Quebec’s Premier-designate remains firm on controversial promises after historic win
QUEBEC — The day after a momentous election victory in which he re-drew Quebec’s political map, Premier-designate Francois Legault sought on Tuesday to reassure Quebecers and other Canadians uncertain what to expect from his government.
“I am a pragmatic guy,” Legault said at his first news conference since his Coalition Avenir Quebec won 74 of the province’s 125 ridings. “We are a pragmatic party.”
He said he wants to build a “strong Quebec inside Canada” and to reduce Quebec’s dependence on equalization payments from the federal government.
But the first provincial government since the 1960s to be neither Liberal nor Parti Quebecois will be strongly nationalist with a focus on the Quebec identity issues that helped bring it to power.