Quebec election: Liberals campaigning largely outside Montreal-area strongholds | Globalnews.ca

Quebec Liberal Party Leader Dominique Anglade has spent the first week of the campaign far away from the party’s Montreal-area strongholds.

Despite being down in the polls and struggling to field a full slate of 125 candidates, Anglade insists her party is on the offensive, campaigning in ridings held by other parties.

The Liberal leader is continuing that trend today, with stops in Gatineau, Que., across the river from Ottawa, which was won in 2018 by the Coalition Avenir Québec of Premier François Legault. She also has several stops planned in Val-d’Or, Que., located in a riding also held by the CAQ.

Legault, meanwhile, is campaigning today in Lévis, Que., across the river from Quebec City, where star candidate Bernard Drainville is representing the party.

Drainville is a former leadership contender for the Parti Québécois, and as a PQ minister in 2013, came up with a so-called values charter that called for people who wear religious symbols to be prohibited from working in public institutions.

PQ Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon is holding a news conference in Gatineau, while Québec solidaire spokesman Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois is starting the day on the Gaspé Peninsula.

Conservative Party of Quebec Leader Éric Duhaime is holding a news conference this morning on health care in Lachute, Que., northwest of Montreal.