Quebec election set for Sept. 4

Premier Jean Charest’s office is confirming Quebecers will vote in a provincial election for Sept. 4 — the day after Labour Day.

Charest is to hold a news conference later today to make the announcement official.

Should he win, he would tie a provincial record with four consecutive victories.

But his Liberals are involved a tough three-way race and, if the polls are to be believed, they will enter the campaign as underdog against the Parti Quebecois.

The campaign’s dark horse is the Coalition for Quebec’s Future; the new party has attracted much attention with its promise to bring together separatists and federalists while improving the economy.

The Charest cabinet held its last pre-election meeting in Quebec City this morning.

After that, the premier crossed the street to visit the province’s lieutenant-governor to dissolve the national assembly and set the vote date for Quebec’s 40th general election.

Sept. 4 is a special date for Charest — it was on that day in 1984 that he was first elected to the House of Commons as a member of Brian Mulroney’s Progressive Conservative team.

The premier is expected to campaign on a theme of stability. He will argue that his Liberals stand for economic order while his PQ opponents encourage disorderly street protests and chaos in the markets with their pursuit of Quebec independence.

The PQ will reply that Charest doesn’t deserve another term, given all the ethics scandals in the province including several that have swirled around his own government.

In fact, PQ Leader Pauline Marois didn’t even wait for the election call to launch her campaign. She held a news conference on Wednesday morning and suggested integrity and ethics should be the key issue as she works to oust a “tired and corrupt government.”

She promised changes to election financing and touted her democratic-reform plan that includes fixed election dates; the right to vote at age 16; and, perhaps most controversially, U.S.-style referendums launched by public petitions.

“We will put an end to the influence of money in politics,” she said in Quebec City. “As opposed to the Liberals, we have chosen honesty.”

Marois took aim at another key target in her campaign: Stephen Harper’s Canada. She says the federal government stands firmly in the way of Quebec’s values and economic interests.

“We want Quebec to stand tall against the Canada of Stephen Harper…. Canada has become a risk for Quebec.”

“Rather than being a distinct province, we would prefer that Quebec become a normal country.”

The Pequistes will also charge during the campaign that the province should set higher royalty rates for mining companies that operate in the North. The Plan Nord for mining and development will be a key theme of Charest’s campaign.

In Ottawa, federal parties are mainly avoiding comment on the campaign. Notable exceptions are the Bloc Quebecois, whose few remaining MPs will campaign for the PQ, and Liberal MP Justin Trudeau who will help out a Liberal ally in Montreal.

This election holds considerable potential repercussions on Canadian politics. If the PQ wins, a decade of relative calm on the national unity front could be over in five weeks.

And it’s an unpredictable one.

The campaign will play out against the backdrop of student strikes that have made international news. In the next two weeks students will vote at assemblies over whether to return to class this fall or to extend their classroom walkouts.

It’s anyone’s guess as to how the teachers’ unions, the police, politicians and, ultimately, Quebec voters will respond.

Student federations say they plan to target certain Liberal ridings during the campaign —including those of high-profile cabinet ministers and those the party narrowly won in 2008, said Martine Desjardins, president of the FEUQ, the association representing university students.

Desjardins said student groups will not promote any specific party, and will remain “non-partisan” but not “apolitical.”

The federations launched a website Wednesday encouraging the youth vote. The site doesn’t discuss just tuition fees, but also other issues such as the environment and ethics.