PQ in lead as three-way contest comes down to the wire in Quebec

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PAUL CHIASSON / THE CANADIAN PRESS Pauline Marois waves to supporters during a stop Monday in Cap-Rouge, Que. (CP)

MONTREAL -- The last time Quebec had a sovereigntist government the invasion of Iraq had just gotten under way and there was a frantic international search for Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction.

Now Quebec voters will head to the ballot box Tuesday after 3,416 days of relative quiet on the national-unity front, with indications of that silence being shattered as polls point to the pro-independence Parti Québécois being restored to power.

The final result, however, is far from certain given the potential for three-way vote splits that only compound unknown quantities like late shifts in voter sentiment and the strength of each party's get-out-the-vote operation.

Party leaders made a last pitch to voters on the final day of the campaign Monday, driving home their key messages.

Marois continued to press for a majority mandate to rid the province of the scandal-dogged Charest Liberals, demand a transfer in powers from Ottawa, make peace with student protesters, create language and identity laws and set her party's sovereigntist agenda in motion.

"We don't want to find ourselves in an election (again) in six months," she said in Quebec City.

Charest argued the opposite: a vote for any party but the Liberals would lead to economic and political instability.

The premier has framed this election as a choice between "stability and job creation" and "referendums and the streets," a reference to the near-daily student protests over tuition increases last spring. However, the student protests have mostly wound down and the issue hardly made news during the campaign.

At a sod-turning for Quebec City's $400-million arena, Charest repeated his claim that a sovereigntist government could jeopardize the city's chances of bringing back NHL hockey.

Quebec City is one of the areas of the province Charest had hoped to dominate but polls suggest he could lose seats to the new Coalition party. He told reporters it was more likely a team would return in "an economy that's doing well rather than an economy that's doing poorly."

Coalition Leader Franßois Legault, meanwhile, toured the hotly contested ridings north and south of Montreal, hammering away at his message of change.

"We will clean up government, we will clean up the bureaucracy," he said at a news conference, flanked by star candidate Jacques Duchesneau, a former police chief and anti-corruption whisteblower.

While the leaders tried to sway voters, the Charest Liberals also filed a complaint Monday with provincial police over allegations of trick phone calls before Quebecers head to vote. The party said it had learned of a series of automated calls falsely made in the party's name in the Quebec City region.

The alleged message was spoken mostly in English in the overwhelmingly francophone region. Other calls were made in Laval, a suburb north of Montreal, by people using an "aggressive tone" and claiming to be representing the Liberals, according to the party. Quebec's elections office said it would investigate.

For Charest, whose party is ranked a close third in the polls, the election could be the end of a storied 28-year-career in provincial and federal politics.

As a young Progressive Conservative, Charest was made the youngest cabinet minister in Canadian history. As a champion of federalism, he was recruited to run for the leadership of the Quebec Liberals to take on the PQ and became premier in 2003.

His third consecutive term started on a high in 2008 as he brought the Liberals back to a majority and enjoyed strong public support. But his government was sideswiped by scandals, starting with allegations of corruption at the municipal level and later about ethical misdeeds among his own troops.

It took Charest two years to call a public inquiry. When one finally came, he called an election during the inquiry's summer break.

The Coalition, formed 10 months ago, has according to surveys gained a strong contingent of support. It promises to set aside the debate over sovereignty to focus on more pressing issues.

Legault, a former PQ cabinet minister and committed sovereigntist, says he would cut taxes for the middle class and provide more support for small businesses.

He also wants to make major changes to the education system, including eliminating school boards and extending high school hours to a 9-to-5 schedule. He also promises to provide every Quebecer with a family doctor.

-- The Canadian Press

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 4, 2012 A9