Jean-François Lisée was in full election mode this morning, attacking the Liberals for abandoning the east end of Montreal.
“For fifteen years, Montreal East has been the Liberal Party’s forgotten child”, Lisée said at a press conference in the Montreal Tower Observatory, overlooking the east end of the city.
He claims that the Liberal government has broken its promises to restore the Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital, fix the Olympic Stadium roof, and extend the Metro blue line.
Montreal’s east end has higher than average poverty rates; something Lisée said claims has only gotten worse during the last four years.
“If you look at what the Liberals did in the last four years, I think the most dire victims are the east enders,” he said.
He points to the REM project, a light rail public transit system that will service the West Island, South Shore, and Two Mountains, as a key example of the Liberals misplaced priorities.
“For this $8 billion we could do very many things,” he said, “have the same impact in the west of Montreal, and have more impact in the center and east of Montreal.”
He said if elected, he would halt construction of the line out to the West Island, but would continue the train’s service to the South Shore and Two Mountains.
The money saved from that project would then be available to fund additional public transit in the east end.
“We owe a debt to the east end,” Lisée said. “I will the champion of Montreal East”