{"id":179626,"date":"2018-09-01T21:42:22","date_gmt":"2018-09-02T01:42:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=179626"},"modified":"2018-09-01T21:42:22","modified_gmt":"2018-09-02T01:42:22","slug":"lisee-couillard-talk-transportation-quebec-campaign-trail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/09\/01\/lisee-couillard-talk-transportation-quebec-campaign-trail\/","title":{"rendered":"Lisee and Couillard talk transportation on the Quebec campaign trail"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cHe is certainly not an ally and is not acting like an ally, and not just with Canada.\u201d (File Photo<\/a> By Asclepias\/Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 3.0)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MONTREAL \u2014 Transport rolled onto the scene of the Quebec election campaign on Saturday as two of the main party leaders promised to help travellers get around if elected.<\/p>\n

Speaking at a small airport in Baie-Comeau, Parti Quebecois Leader Jean-Francois Lisee took aim at Air\u00a0Canada, promising to end the carrier’s \u201cquasi-monopoly\u201d in order to bring down the price of airline tickets in the region.<\/p>\n

He explained he’d create a consumer protection bureau and set \u201creference prices\u201d for airline tickets that would penalize big carriers from temporarily dropping prices to stifle new competition.<\/p>\n

Often, Air\u00a0Canada\u00a0lowers its prices when a new competitor comes on the market, only to raise them once the threat is gone, Lisee said.<\/p>\n

While regulating the aerospace industry falls under federal jurisdiction, Lisee said he believed his proposed action would fall under consumer protection, which is within the province’s power.<\/p>\n

He also denounced Liberal Leader Philippe Couillard, who in February announced the creation of a new program to encourage companies to enter the regional Quebec market.<\/p>\n

Couillard’s plan, which included a promise to simplify a program that reduces air fees for residents in certain Quebec regions, is nothing more than \u201ca subsidy to Air\u00a0Canada,\u201d Lisee said.<\/p>\n

His packed Saturday agenda included several stops in small towns north of the St. Lawrence river, and began with a private meeting with Essipit Innu chief Martin Dufour.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Couillard repeated a promise to move forward on a long-discussed third route across the St. Lawrence river to connect Quebec City and Levis.<\/p>\n

He told reporters in the provincial capital that he’d also work to strengthen and extend the public transport network around the region.<\/p>\n

Couillard also commented on ongoing NAFTA negotiations, saying U.S. President Donald Trump is not a friend of\u00a0Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe United States are a great friend and ally of\u00a0Canada, but clearly Mr. Trump is not,\u201d he said while campaigning in Quebec City.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is certainly not an ally and is not acting like an ally, and not just with\u00a0Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quebec solidaire chose instead to focus on education, promising to eliminate public subsidies for private schools in a first mandate, if elected.<\/p>\n

Coalition Avenir Quebec Leader Francois Legault took the day off.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MONTREAL \u2014 Transport rolled onto the scene of the Quebec election campaign on Saturday as two of the main party …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":179627,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-179626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","mauthors-morgan-lowrie","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}