Solidarity MP Catherine Dorion entered politics four years ago to shake the columns of the National Assembly. The same motivation pushes her today to leave it: at the end of her only mandate, the elected representative wants to take off to carry her convictions by pen, on stage and in the street.
The straightjacket of the National Assembly was beginning to become too narrow for the deputy to Dr. Martens. The institution, in his opinion, is ripe for a good dusting: its frameworks are “rigid, old, outdated” and its parliamentary decorum “makes difficult the social transformations that would be good for the Quebec of today”.
“These constraints must be brewed, believes the member for Taschereau. [Il] anti-systems, anti-conformists, people who want to stir up the apple tree have to go inside and question it, too, outside. »
Catherine Dorion quickly questioned the codes that govern parliamentary life. Reciting poems in front of elected officials, making fun of the full suit-uniform that dresses politicians, she has several times aroused indignation by her clothing, to the point where a cotton swab has even closed the doors of the Blue Salon to her, at the end of 2019.
An “extraordinary” adventure
Moved by the press she met three days after announcing her departure, Catherine Dorion assured that the last four years have been an “extraordinary adventure” that she advises “to everyone”. However, she deplores the shortcomings of the electoral machinery, which often relegates the opposition to playing second fiddle.
“Where it blocks is that you have a party which receives, when abstention is taken into account, 25% of the votes of Quebecers, but which decides 100% of things, regrets the united MP. It’s a few people who, for four years, pretty much do what they want”.
The spokesperson for Québec solidaire, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, praised the commitment of the solidaire. “She jostled, she disturbed, she made people dream, she also made people think,” he said of the “deputy-poet of Taschereau” who took up the torch “from the militant-deputy-doctor Amir Khadir.
He also recalled the personal and family sacrifices to which Catherine Dorion, mother of three children, including a youngest who underwent open-heart surgery shortly after birth, had to make in the name of her political commitment.
“It’s been four eventful years,” repeated his boss. Take care of yourself and your family. »
Against the “Clique”
The result of “long reflection”, the announcement of Catherine Dorion’s departure comes at a time when the construction of the Québec tramway is stalling and when Eric Duhaime’s conservative troops are gaining ground in the national capital – a rise that the member for Taschereau attributes in particular to Radio X, where the leader of the PCQ keeps his entries.
“It’s going to be a real battle to fight,” she predicts. For 10 years in 10 years, we have been destroyed by a clique, in Quebec, all active transportation projects, reserved lanes on the highway, SRB, this, that. »
As for the conservative rise in the National Capital Region, Sol Zanetti admits to worrying about it.
“I find that worrying in general, indicated the united deputy of Jean-Lesage. At the same time, I think it’s very circumstantial and it’s really linked to being fed up with the pandemic. It’s not just that, but there’s a lot of that. »
He is confident that the voters of Quebec will renew their confidence in the solidarity team. “They saw that we fought for them: they will fight for us. »
In the street
Once back to being a simple citizen, Catherine Dorion promises to continue to make her voice and that of “the left of Quebec” heard in the public space.
The third link will still find her on her way, she assures us, and she will also defend the solidarity banner during the next campaign. Sol Zanetti and Manon Massé have confirmed that they will run for a second and a third term respectively.
“No one loses Catherine, recalled the MP for Jean-Lesage. Power goes well beyond the confines of Parliament in Quebec. »
It is from the street that Catherine Dorion now wants to shake power. Faithful, in this sense, to the wish that she expressed in her infancy in politics.
“The strongest answer to make to the Prime Minister, it will perhaps not be made only in this House; she may also be heard outside, more and more and louder, she said in 2018 in her second speech to the National Assembly, t-shirt in tribute to the poet Patrice Desbiens on the back.
“I won’t hide from you that this is one of my dearest wishes. »