(Rimouski) Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois defends himself from fueling the eco-anxiety of Quebecers by constantly repeating that the October 3 elections are those of the “last chance” for the climate. On the first day of advance voting, he also urged young people to vote. “Don’t let that little bit of power slip through your fingers,” he told them.
Posted at 12:30 p.m.
According to the co-spokesperson for Québec solidaire (QS), his party’s electoral platform offers solutions to citizens who want to reduce their environmental footprint, in particular by creating state corporations for intercity transportation.
“In 2022, we can no longer consider the environment to be a subject like any other. If the climate gets the hell out, everything else will get the fuck out. […] If we don’t take this bend, there is no other bend we can take, ”he said Sunday of his visit to Rimouski, where QS is making every effort to delight the riding from the Parti Québécois. (PQ).
To achieve this, the left-wing party is calling for mobilization among young voters, repeating to anyone who wants to listen that these elections are the “last chance” for the climate, that is to say to reduce emissions. of greenhouse gases (GHG) and limit the increase in global warming.
“The young people of Quebec, in this election, have about one vote out of three. It is a power. What I say to young people is use that little bit of power that you have. This is the last chance election for climate change. Don’t let this little bit of power slip through your fingers,” said Mr. Nadeau-Dubois.
Her candidate in Rimouski, Carol-Ann Kack, also says that young people are mobilizing for her in her region.
“The campaign managed to interest young people enough so that we not only have young people from university, CEGEP, but also high school who get involved. This week, we lowered that to 12. 12-year-olds have come to help us here, because they are concerned […]. I find it breathtaking to see what is happening right now. I think the signal to send is to listen to them,” she said.
Don’t point fingers
The solidarity co-spokesperson was also confronted on Sunday with a post published on Facebook in 2021 by his candidate in the riding of Anjou–Louis-Riel, in Montreal, Laurence Pageau. The latter wrote, among other things, that it seemed to her “more and more that the short-term solution is to constantly show critical thinking in relation to our consumption and that of those around us”.
“Feel bad. Make the world feel bad for making decisions that go against your values. Peer pressure and fear of judgment are human weaknesses that can be used to fight climate change. Otherwise, the deficient ability of the human mind to conceive of climate risk and to act accordingly will again and again fail to get us to take the right actions in time,” she wrote.
Called to react, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois said he would take the time to read the publication of his candidate, but that according to him, pointing the finger is not an effective way to mobilize the population.
“What will mobilize people to make better ecological choices? I don’t think it’s pointing fingers at each other. I think that’s the old way of looking at ecological transition,” he said.
“Do you drink your Seven-Up through a paper straw? Do you brew your coffee with a piece of plastic or a piece of wood? This way of seeing the ecological transition based on individual choices alone is an old way of seeing things. What we want at QS is to give people the opportunity to make better choices,” he added.
A choice between QS and the CAQ
Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois left Bas-Saint-Laurent on Sunday noon to return to Montreal, where he was participating in the evening on the first show of the new season of Everybody talks about it. The parliamentary leader of Québec solidaire promised to use his airtime on Radio-Canada to reiterate that the elections this year put the outgoing government of the Coalition avenir Québec and its political party in opposition.
“I am campaigning to win, but if we are in opposition on October 3, the more supportive MPs there are going to be in front of the government, the more we will be able to put pressure on the government to do as much as possible to climate changes. We need to have as many ecologist deputies as possible in the National Assembly and each deputy that we add is pressure that we put, “he said.