During the opening of his downtown campaign office, Chagnon pointed out that the Parti Québécois retired 1,500 doctors and 4,000 nurses the last time they were in power.

Noting the profusion of campaign posters that have sprung up all over Montreal since last week when an election was called for March 26, he said he found it ironic under the circumstances that the PQ is using a slogan calling for the reconstruction of health care across the province.

"We found ourselves with a situation that was absolutely catastrophic in 2003," he said, referring to the last election when the Liberals won a majority in the National Assembly. "Rebuilding for health? That's what we've been doing for the past four years."

According to Chagnon, the Liberals under Jean Charest have doubled the number of students preparing to become doctors by creating new medical schools in Quebec's Saguenay and Mauricie regions. "We'll be starting to see the fruit of that in 2008-2009, because it takes five years to train a doctor," he said.

Chagnon acknowledged that there are still problems with the province's health care system that the Liberals haven't yet addressed. Among other things, there's a serious shortage of general practitioners. But, he added, "now nobody is going to Plattsburgh" for cancer surgery, as was the case only a few years ago.

Chagnon derided the PQ for raising the possibility that they'll hold a referendum if elected, even if they're now referring to it as a 'popular consultation.' "We had one in 1980 … another one in 1995. I'm thinking that it's enough," he said.

"No way will we have another referendum here if we are elected. It's a matter of fact that we do not need that. We need to take our time and our effort to dispense health and education and environment, but surely not on a referendum."

While it appears virtually certain that the Liberals have no intention of raising the future of the Agglomeration during the election—barring any last minute pledges—Chagnon suggested in an interview with the Examiner that a resolution could nonetheless be inevitable.

"We can't pass beside that," he said.

However, he was unable to confirm that Premier Charest takes the matter seriously enough to do something or that the party caucus has made a commitment to change the system.

"Of course, (Charest) looks at it and he understands that it doesn't work," said Chagnon. "But the question is that there are seven or eight different Agglos (in Quebec) and eventually they will probably be very different one from another."

While acknowledging that the Agglomeration issue is not a Liberal priority, he added that it's not a priority elsewhere, either. "Outside of Westmount it's not a priority, and even in Westmount," he said. According to Chagnon, the number of phone calls made by constituents to his riding office on the Agglomeration question remains negligible.