Montreal Gazette: Caq and Campaign Agenda

montreal gazette: Proving that politics always make for strange bedfellows and that parties are always ready to defend ideals they once rejected if it suits their campaign agenda, the Parti Qu b cois and the Liberals recently joined forces to gang up on the CAQ to publicly criticize and undermine the current frontrunner. ; The gloves first came off about two weeks ago, when, during an interview with the Montreal Gazette, Quebec Finance Minister and Liberal MNA Carlos Leit o described the CAQ as a party that's promoting an ethnic-based nationalism, according to National Observer. Pay attention to what the CAQ is saying; pay attention to the words they use in the National Assembly, because they have a very inward-looking approach, Leit o told the reporter.CAQ Leader Fran ois Legault immediately demanded an apology and accused Quebec Premier Phillippe Couillard of being guilty of playing dirty politics, deliberately trying to make him appear anti-immigrant and racist. The CAQ's questionable declarations regarding their yet-to-be-defined immigration values test which would require recently arrived immigrants to be expelled from the province if they fail to integrate into Quebec society culturally and linguistically within a three-year period drew accusations of identity politics from the other parties. A few days later, Nathalie Roy, the MNA for Montarville and the Coalition Avenir Qu bec spokesperson for immigration, penned an op-ed for the same paper, where she accused the Liberals of being in panic mode. The reason for a knowledge test for values, according to Roy, is to ensure that every candidate for immigration knows and integrates values in line with the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms before receiving the Quebec selection certificate. To immigrate to Quebec is to want to integrate into our community, our values, our culture and to learn our language, she wrote. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.