HEALTHCARE ON MINDS OF QUEBEC VOTERS

   “The thing I don’t like was the tactic of withholding money from health care, and then all of a sudden right now before the election there seems to be all this money pouring out,” he added, alluding to a series of funding announcements by Health Minister Gaétan Barrette for the renovation and expansion of hospitals, including St. Mary’s and the Montreal General.
   Observers credit the Liberal government’s austerity agenda — which included budget cuts to hospitals — for the fact that the government ended the last fiscal year with a $2.3-billion surplus. It’s in this context that the province’s economy has revved up as unemployment has dropped to historic lows.
  Such solid economic numbers should normally bode well for the re-election chances of an incumbent government. Yet Philippe Couillard’s Liberals have struggled in second place behind the Coalition Avenir Québec in a string of polls.