The Quebec Liberals say there'll be more money for teachers if they're re-elected on Oct. 1.
Premier Philippe Couillard spent a third day in a row making a campaign stop in a schoolyard, promising that starting salaries for teachers would be boosted around 20 per cent, to $53,134 per year.
Couillard says there's a lack of quality teachers in the province, and says the move will help bring better quality teachers to the profession, and to improve its overall profile.
Later on, Couillard put his premier hat on and warned federal negotiators working on getting a new trade deal with the U.S. that any dismantling of Canada's supply management system for dairy farmers would have "serious political consequences."
When asked how far he would go to protect Quebec's dairy industry, Couillard borrowed a line made famous in 1970 by Pierre Elliott Trudeau — "just watch me".
Meanwhile, the Parti Québécois was forced to dump a would-be candidate for Islamophobic Facebook posts.
Party leader Jean-François Lisée was forced to distance himself Wednesday from Pierre Marcotte, who was apparently due to be formally trotted out as the candidate for the Drummond-Bois Francs riding later in the day.
A blog, Xaviercamus.com, published screenshots of Marcotte’s Facebook page from 2015 where he called on the province to ban Muslims “like pit bulls” and said new arrivals should be force-fed pieces of bacon.
Last April, Marcotte posted that Québec Solidaire has been “infiltrated by Islamists” and in November he compared Muslims to “beasts.” He also referred to the burqa as "a costume worthy of horror movies."
Lisée said someone in the party did not properly vet Marcotte's candidacy, and said he would not be a PQ candidate.
Meanwhile, Lisée also ruled out the possibility of joining a coalition with the CAQ in the event of a minority government coming out of the Oct. 1 election.
In terms of campaign matters, the PQ's focus was supposed to be on families — Lisée announced his intention to reform Quebec Parental Insurance Plan to allow parents more flexibility, such as allowing them to get 20 working days off. The party also plans to add two more weeks of paid paternity leave, and allowing adoptive parents the same amount of leave as biological ones.
Quebec Solidaire says in the first 100 days of a Quebec Solidaire government, it intends to negotiate a new deal with medical specialists, that would see their salaries cut by 12 per cent.
Co-spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois says, they're giving the doctors what they want — wage parity with their counterparts in Ontario.
The party says the measure would save Quebec's treasury some $925 million per year.
CAQ leader François Legault trotted out his six-person "economic team" Wednesday, but many of the questions at his news conference had to do with the seventh member of the team who wasn't there — former party president Stéphane Le Bouyonnec, who stepped down as both party president and the candidate for the La Prairie riding on Tuesday, because of controversial business ties.
Meanwhile, Legault introduced three measures to support entrepreneurship in the province if his party wins power — a $1 million bursary program at the Beauce School of Entrepreneurship, fund four additional facilities in the Quebec Entrepreneurship Schools network, and an entrepreneurship course into the Sec. V (Grade 11) curriculum.
Among those trotted out by the party as its economic experts is the party's would-be finance minister, Eric Girard, the candidate in the north shore riding of Groulx.