(Montreal) Québec solidaire (QS) has officially completed its team for the provincial election this fall. Among the candidates, there are 70 women and 55 men, “a source of pride” for the spokesperson for Québec solidaire, Manon Massé.
Posted at 12:28 p.m.
The party has a candidate in each riding in Quebec. According to Manon Massé, the task of finding the 125 candidates was not particularly difficult. She says the candidates are ready “to jump in” as soon as Sunday, when the provincial election will be called in Quebec.
Although historically there has always been a lower number of women who sit in the National Assembly — the record being 42% of women elected in the 2018 elections — Manon Massé does not believe that having more female candidates is a disadvantage in the electoral race.
On the contrary, she says that it is with these “strong women” that QS will succeed in having more seats in the Blue Room.
In my opinion, it is quite unique in the history of Quebec to have a political party that wants to make gains in the next election and that presents more women than men.
Manon Massé, spokesperson for Québec solidaire
No goal was set to have more women, but the politician points out that QS has always made an effort in this direction. In particular, Québec solidaire has an internet regulation that obliges the party to present at least 50% of women among its candidates.
The spokesperson believes that seeing more female faces in Quebec politics over the past four years has undoubtedly encouraged some women to become candidates. “They saw that being a woman in the National Assembly is necessary to carry the ideas of Québec solidaire. I imagine that convinced some of them, ”says Mme Mass.
The average age of QS candidates is 39 years old. This is the first time that the political party has calculated the average age of its candidates.
So it’s unclear if more young candidates showed up for QS this year. Manon Massé says that “at first glance”, there seem to be several young people who have decided to launch themselves into the electoral race under the solidarity banner.
Another highlight, 21 racialized people and six Indigenous candidates are among those who will try to be elected under the solidarity banner on October 3.
” We did [des démarches] with several Indigenous people and six of them accepted the challenge,” says Manon Massé. She believes that Maïté Labrecque-Saganash has a good chance of being elected in the riding of Ungava, which would make her the first Aboriginal woman to sit in the National Assembly.
Among the other “brand” candidates who decided to wear the orange colors during the election campaign, Mme Massé mentions DD Mélissa Généreux, candidate in Saint-François and medical specialist in public health, who has an interest in mental health issues.