MONTREAL - Mario Dumont is putting pressure on Quebec's traditional powerhouse parties but now the microscope is focusing on his own team.
Liberal Premier Jean Charest demanded Monday that Dumont fire one of his Action democratique du Quebec candidates for dismissing the annual Dec. 6 ceremony dedicated to 14 young women who were murdered by a gunman at Montreal's Ecole polytechnique. "His candidate made light of the tragedy of the polytechnique that took place in '89," Charest said.
"That candidate should not just be disciplined, he should resign."
In an Internet podcast posted Dec. 26, Jean-Francois Plante bragged that he refuses to wear the white commemorative ribbon for the event and proclaimed that it encourages sexism against men.
Plante also doubted the need for pay equity for provincial government employees or measures to combat violence against women.
Dumont was forced to address the issues as journalists and his opponents continued to subject the ADQ to new scrutiny amid surging poll results for the party.
"Pay equity, that's done and I'm not putting that in question," Dumont said while campaigning in Les Mechins in eastern Quebec.
"The ADQ does not make light of violence against women. Those are not comments that were made in the context of the election campaign. I dissociate myself totally from those words."
Dumont's repudiation of his candidate comes after polls have showed the ADQ gaining on the Liberals and Parti Quebecois.
On Sunday, Dumont gently rebuked ADQ candidate Claude Roy, an avid hunter and fisherman who is a staunch opponent of the federal gun registry.
The firearms law is popular in Quebec and the ADQ is in favour of gun control.
"Our adversaries are working hard to find everything our candidates might have said one day in their lives," Dumont said.
"I'll take care of the discipline of our candidates," Dumont said, adding that Charest should instead be concentrating on his own cabinet ministers who have ignored important issues for four years.
Charest has led the charge on Dumont in recent days. While others dig up past comments of ADQ candidates, Charest attacked Dumont, a former sovereigntist, for being vague on how Quebec should be more autonomous in Canada.
PQ Leader Andre Boisclair has also chimed in, accusing Dumont of playing to the base instincts of some Quebecers by promising to put an end to some accommodations for immigrants and other minorities.
Campaigning in the Saguenay region where several three-way races are expected on voting day March 26, Charest ripped into Dumont for failing to put a price on his daily promises.
"I think at this point in the campaign, the ADQ should give numbers," Charest said.
"Frankly. They're promising this, they're promising that. Enough. Let's have some numbers.
"It's the minimum Quebecers should be able to expect. What's he hiding?"
Campaigning in rural northwestern Quebec, Boisclair promised forests would be better managed in a sovereign Quebec.
"Quebec sovereignty would not make the trees grow faster," Boisclair said, but "it would allow for coherent policies without always having to, damn it, having to negotiate with Ottawa, as if Ottawa was giving us a gift."
Boisclair was campaigning in Malartic, where forestry workers have lost their jobs since a nationwide crisis hit the industry a few years ago.
Thousands of forestry jobs have been lost in Quebec overall and dozens of mills have shut down or been idled.
Boisclair said the Liberal government has mismanaged the crisis.
