The Liberal Party of Quebec withdrew Anne DeBlois’ candidacy in Charlesbourg after controversial statements, particularly on Islam, emerged. The candidate also opposed her leader’s positions in two of the most important acts of the Capitale-Nationale: the tram and the third link.
In the past, Ms DeBlois has claimed notably on Twitter that Islam is a “totalitarian religion” and that one day “the French will have to choose between Islam and death… and so will Canadians,” reports The Press this morning.
She also spoke out against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and against mandatory measures to achieve gender parity, and attacked environmentalists.
His candidacy announced on Wednesday was withdrawn late Thursday, at the end of the evening.
“Anne DeBlois’s comments are unacceptable and inconsistent with liberal values. She will therefore not stand as a candidate for our political party in the 2022 elections. The party will soon announce a new candidacy to represent the people of Charlesbourg,” confirmed the communications director at the Liberal leader’s office, Jérémy Ghio, on Friday morning.
As of Thursday at the latest, PLQ Director-General Julie Martel reminded TVA Nouvelles of the importance of knowing candidates’ social media history.
She made the statement while 10 party candidates are still missing in the Capitale-Nationale and Chaudière-Appalaches regions.
“It presents an additional research challenge, as we saw just last week with the Conservative Party, where a candidate had to resign for making controversial or even unacceptable statements. We need to know the social media history of the candidates we target or who approach us,” explained Ms. Martel.
Ms. DeBlois is also a staunch opponent of the Quebec City Streetcar, a project nonetheless backed by Dominique Anglade’s Liberal Party. However, her positions were well known: she was a candidate for the Quebec Conservative Party, a board member of Quebec 21, she has also blogged and tweeted on the subject.
“As a good curator, my heart bleeds to think of the final bill that awaits us when outgoing Quebec Mayor Régis Labeaume’s streetcar project finally gets operational…” she wrote on her blog June 11 2021
A few months earlier, she had promised herself that she would go to the local elections to “send the following message to the entire political class: no more major projects at the expense of the population”. “I’m going to make it a personal fight,” she wrote.
In February, she directly challenged Dominique Anglade on Twitter, implying that the Liberal leader was misinformed on the file.
“Mrs. Anglade, for heaven’s sake! If you’d followed the file from the start, the first thing you’d think would be that the Prime Minister had good reason to act that way,” she said when we learned that the Legault government wanted to amputate certain sections.
At the Quebec-Lévis tunnel, Ms. DeBlois was also at odds with her new political formation.
Dominique Anglade describes the Third Link project as a “hole in the river” and promises to invest the planned billions of dollars in infrastructure in the health and education sectors.
Anne DeBlois said on Twitter in February 2021: “The 3rd link has been due for at least 50 years”.