For Québec solidaire, the status quo is unacceptable. On the first day of its congress, Friday, the leftist party reiterated its intentions to make “significant gains” in the 2022 elections, to the point of “preparing to govern”.
It was the parliamentary leader of Quebec solidaire, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, who made this statement in the evening, Friday, in his opening words to solidarity activists. The party currently has ten deputies in the National Assembly.
The members of Québec solidaire are participating this weekend in a pre-electoral convention on the theme “To us tomorrow”. Already this week, the new president of the political party, Alejandra Zaga Mendez, had hinted at the intentions of Quebec solidaire to make “gains” in 2022.
QS co-spokesperson Manon Massé wants an election campaign that “will allow Quebec solidaire to once again increase the number of deputies” in the National Assembly. It went from one elected to three in 2014, then to ten in 2018.
“The party has grown, the party has changed. Manon [Massé] and I are asking you for a new mandate to […] take the next step with you for our party: prepare to govern, ”said Mr. Nadeau-Dubois in his speech on Friday evening.
According to the elected representative of Gouin, Québec solidaire has the opportunity to cast a wide net in the next election “by seeking out all Quebecers who do not identify with the conservative vision of François Legault”.
“What we want to tell them is: Québec solidaire is your home,” he added.
The latest news is that François Legault’s Coalition Avenir Québec is heading for an electoral raid in October of next year. The survey aggregation site Qc125 gives the Prime Minister’s party voting intentions of almost 50%.
Still according to site data, Québec solidaire ranks third in voting intentions, with 13%, a few percentage points ahead of the Parti Québécois, at 11%.
But the “progressive, environmentalist and feminist” wave observed in the municipal elections a few weeks ago, gives hope to “GND”, which hopes to be able to repeat the feat in a year.
A new platform
Friday morning, QS made public its proposal book for 2022. This 15-page document, on which party members will vote over the weekend, will lay the foundations for the solidarity electoral platform.
The twenty-page document contrasts with the habits of the left-wing party. In 2018, the QS platform stretched over 40 pages. “We have prioritized concrete and easily understandable commitments by voters, avoiding as much as possible commitments to reflection, administrative measures and very vague projects”, specifies the party in its new proposal book.
During the weekend, QS activists will vote on the possibility of reopening “Bill 21”, on new climate targets and on a substantial increase in the minimum wage, in particular.