mr. Legault argued that it may be in the province's interest to introduce more private health care, insisting it wouldn't violate the Canada Health Act. He added that the CAQ would always remain open to compromise on a number of controversial issues, including an increase in privatized health care.

Mr. Legault, a former PQ cabinet minister, launched his party with the promise of placing sovereignty and renewed federalism on the backburner to focus instead on a set of defined priorities such as health care, education, the economy and language. Mr. Charest has accused the CAQ party leader of being a "sovereigntist-separatist" with a hidden agenda.

According to Dino Mazzone, a special adviser to the ADQ who has joined the new Coalition, the ability to attract supporters from all parties was a major drawing card for the CAQ. He added that it has also been instrumental in the party's efforts at penetrating Liberal strongholds in Montreal's predominantly anglophone and ethnic-community ridings.

"We've had that battle between sovereigntists and federalists," Mr. Mazzone said. "You have Mr. Charest who exploits that tension, playing on people's fears. I'm sick of it. A helluva a lot of people are sick of it. Mr. Legault is saying 'lets put all the best players on the same team and put this debate on the backburner for ten years.' … "I'm ready to play ball with a lot of people I don't agree with and so are many just like me."

Mr. Legault posted a comfortable lead in two public-opinion polls released last week and continued to strike all the right chords on Monday by siding with the majority of francophone Quebeckers who are upset with the appointment of a unilingual English-speaking head coach by the Montreal Canadiens hockey team.

"The Montreal Canadiens is an institution. It's a question of respect for Quebeckers speaking French. So I think it was a bad decision," Mr. Legault said.

When the National Assembly reconvenes on Feb. 14, the CAQ will demand that its eight MNAs be officially recognized as a caucus. This would allow the party to obtain more than a half million dollars in annual public funding to hire staff and conduct research.

However, there is no precedent for a newly formed party that has yet to face the electorate asking to receive official recognition in the National Assembly. The rules of the legislature currently don't allow it but neither do they categorically exclude official recognition.

In the meantime, Mr. Legault said he will prepare for an election he expects will be called in the spring of 2012. The party will hold its first convention in March and move quickly in the coming weeks to collect money and choose candidates. Mr. Charest still has a little less than two years left in his five-year mandate.

The Liberals may be in no hurry to call a vote given the results of recent polls showing that Mr. Charest's disapproval rating still hovers around 75 per cent. Party support remains mired in the mid-20s, far from what's needed for the Liberals to win an election.