Charest gives $100 to schoolchildren

Quebec Liberal premier Jean Charest switched the focus of his campaign from jobs to education, on Monday.

The Gazette says he promised a hundred dollars for every child in public primary school to help families buy school supplies.

He said the forty-five million dollar assistance will ease the financial pressure of back-to-school season.

The premier also said he would double the budget to forty million from twenty million for the Homework Assistance Program in Elementary School.

The aim of this boost, said Charest, is to help students pass exams by providing them with the right methodologies for studying.

At the morning news conference, Charest deflected questions about a new Léger Marketing poll that shows seventy per cent of Quebecers feel the ruling Liberals are corrupt.

A week into his campaign, Charest said he was suspicious of the polls, and did not mention new plans to fight collusion in the construction industry.

He did however take advantage of a stop in Lac Mégantic to launch fresh attacks on Pauline Marois.

He was also shifty about the candidacy of Jacques Duchesneau for the Coalition Avenir Quebec party.