His candidacy confirmed Martine Biron pleads for the third

His candidacy confirmed | Martine Biron pleads for the third link

(Lévis) Former journalist and political scientist Martine Biron confirms her candidacy for the CAQ and advocates a new motorway connection between Quebec and Lévis, which she has criticized in the past.

Posted 11:03am Updated 11:28am

Split

Karl Lecavalier

Charles Lecavalier The Press

“Our bridges are aging. We need a third link, a spare link,” Ms Biron said at a news conference on Wednesday.

The senior caquiste François Legault, who presented his candidate, himself defended this project from the beginning. “Greater Quebec is in the process of becoming Quebec’s second largest metropolitan area. I don’t understand why there is so much disdain from the opposition for providing additional infrastructure for this great metropolis in Greater Quebec,” he said. “We’re going to make it, the Quebec-Lévis tunnel,” he added.

As an analyst at Radio-Canada, Ms. Biron had criticized the Quebec-Lévis highway tunnel project. “We wonder if this isn’t a declining project. It ended up being more of an election project,” she said last year. She was of the opinion that “there is no justification for spending such a sum for the construction of the tunnel, […] even in Quebec.

Ms. Biron will seek to be elected at Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, a CAQ-winning riding ground on Quebec’s south coast. The veteran Marc Picard, elected without interruption since 2003 under the colors of the Quebec Democratic Action by Mario Dumont, then by the CAQ, did not represent himself.

According to our information, Martine Biron would have been approached by François Legault’s party a few months ago. After initially turning down the offer from party director general Brigitte Legault to present herself under the Caquist banner, she would have been asked again in recent weeks.

A meeting with the Prime Minister was organized last week, after which it would have taken Martine Biron 24 hours to make her decision. She would then have informed her employer that she was quitting her job.

This sudden move from political analyst to candidate for a party she had been scrutinizing a few days earlier has drawn criticism, particularly from the Quebec Journalists’ Association (FPJQ).

François Legault says he recruited Ms. Biron, a “woman of heart” who chose “the public service” and, like him, made education his priority. He is also trying to defuse an attack by the Quebec Conservative Party accusing Ms Biron of “parachuting” on Quebec’s south coast. “His mother was the principal here when she was young. […] She lived here until recently, she knows the concerns of the citizens.”