By Beryl Wajsman and Joel Goldenberg
The Suburban

Beryl Wajsman: You have a very interesting history. You’ve been an executive vice president of Uniprix. You know big pharma. You know how a critical industry such as healthcare works. You’ve been at National Communications. You were president of the Fédération des Chambres de commerce du Québec. You understand public policy. Clearly, you’re a leader in civil society but some would say with those positions, you could make more of a positive impact on Quebec society than in elective office. Why go and take the plunge?

Charles Milliard: That’s a good question. I started my involvement in the Liberal Party of Quebec, when I was 18 years old back in 1998, in Lévis, which is not that Liberal of a riding. It has always been my political family and I was always interested in getting more active in public service. In politics, you need two things. Conviction and timing, and I think the timing is great for me because we’re at the start of a new political cycle in Quebec. I think Mr. Legault is almost done. We’ll have a new offer coming both from the PQ and the PLQ in a year and a half from now. I think the party needs to give the keys to a new generation and that’s why I thought it would be interesting to give all of my experience to my party and Quebec.

BW: But not giving the keys to a new generation for the sake of age. Is it not more about change for the politics of conviction, not of consensus, especially at a time of crisis?

CM: I agree with that.

BW: Part of that is political leaders telling people, look, we’ve given away a lot of money to make people happy not just in Quebec, but particularly at the federal level. We spend a great percentage of our budgets not on what is critical but on nice things like multiculturalism and diversity. Meanwhile, our seniors are in dire positions. They’re below the poverty line. Our healthcare system, I don’t have to tell you, you know better than I. What convictions will you not compromise on? And what convictions set you apart from Mr. Rodriguez and Mr. Blackburn?

CM: As you mentioned, we cannot distribute money that we don’t have. So we’re going to need more fiscal responsibility in Quebec City and Ottawa. And I’m quite happy with what I’m seeing in the past weeks coming from the Carney government but we’ll see what happens in the coming months. As for Quebec, I think there’s three main issues, healthcare, economy and the vitality of our different regions. That’s the reason I’m going into politics. I want to give more access to healthcare. Obviously, this is where I come from as a pharmacist. I put a lot of ideas on the table. The first being having a telemedicine service. I think that has worked great in the private sector for the past few years. We need to bring that to the public system. In education, we need to work on the level of dropouts that we have in Quebec. I think we should raise the minimum age you need to stay in school from 16 to 18 years old. I think we need a new Estates General, a national commission on education. It’s been way too long since the last time we spoke about education in a larger sense in Quebec. The youth commission has asked for a commission, which is something I think we need to do 60 years after the creation of the Ministry of Education. Those are things that I’m not going to compromise on because they’re the basic services that the Quebec government has to give. It’s more important to talk about education and health care than about identity, language and all those issues that have been dividing us for decades.

BW: You brought up two things that we’ve written a lot about. You talk about telemedicine, education and the dropout rate. Just several days ago, Newsweek named Dr Lawrence Rosenberg, director-general the Jewish General Hospital, one of the 25 best global CEOs of medicine.

CM: Coming from one of the top hospitals in North America also.

BW: To what you were saying, his pet project that he has installed is what’s called a command centre is telemedicine, the most advanced one. He’s been begging Quebec for more resources and just to make an alliance with apparently one of the best programs of one of the hospitals in Israel, this could really make telemedicine, particularly for seniors, extraordinarily available.

CM: Especially in the rural areas of Quebec where there are no doctors available.

BW: You mentioned the dropout rate. For whatever reason, 58 percent of francophone young men in French public high schools drop out.

CM: It’s even worse in some regions of Quebec.

BW: This is a critical issue and nobody knows why it is happening.

CM: Well that’s one of the main ingredients for our collective success, to have more youth with diplomas. We need to work on that.

BW: What would you say are the vital things that differentiate you from Mr. Blackburn and Mr. Rodriguez?

CM: We’re all Liberals, so I would say similar issues.

BW: It’s a very civilized race.

CM: Maybe too much, but again we’re Liberals, so we know how to behave. I think it’s a question of style and a question of what is our narrative for the upcoming general election. Our main opponent will be Paul St-Pierre Plamondon. He is popular with Quebecers right now, and if there’s an election tomorrow, he’s going to become our Premier, according to the polls. I do know that we should not always count on the polls. But with that being said, I think people like the way he does politics much more than what he says.

BW: I think they like his style.

CM: And it contrasts with Mr. Legault, who has more of an old school style of politics. I also enter with a new way of doing politics but with much more different content, a more Liberal one. I think it would be a very interesting thing to see a leaders debate in a year and a half from now with myself, Mr. Plamondon and Mr. Legault. When you’re talking about renewal, it’s not a question of age, you’re right, it’s a question of what you represent for the future and the fact that so many young Liberals have supported me from day one. It’s been 300 days I’m on the road, having been the first to declare. I’m actually the dean of this campaign! Can you believe that? From what I’m hearing from Liberals that are 70 years old and 16 years old, I think they believe it’s time to write a new chapter of the party. When I see my co-president of the campaign chatting with [former MNA] Clifford Lincoln, I think there’s going to be a connection that is going to be fruitful for the future of the party.

BW: This is a major issue not only for the Jewish community, but the businesspeople downtown. Will you use your moral suasion if you become Premier to push Montreal police to enforce Criminal Code provisions against what we’re seeing in our streets, both the attacks on Jews directly but also the attacks on businesses downtown, the clogging up of traffic all the time at the drop of a hat?The Premier’s authority over security is Montreal is limited, obviously, but will you use moral suasion like Premier Legault tried to do to push Madame Plante to enforce the law?

CM: The short answer is yes. I think we need to show more leadership as to what’s happening in our streets in Montreal right now. I’ve been very clear that I’m standing with the Jewish community. A lot of people from the community are officially or discretely supporting my campaign. So, I’ll be very adamant about that and I think the municipality has all the regulations in place to implement that. But we need more leadership from Quebec City as to what the municipalities should do. We need freedom of speech, but we need safety as well. Maybe more empowerment and responsibility coming from the university campuses as well. n