Québec solidaire and the desire to grow

After electing a record number of 10 deputies in 2018, Québec solidaire (QS) wants even more. And if Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois has stood out as parliamentary leader over the past year, nothing has yet been decided in several ridings held or coveted by those in solidarity. Some of them will be the field of heated struggles, in particular with the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ).

“We are not condemned to a second term for François Legault”, launches the co-spokesperson of Québec solidaire in an interview with the To have to. ” [Il] there is an alternative to the CAQ, and that alternative is QS. »

The 32-year-old politician has every intention of still “thwarting the forecasts” on October 3, despite polls that seem to indicate stagnation in voting intentions across Quebec. In 2018, Québec solidaire had succeeded in its bet to leave the Montreal region by investing, with success, many efforts in Abitibi-Témiscamingue and Estrie.

Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois maintains that he will lead this year “a national campaign” and will travel across Quebec with his bus. At the same time, aboard the “Manon-mobile”, his colleague Manon Massé will go to the constituencies where the fight promises to be tight to encourage people to vote, according to a solidarity source.

Mr. Nadeau-Dubois also says that he has exceptional candidates “in all regions”. Rivière-du-Loup–Témiscouata “is not a riding where, traditionally, it has been easy for Québec solidaire”, he illustrates. QS finished fourth there in 2018 and yet the party is presenting a “very, very high quality” candidacy there with Myriam Lapointe-Gagnon, founder of the Ma place au travail movement, who denounces the lack of childcare spaces in Quebec. , points out Mr. Nadeau-Dubois. “It’s a good example of our ambition. »

Maintain Rouyn-Noranda–Témiscamingue

In the riding of Rouyn-Noranda–Témiscamingue, won by the solidary Émilise Lessard-Therrien in 2018, the fight promises to be tight. According to the projections of the Qc125 site dated August 26, the re-election of the deputy does not seem won in advance against the CAQ.

But Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois is not worried. “It is Émilise Lessard-Therrien who speaks on behalf of her entire region in the Horne Foundry file, which promises to be the main electoral issue in Abitibi-Témiscamingue. The member’s fierce fight to denounce the arsenic emissions from this Rouyn-Noranda plant will weigh heavily in the balance, according to him.

During the election campaign, QS will also deploy its activists at the University of Quebec in Abitibi-Témiscamingue, as well as on other student campuses in Quebec. “We will not change things in Quebec with a single generation,” says Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, however. “My message for young people is, ‘Talk to your parents, talk to your grandparents, talk to your uncles, talk to your aunts.’ »

This “intergenerational alliance” will be necessary to fight climate change, he says.

Economic team

But the major challenge for Québec solidaire is to convince voters that it has solid economic foundations, according to Mireille Lalancette, full professor of social communication at the University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières. “Especially in a context where we are talking about the increase in the cost of living and inflation. »

To achieve this, the party has assembled a “competent economic” team, says a supportive source. The latter gives as an example the candidacy of the economist and political scientist Simon Tremblay-Pepin in Pointe-aux-Trembles, the riding of the minister responsible for the Metropolis, the caquiste Chantal Rouleau.

What about “GND”?

As parliamentary leader, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois “succeeded in doing well,” observes Mireille Lalancette. “He has a speech that carries well, a coherent speech. “The repeated attacks of François Legault against the head of QS prove that he is a real opponent of the CAQ, according to her.

But by repeatedly targeting the solidarity co-spokesperson, François Legault also diverts the attention of the Quebec Liberal Party (PLQ), which formed the official opposition party in the National Assembly. The more the vote is divided between the various opposition political parties, the more the CAQ is favoured.

At the dawn of this campaign, what is the perception that Quebecers have of Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois? The main interested party laughs when asked the question, retorting that he will leave it to the analysts to answer it. “But on the pitch, what people tell me is, ‘It’s your turn.’ »

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