(Quebec) After only five months in office as female co-spokesperson for Québec solidaire, Émilise Lessard-Therrien resigns and points to “a small team of professionals woven tightly around the male spokesperson” , Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, who made her feel “very alone” and with whom she had “difficulty finding [son] space “.
“Just four months was enough to exhaust me. Completely. I went on sick leave at the end of March, both knees on the ground, momentum slowed down,” writes Mme Lessard-Therrien in a long message posted on his Facebook page early Monday morning. She specifies that she will not give any interviews for the moment.
Émilise Lessard-Therrien, who was first a member of Québec solidaire in the constituency of Rouyn-Noranda–Témiscamingue from 2018 to 2022, defeated in the last election, explains that she wanted to bring back “sensitivity, heart” to her party. , listening, authenticity and frankness in politics”, like the leadership embodied by MP and former co-spokesperson Manon Massé.
“My vision for Québec solidaire was clear. I carried her with me to the four corners of Quebec for 6 months, the time of a long race for the position of female co-spokesperson, a race that I wanted to be as frank as possible. […] I wanted it not to be erased by the usual compromises, image calculations and vote indicators. I wanted us to get back to arousing enthusiasm for this project, rather than falling behind what is “winnable” in the short term,” she says.
“But I quickly realized that the train was already well underway. I wanted to go there, try to influence the framework of reflection and decision-making led or nourished by a small team of professionals woven tightly around the male spokesperson. I sometimes got there, but I felt very alone there and I had difficulty finding my space there. The different visions collided, seeming to me to be difficult to reconcile, marking in the process my deep motivations for being co-spokesperson for Québec solidaire,” continues M.me Lessard-Therrien.
“Throughout this, I was scolded or made to feel guilty for speaking sincerely, for giving opinions or following my intuition. I was invalidated when I named needs. So, I started to be afraid, afraid to say, afraid of not being heard, recognized, understood. […] For these reasons, I fell into “survival” mode in my party,” she adds.
“I have to face the facts: it was impossible for me to sink my own roots into the leadership of the party. The different vision that I proposed encountered an organizational blockage, within a party which was created to do politics differently. And there the meaning was gone. Giving me a nasty blow behind the knees in passing so that I fall,” she concludes.
The party reacts
By way of a press release on Monday, the president of the party, Roxane Milot, issued an official declaration in reaction to the hasty departure of Émilise Lessard-Therrien, who had been on sick leave since March.
“After seven years of a duo formed by Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois and Manon Massé, welcoming a new extra-parliamentary spokesperson was quite a challenge. From Émilise’s election at the end of November until her work stoppage in mid-March, we were in a period of transition. Despite the layoffs that we had to make following the general elections, the general management of the party and I worked to reorganize and increase its resources to allow Émilise to exercise her role in the best possible conditions, despite the logistical and of distance. We looked forward to his return to complete the transition,” she wrote.
“Out of respect for Émilise, information about the process of electing a new female spokesperson will be communicated later,” says Mme Milot.
Last November, Mme Lessard-Therrien won the election to become co-spokesperson for the party by obtaining 50.3% of the votes in the second round, finishing the race ahead of MPs Ruba Ghazal (36.2%) and Christine Labrie (28.4%). %).
At the time of publication, the party’s male co-spokesperson and parliamentary leader, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, had still not reacted. This shock resignation of Émilise Lessard-Therrien is a hard blow for him and for his team, criticisms which add to those published by ex-MP Catherine Dorion in her essay The hotheads.
“No one, ever, should come out so hurt by their political commitment. Nowhere and especially not in Québec solidaire,” Mr. Nadeau-Dubois reacted last fall, after reading the book by his former colleague.