When Parliament was dissolved last October, the solidarity deputation presented perfect parity: five women and five men. It was therefore an extremely dubious idea for the party, through its spokespersons, to support a male candidacy for the replacement of Catherine Dorion, insofar as what Québec solidaire (QS) can call “safe” ridings count on the fingers of the hands.
The party defended itself by saying that it presented an equal number of men and women across Quebec, and that it hoped to make inroads in the ridings where it presented new female figures. But in an essentially defensive electoral cycle, where QS’s goal was rather to maintain its gains, the result was as disappointing as it was predictable.
Those in solidarity are therefore now seven men and four women in the National Assembly. Worse, we learn that in the by-election in Saint-Henri–Sainte-Anne, which QS has a reasonable chance of winning, the party will also present a male candidate. In the event of victory, his deputation would present a ratio of two men for one woman.
It’s embarassing. The situation was perfectly avoidable upstream, but neither the authorities nor the spokespersons were able to prevent it. For a party which has included parity in its statutes, and of which feminism is one of the cornerstones, this testifies as much to a drift as to a flagrant lack of political voluntarism.
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