The Liberals renovated our financial house. You like what they've done with the place?

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For years, we've been hearing from the government that we need to endure the pain of deep cuts to get our messy financial house in order.

The renos are done and, it seems, many people would rather list it than love it. So how do you persuade someone all their suffering was worth it in the end?  

Easy — open the wallet again.

Here's what you need to know on day 21:

​The Breakout

By Benjamin Shingler, @benshingler

Solid, rigorous, prudent. Not exactly words that stir the imagination.

But that's what the Liberals are promising if you re-elect them — four more years of balanced budgets and more money for health care and education, which, you'll remember, were subject to deep cuts.

In announcing his party's financial plan this morning, Philippe Couillard stressed that "the house is in order," but the province needs to exercise caution because of the uncertainty surrounding trade with the U.S. and the province's labour shortage.

So far, the Liberals have opted for pragmatic, small-scale promises over expensive, ambitious ones. Couillard is promising to tinker with the engine, not overhaul it.

But polls continue to suggest voters want change, which so far has benefited François Legault's Coalition Avenir Québec.

The CAQ's financial plan, released over the weekend, is a little looser with the government purse.

It envisions spending big money on a new network of seniors' homes and 50,000 new kindergarten spots for four-year-olds.

In order to bankroll all its big promises, Québec Solidaire wants to generate nearly $13 billion in new revenue through, among other things, a national pharmacare plan and tax hikes for large corporations and high income earners.

The Parti Québécois will release its plan Thursday.

So how do you like your campaign financial plans? Plain, or with a little magical thinking?

The Breakdown​

Not everyone is happy about Monday's English-language debate. The Mouvement Québec français, a French-language rights group, says the event — the first ever English debate to be televised — is inappropriate since the province is not officially bilingual. Read more

Good news for baseball fans: three of the four main parties say they would be open to some public money going toward the construction of a new baseball stadium. The Liberals, CAQ and PQ are all willing to play ball, as long as private investors foot most of the bill. The exception? Québec Solidaire, which won't spend "one cent."

The Mic

I would really like to know where the political parties stand on regional transportation. It's important that people have links to major metropolitan centres and vice versa be it for health, education, tourism, etc. -Don McCulloch, Shawinigan

Thanks for your question, Don! We've heard a lot about the challenges of transportation from people across Quebec and the parties seem to have taken note.

Québec Solidaire has the most dramatic solution: create a government body to manage regional transportation, l'Agence du transport interurbain. It would cut all subsidies to private companies and invest $2 billion to create a centralized system.

The Parti Québécois says it would encourage smaller airlines to move in and bring down the major carriers' prices. It wants to create a consumer protection bureau to break the monopoly it says Air Canada holds on the regions. If you prefer travelling on solid ground, the PQ says it would invest $8 million over four years to "maintain intercity bus links in the regions."

The CAQ's  platform doesn't include any specifics on regional transportation, but the party says it wants to make flying inside the province more affordable. The CAQ also wants to see a high-speed train service between Quebec City and Montreal, which would also serve central Quebec.

Finally, the Liberals want to let seniors and full-time students ride for free on public transit, both in larger cities and on intercity bus services. Couillard said students travelling from Shawinigan to Trois-Rivières to attend university, for example, would get on for free. The Liberals say they have other ideas to get people moving, such as public taxi services.

The Pulse

Asked if they'd prefer more daycare spots over tax credits for private childcare, most Quebecers who took the Vote Compass survey said they wanted to expand the public system.

The others were just about evenly split between preferring tax credits or saying they are neutral on the issue.

Take the Vote Compass survey now.

Thanks for having us over! We love what you've done with the place. We'll be back tomorrow with more election goodness in our special debate edition.

If you have questions or feedback, you can always reach us at ballotbrief@cbc.ca or give us a shout on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

À la prochaine,

-Melinda Dalton, social media editor