In an article in La Presse, Joël Macoir, a retired professor and researcher at the CERVO Research Centre, suggests putting election promises through a kind of peer review, as in science. He examines five pledges. According to a meta-analysis, the Liberal Party’s (PLQ) telehealth platform would not reduce emergency room visits. The link the Parti Québécois (PQ) draws between immigration and housing is real, but would account for only about 11% of the rise in prices. Québec solidaire’s (QS) cap on rent increases does slow them, but may hurt the rental supply. Carbon pricing, which the Conservative Party (PCQ) wants to scrap, cuts emissions by about 10% on average. Finally, increasing the number of imaging tests, as the CAQ proposes, does not guarantee better care. His conclusion: the problem lies less in the promises themselves than in the certainty with which their effects are announced.

Read the full article in La Presse (in French)