Last February, delegates to the national council of Québec solidaire paid tribute to Émilise Lessard-Therrien, whose defeat in Rouyn-Noranda–Témiscamingue had broken their hearts.
Not only was her election in 2018 proof that it was possible for QS to break through in the regions, but the MP had also won everyone’s admiration through her fight against the Horne smelter, owned by the multinational Glencore, which was poisoning literally its constituents for decades without successive governments having dared to tackle it.
Mme Lessard-Therrien, who is now a candidate for the position of female spokesperson for QS, asked her party to stop advertising on Facebook during the campaign for the by-election on October 2 in Jean-Talon. .
She went about it as delicately as possible, saying she understood the reasons which led her political party to dissociate itself from the boycott of Meta platforms, but the blame is no less real. In an interview with Quebec Journalshe explained that many QS members called her to “express their discomfort”, which she said she understood very well.
In the QS electoral platform, we could read: “To put an end to unfair competition from Web giants, Québec solidaire is committed to repatriating powers in culture and telecommunications in order to further impose digital multinationals and finance local culture and media. »
It is permissible to wonder whether a united government, whether within the framework of a sovereign Quebec or still part of the federation, would be more capable of bringing the digital bullies to bend than the Canadian government.
Moreover, without wanting to be unduly pessimistic, the day when QS will be able to form a government seems distant to say the least. In the meantime, less is still better than nothing.
What good is it for man to gain the universe if he comes to lose his soul, right? In the case of QS, it is not even a question of the universe, but simply of Jean-Talon’s constituency, where his chances of victory seem slim. His candidate, Olivier Bolduc, who is again in the running, finished second in the election of October 3, 2022, 3,000 votes behind CAQ leader Joëlle Boutin. According to the polls, he is likely to slip into third place.
We understand QS to be worried about finding itself seven points behind the PQ in voting intentions throughout Quebec, but it is not by behaving like a bunch of scabs that solidarity workers will improve their image. Strikebreakers do not have a good reputation, including among the young people that QS seeks to court.
No one is really surprised that the Liberals are standing apart — they are already completely disconnected from Quebec society — but Émilise Lessard-Therrien’s discomfort reflects that of a large part of the population, who had never doubted QS’s good intentions, even if she did not adhere to his program.
While the disapproval is practically unanimous from one end of Quebec to the other, it is disturbing that the former member for Rouyn-Noranda–Témiscamingue is the only prominent QS personality to express her dismay.
We could have expected that the two other candidates for the position of spokesperson, MPs Christine Labrie (Sherbrooke) and Ruba Ghazal (Mercier), who both said they were ready to assume the responsibilities of prime minister, would express themselves on the issue. A race for (co)leadership is precisely the time to make your positions known. Did they agree to dissociate themselves from the boycott of Meta platforms?
So far, Mme Lessard-Therrien presented herself above all as the candidate of the regions, where QS must absolutely make a breakthrough. The victory in last March’s by-election in Saint-Henri–Sainte-Anne was certainly welcome, but that only makes one more riding in Montreal. She now becomes the conscience of QS. No longer a member of the caucus of deputies, she can claim to be a spokesperson for the base. In a party where members have always wanted to assert their independence from the leadership, this can be a weighty argument.
It is true that QS will “resolidarize” as soon as the by-election in Jean-Talon is over. The next party congress will take place only at the end of November; management must hope that the activists will not hold this misconduct too harsh.
This is not the first time that the parliamentary wing has adopted a position that activists subsequently condemn, but a little slap on the wrist does not prevent it from doing it again.