(Quebec) Christine Labrie wants to break with the label of “cloud shovelers” from Québec solidaire. Combative, the academic is not afraid of upsetting activists with his criticism, at the risk of losing the race to become co-spokesperson.
“I know that what I am putting forward will shake some people in the party, but I know that it resonates a lot with others. The result, we will see it at the end […] We never do politics without taking risks,” she says in an interview.
Since the start of the race to succeed Manon Massé, Christine Labrie has not minced her words. She judges that the party’s policies to combat climate change have created a feeling of “revulsion” in the population, and that QS uses the Constituent Assembly as an “escape route” to avoid defining its independence project.
Without renouncing the “radical proposals” of QS – in this party, the spokespersons do not decide the content of the program – she believes that the recipe for convincing more voters is based on concrete and clear ideas presented in simple language . “I am better informed than many long-time members of the way people see Québec solidaire, from the outside,” she says.
“Dreaded politician”
This combative attitude is part of Christine Labrie’s personality. The member for Sherbrooke is the target of a Liberal minister, Luc Fortin, and a star CAQ candidate, Caroline St-Hilaire.
She is someone who, despite a benevolent aura, is a formidable politician. She understands the game political, she plays it in her positioning, in the way she mobilizes allies for her cause.
Luc Fortin, former Liberal minister
As a teenager, Christine Labrie already had a “critical eye”. In 2004, Sherbrooke announced that public transportation would be free on snowstorm days. The City then specifies that the idea was submitted by a young student from the Triolet secondary school, Christine Labrie, we can read in an article from The gallery.
She became politicized at CEGEP, where she campaigned in the student movement, and became a mother at 19. Motherhood forced her to stop working while studying, and she couldn’t ask her parents to foot the bill. It showed him “the need” to have a good social safety net.
During her university studies (master’s degree in history and doctoral studies in women’s studies), Mme Labrie is attracted to social causes. But she never thought of going into politics.
Butterfly Effect
It’s a strange butterfly effect that leads him to present himself as spokesperson for QS. In 2017, the pedestrian – she does not have a driver’s license – signed an open letter to denounce the Costco move which was an “environmental disaster”. A new more left-wing municipal party, Sherbrooke Citoyen, is exploring its interest.
” I was not sure. I started attending the borough council meeting to see what it was like. I noticed when I went there that I could have done a better job than what I saw there,” she says.
Municipal councilor for Sherbrooke Citoyen, Geneviève La Roche remembers the confidence that Mme Labrie had when she asked her questions as a citizen. She does not have, she says, a “flamboyant personality”, but she is “integrous, rigorous, capable of great analysis and great listening”.
Mme Labrie narrowly loses her election, but she catches the political bug. That year, she bought a QS membership card. In 2018, she was asked to be a candidate, and created a surprise by winning Sherbrooke.
Unusual trio
Newly elected in Quebec, Mme Labrie was discovered within an unusual trio that she formed with the liberal Marwah Rizqy and the PQ Véronique Hivon. They formed a united front against the Minister of Education Jean-François Roberge.
We defended similar positions on several bills. We found ourselves collaborating. There were times when we consulted each other.
Christine Labrie
She believes that this is an example that demonstrates that she is capable of transpartisan work.
Then, on the issue of the shortage of daycare places, Prime Minister François Legault called her “Mother Teresa” at the Salon bleu. “He gave me a gift. […] It gave me a lot of platform,” she says.
To strengthen her position on the subject, she launched a call for testimonials from educators and former educators: “I received hundreds of testimonies. I compiled this. I felt like I was doing a master’s thesis again,” she says.
Public health specialist Mélissa Généreux ran unsuccessfully for Québec solidaire in the neighboring riding of Saint-François in 2022. “When I think back to my decision to go into politics, it was a bit crazy. I was sitting very comfortably in my role as a doctor […] If she managed to attract me, I tell myself that it would be the case for a lot of people,” she says.
Who is Christine Labrie?
Age: 36 years old
Place of birth: Sherbrooke
Education and profession: lecturer in history at the University of Sherbrooke, master’s degree in history and doctoral studies in women’s studies
Support within the Québec Solidaire caucus: Guillaume Cliche-Rivard, Haroun Bouazzi, Étienne Grandmont and Alexandre Leduc, his new spouse