(Montreal) Québec solidaire (QS) will take stock of its electoral campaign with some 300 delegates during a national council to be held this weekend at Collège Ahuntsic, in Montréal.
The party of Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois and Manon Massé dreamed of forming the official opposition in the National Assembly, but only elected eleven deputies on October 3.
In a document that will be presented to activists on Saturday, of which The Canadian Press obtained a copy, the party believes that it should have bet on “simpler and easier to popularize” proposals.
He notes that his wealth tax proposal was particularly “destabilizing”.
“The complex nature of the proposal (many people do not know how to calculate their net worth) forced us to put ourselves in educational and explanatory mode and less in offensive and political mode”, one writes.
In addition, the bonus-penalty on the purchase of polluting vehicles was used as a scarecrow, deplores the party, which affirms however that it knew that this measure would be more difficult to plead in more rural territories.
Remember that during the election campaign, the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) had distributed a leaflet entitled “The Orange Tax”, in which it attacked the QS proposals.
Upon her arrival at college on Friday evening, the defeated MP for Rouyn-Noranda—Témiscaminque, Émilise Lessard-Therrien, seemed to suggest that QS simplify its message by taking inspiration from the CAQ.
“When I look, for example, at the CAQ, it’s clear: “4-year-old kindergarten”. In one sentence, we know exactly what they mean. […] When you do an election campaign, you have little time with the voters, ”she argued.
However, a few minutes later in a press scrum, QS co-spokesperson Manon Massé rejected the idea of running a “slogan” campaign in 2026.
“That doesn’t look like my party. OK ? That being said, I think so, (we need) to have a platform that is more concise, more tight,” she said.
Parity and regions
In addition to being used to take stock of the last election campaign, this national council should allow activists to debate various proposals.
One of them aims to “ensure that the solidarity caucus is equal as soon as possible”. It currently has seven men and four women. A “heartbreaking” reality, according to Manon Massé.
However, she finds it difficult to see how the management could impose, in the next elections, female candidates in so-called seizable constituencies.
“Our local associations have the full power to decide. […] That would mean that things would have to be changed, because it is not in our practice, ”she said on Friday.
“The body that currently has the power to decide must say: ‘OK, I am ready to lose this power'”, she added.
It is also proposed to launch a vast consultation tour in the regions of Quebec “to better root the solidarity project in the realities of all the regions”.
Only three MPs, Christine Labrie (Sherbrooke), Sol Zanetti (Jean-Lesage) and Étienne Grandmont (Taschereau) were elected in ridings outside Montreal.