Couillard takes opponents to task over Porter attacks, negative campaigns

SHERBROOKE, Que. – Liberal Leader Philippe Couillard says his opponents will pay at the polls on Monday for what he is calling their insult-laden campaigns.

Couillard is accusing Parti Quebecois Leader Pauline Marois of taking the low road on the campaign trail and says voters he’s met have had enough.

Couillard is taking his main rival to task over comments she made Wednesday about him and accused fraudster Arthur Porter.

Porter voiced his support for the Liberal leader through an intermediary from a Panamanian jail cell and said he still considers Couillard a friend.

Asked about Porter’s comments, Marois described the two men as “birds of a feather.”

Couillard, who has been fending off attacks for his past dealings with Porter, described the slight as mediocre and negative.

He said the campaign has been acrimonious but that he’s tried his best to keep a respectful tone throughout.

Couillard was in Sherbrooke on Thursday, where he kicked off a blitz that was to take him right across the province.

He said Quebecers deserve an “election holiday” with a Liberal majority win.

Couillard said Quebecers don’t want to end up back at the polls in another 18 months in the event of a second consecutive minority government.

Marois was to give a speech to the Montreal Board of Trade later Thursday before heading north of Montreal.

Coalition Leader Francois Legault warned Thursday that the election of a Liberal government would be a serious blow to Quebec’s finances and could lead to a drop in the province’s credit rating.