MONTREAL - The leaders of the Quebec Liberal party and the Parti Quebecois gave each other failing grades as economic managers Tuesday as the head of the Action democratique du Quebec insisted it's time to bring back traditional values of hard work in provincial schools.
The party leaders took time out from their sniping to attend Remembrance Day ceremonies but quickly resumed their salvos after paying tribute to Canada's fallen soldiers.
Liberal Leader Jean Charest laced into Pauline Marois, calling the PQ leader the "champion in every category of bad management."
The premier told a junior chamber of commerce meeting in Quebec City he would not want to see the province relive the "sorry record" created by Marois when she was a cabinet minister in various PQ governments.
He pointed out that she was a key minister in governments that cut pay for the public sector, raised the sales tax and offered early retirement to thousands of doctors and nurses, whose absence is keenly felt in the province's health-care system.
"The consequences of her decisions are still with us today," he said.
Charest also promised to help fund a new stadium for Quebec City and enlarge its Samuel de Champlain promenade.
While Quebec City no longer has a National Hockey League team, the stadium could help with any future Winter Olympics bid and give big-name acts a prime entertainment venue for their shows, Charest said.
"If Paul McCartney were able to return or Celine Dion, normally they should be able to do a show here in the wintertime as they do in the summertime," said Charest, who is hoping to recapture some of the seats his Liberals lost to the Action democratique du Quebec in the area in the 2007 election.
In Montreal, Marois described the Liberal government as "amateurish" and a "comedy of errors."
She said Charest's team is incapable of managing large projects such as the building of superhospitals in Montreal and the improvements to one of the province's major universities.
"The management of the (superhospital) is pathetic," Marois said.
The PQ leader rattled off a litany of criticisms that said the Liberals had a legacy of incompetence, cost overruns and broken promises.
Asked how her government would pay for the millions in spending commitments announced so far, Marois said the PQ "would not compromise" organizations or spending in general.
She said there would be a review of programs to determine which ones are functioning efficiently.
Although she is prepared for a provincial deficit if the global credit crisis continues, Marois said she is aiming to bring in balanced budgets.
Marois defended her record as a PQ cabinet minister, saying the governments at the time had to make tough decisions to deal with huge deficits left behind by previous Liberal regimes.
"We had to work very hard to solve this problem," she said.
ADQ Leader Mario Dumont, meanwhile, promised a return to old-fashioned education values, and said the reform of Quebec's school system has been a failure.
Campaigning in St-Hyacinthe, Dumont proposed that school boards be decentralized, report cards be revamped and standardized provincial tests and special education classes be restored. He also wants to see school spirit fostered.
Dumont said he would prefer to see students wearing their school colours instead of gang insignias.
Tuesday also saw the publication of one of the first opinion polls of the campaign. The Nov. 7-9 Leger Marketing survey pegged Liberal support at 41 per cent, compared with 35 per cent for the PQ and 14 per cent for the ADQ.
The poll of 1,001 Quebecers has a margin of error of 3.4 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, meaning the Liberals and the PQ were statistically tied.
Also, the Quebec solidaire party announced its platform Tuesday, putting the emphasis on the economy, the family and sovereignty.
The leftist party would shift the province's economy away from dependence on big banks and multinational economies to a more locally based economy that would take advantage of Quebec's resources.
Co-leader Francoise David said the party also would draft a Quebec constitution and have a referendum on it to settle the sovereignty issue once and for all.
The party, which is fighting its second election, has no seats in the legislature.
