CAQ’s François Legault sets an example by voting in the early poll

.

L’ASSOMPTION — François Legault said Sunday that he does not rule out seeking a third term as prime minister, should he win the October 3 general election.

.

“Two conditions,” Legault told reporters at a news conference at L’Assomption, his home. “The support of the population and second, my health.”

.

Now 65 and in his fourth election campaign as leader of the Coalition Avenir Québec, Legault made the comment shortly after casting his vote in an early poll of his leadership.

Waiting in line with his wife, Isabelle Brais, Legault told reporters he wanted to set a good example by voting in early polls. Voting early is a trend in Quebec elections, he noted.

In the 2018 elections, 18 percent of Quebecers voted on the two days of early elections. The early voting process for this election began on Sunday and continues on Monday; there were lines outside many polling stations on Sunday.

.

Aides said internal CAQ polls show about 49 percent of CAQ supporters want to vote in an early poll. Among the general voting population, the figure is 47 percent.

“How do we explain this?” Legault said. “Well, for a long time people had to have an explanation to vote in early polls. Now there is no requirement to justify it. People are getting used to this and saying to themselves, ‘In case I’m busy or something unforeseen happens on October 3, I’ll go today.’

“I’ve been told it’s like this all over Quebec.”

Legault dismissed the notion that the campaign, now in its 29th day, still has no real focus. He said that even if there are five big games in the race, the various platforms show clear differences in vision.

.

In its campaign, the CAQ is offering to continue the work it began in its first four years in office and help Quebecers confront the ravages of inflation. The CAQ won the 2018 elections in a landslide, forming a majority government that, for the first time in years, was neither Liberal nor Parti Québécois.

With a week to go until the vote, political parties are entering the sprint phase of the election, targeting specific races they know they could lose and others they think they can make a profit on.

That partly explains why on Monday the CAQ campaign will fly to the storm-ravaged Îles-de-la-Madeleine, where an intense battle is raging between the incumbent Parti Québécois MNA Joël Arseneau and the island’s incumbent mayor, Jonathan Lapierre. , by the CAQ. .

.

PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon has also announced plans to campaign on Monday.

The CAQ has also launched a campaign to get your vote. Making a stop early Sunday at the neighboring promenade of Repentigny, where former journalist Pascale Déry is running for the CAQ, Legault told supporters that the two days of early polling are just as important as voting day, so who wants them to stay at the door. -work at home.

“We have to convince people to go vote today and tomorrow,” Legault said, standing in a local catering store. “It’s a challenge for us because some people think (the election is) a done deal. It’s not a done deal until people have voted.

“So I need you. I’m counting on you.”

[email protected]

twitter.com/philipauthier