Quebec election likely on April 14
Provincial race too tight to call
 |
Story Tools
 He has asked us to be prepared when he pushes the button. 
|
-- Hubert Bolduc, Landry press secretary
|
|
|
MONTREAL, Canada (Reuters) -- Buoyed by recent gains in the polls, Quebec Premier Bernard Landry has decided April 14 will likely be election day in the French-speaking Canadian province, a government spokesman said Tuesday.
"Yes. April 14 is the most likely scenario," Landry's press secretary, Hubert Bolduc, told Reuters. "He has asked us to be prepared when he pushes the button."
The latest poll shows the three provincial political parties neck and neck in an election race too tight to call. Landry's Parti Quebecois, which advocates Quebec secession from Canada, has caught up with the right-wing Action Democratique Party and nosed ahead of the Quebec Liberals.
An April 14 election means Landry would call the election March 12, the day after the expected release of the Quebec budget.
Quebec, the largest province in Canada, has a population of 7.3 million people. The Parti Quebecois has 68 seats in the legislature, against 51 for the federalist Liberals of Jean Charest, and five for the right-wing Action Democratique of Mario Dumont.
in the most recent poll, the Parti Quebecois, in power since September 1994, had 30 percent of voter support, the same as Action Democratique and just ahead of the Liberals.
But more than half of voters say they are no longer satisfied by the Parti Quebecois. Many are upset by budget cuts to the public health-care system, and have become indifferent to the issue of seceding from Canada.
Quebecers rejected secession in referendums in 1980 and 1995. Nevertheless, Landry has pledged to hold another before 2005, but only if he believes he can win it.
Meanwhile, the 32-year-old Dumont has been scrambling for voter support for months, but has flip-flopped on his key election platform of a flat income tax and the idea of getting the private sector more involved in the health-care system.
And Charest's low-key style has failed to fire the imagination of Quebecers. Polls show that among leaders he is the third choice of French speakers, who make up 82 percent of the province's population.
Copyright 2003
Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
