MONTREAL - Protests and barbs marked day four of Quebec's provincial election campaign.
Parti Quebecois Leader Pauline Marois was first out of the gate Saturday, with a daycare promise and a reminder Premier Jean Charest had broken a commitment in an earlier election to freeze daycare fees.
"Jean Charest is a liar," Marois told a news conference.
"He promised in 2003 not to increase daycare tariffs, which were then at $5. He said he wouldn't touch them. Six months later, he increased them to $7."
Charest, who is entering his fourth election since becoming Liberal leader in 1998, had a lacklustre campaign in 2007 and was on the defensive over the decision to boost daycare fees.
Marois announced 30,000 new daycare spaces would be created in the province if the PQ were elected.
Meanwhile, about 100 people gathered in front of the Montreal offices Christine St-Pierre, provincial minister for the status of women, to ask the government not to appeal a recent judgment by Quebec's Superior Court that struck down a law preventing home daycare workers from unionizing.
And, police were called to another protest in front of PQ candidate Scott MacKay's nomination meeting.
About 30 people tried to block the entrance to the meeting in a Montreal suburb to protest the official nomination of MacKay, the former Quebec Green Party leader.
The protesters supported former PQ member Jean-Claude St-Andre, a hardline sovereigntist whose candidacy in the same riding was rejected by the party.
"We had a party convention last March," Marois said.
"We agreed on certain directions and Jean-Claude St-Andre didn't back them. So the party's executive committee decided they wouldn't accept his candidacy for this election."
St-Andre, who held the L' Assomption riding from 1996 to 2007, is appealing the decision.
Charest spent the day campaigning in the province's agricultural region where he announced $10 million in funds over three years to reserve shelf space in grocery stores for Quebec products.
But regardless of the current economic uncertainty, the premier said his government wouldn't adopt protectionist measures to safeguard Quebec's food industry.
"The Quebec market is one of the most open in the world and it would be a big mistake," he said.
"We depend a lot on outside markets to earn our bread and butter."
His campaign also got a boost from one of the former ADQ legislature members who jumped ship for the Liberals last month.
Pierre Michel Auger attacked ADQ Leader Mario Dumont's plan for Quebec autonomy, saying the plan remained a mystery.
Dumont has said he isn't a traditional federalist and wants more "autonomy" or powers for Quebec within Canada, but nevertheless rejects the idea of holding a third sovereignty referendum.
The ADQ leader ignored his former colleague's jabs and focused instead on promoting his economic policies for the province, which include cutting $2 billion in government spending and subsidies -- money that would go to financing programs for the middle-class.
He also accused the Liberals of betraying workers in a Quebec factory, saying Charest's government gave them false hope by promising to re-open a factory that was officially closed for good last Thursday.
