Paul Saint-Pierre Plamondon accuses Pablo Rodriguez of leading a “campaign of fear” against the referendum and fears the election of a new “corrupt” Liberal government. The leader of the LKP demands that he retract his words.
The knives are flying low between the Liberals and the PCs, a year before the next general election.
During his party's general council this weekend, Liberal leader Pablo Rodriguez accused his PQ rival of not respecting Quebecers who don't think like him.
“We are not lesser Quebecers because we don’t want a referendum!” he said, speaking to about 600 activists gathered in Trois-Rivières.
On Monday morning, the PC leader instead denounced his liberal opponent's “campaign of fear.”
In his words, “The Quebec Liberal Party, which has no substance, then wages a campaign of fear to gain power, produces business-obsessed and corrupt governments, and leads to failure, is in decline for Quebec.”
Rodriguez too
“I remind you that the opportunistic and corrupt Liberal Party governments, the campaigns that brought them to power, are just that,” he added, addressing Mr Rodriguez’s comments.
Even if the UPAC investigation ended without charges, the PQ leader argues that the work of the Charbonneau Commission demonstrated embezzlement under Jean Charest.
“I listened to the Charbonneau commission and there is no doubt that corruption occurred,” he said.
Federalism
He said the federalist nature of the PLQ has led to this drift under some Liberal governments because they “lie” and create “division” for political gain.
“We must learn from other periods in our history and I have no hesitation in saying that Liberal Party governments have had serious problems with corruption several times in their history, but this stems from their role, which is to force us to accept the unacceptable, to force us to believe what we should not believe, and ultimately to become agents of the federal regime,” he says.
Former minister under Justin Trudeau, Liberal leader Pablo Rodriguez is “an excellent agent of the federal regime,” says Paul Saint-Pierre Plamondon.
Outraged liberals
The Liberal leader was quick to condemn his opponent's comments on Platform X.
“I will never allow anyone to doubt the integrity of the women and men who have dedicated themselves to serving our nation in the Quebec Liberal Party. I will never allow anyone to imply that our party, my team, is 'corrupt,'” he wrote.
“What exactly does he mean? That we will be 'corrupt' simply because we are against his referendum?” he adds.
He asks Paul Saint-Pierre Plamondon to refuse.
“These comments are not worthy of the position for which he is applying,” writes Pablo Rodriguez.
At the time of writing these lines, the leader of the Communist Party had no intention of going back on his words.
