Québec solidaire (QS) promettait de conquérir de nouvelles circonscriptions. Mieux : il espérait devenir l’opposition officielle. Mais au terme de la course, lundi, le parti de gauche a fini la campagne électorale avec le même nombre de députés qu’en 2018, avec un gain à Montréal, mais aussi une défaite cuisante en Abitibi-Témiscamingue.
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« Québec solidaire va être une opposition vigilante. On va être une opposition de propositions, on va proposer des solutions et on va s’opposer à toutes les mauvaises décisions [de François Legault]. […] The fight against climate change cannot wait four years. It’s in the next mandate that it passes or it breaks, ”said the co-spokesperson of the party, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, to the activists gathered at the MTelus in Montreal.
QS has become even more rooted in the metropolis. The troops of Mr. Nadeau-Dubois obtained the keys to the riding of Maurice-Richard, in the borough of Ahuntsic-Cartierville. Their candidate Haroun Bouazzi, from the Business Development Bank of Canada, won against lawyer Audrey Murray, who was running for the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ).
Throughout the evening, Mr. Nadeau-Dubois also wondered if he would be able to count on the arrival in Quebec of the president of the party, Alejandra Zaga Mendez. The Quebecer of Peruvian origin followed the outgoing Liberal MP in the riding of Verdun, Isabelle Melançon. But at the time these lines were written, Mr.me Melançon retained his seat with a lead of barely a hundred votes.
PHOTO PATRICK SANFAÇON, THE PRESS
Gabriel-Nadeau Dubois was re-elected in Gouin.
In the riding of Rouyn-Noranda–Témiscamingue, the outgoing solidarity MP Émilise Lessard-Therrien was thanked by the voters, who preferred to elect Daniel Bernard, a former Liberal MP who is now a CAQ member. This defeat of QS is heartbreaking for the party, which was betting a lot on the re-election of Mme Lessard-Therrien. The latter has fought hard to ensure that the Horne Foundry complies with Quebec arsenic emission standards.
Seats maintained in Quebec and Sherbrooke
Elsewhere in Quebec, QS has managed to keep all the other ridings it has held since 2018. Etienne Grandmont replaced Catherine Dorion as MP for Taschereau, in downtown Quebec. Sol Zanetti also managed to keep his seat in the neighboring riding of Jean-Lesage, while the CAQ made every effort to try to elect ex-teacher Christiane Gamache, who was running for the second time.
In Estrie, where the solidarity caravan went many times during the election campaign, the party had a convincing victory in Sherbrooke. Outgoing MP Christine Labrie thus kept her seat opposite former federal MP, former mayor of Longueuil and former star commentator at LCN Caroline St-Hilaire. She was running for the CAQ.
But in the neighboring riding of Saint-François, the solidarity star candidate Mélissa Généreux, a doctor specializing in public health, did not succeed in winning the riding from the outgoing CAQ MP Geneviève Hébert. In Montreal, incumbents Vincent Marissal, Manon Massé, Ruba Ghazal, Andrés Fontecilla, Alexandre Leduc and Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois were all re-elected.
PHOTO PATRICK SANFAÇON, THE PRESS
Manon Massé was re-elected in Sainte-Marie–Saint-Jacques.
Review the voting method
In his speech to solidarity activists on Monday evening at the MTelus, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois promised that he would relaunch the fight to reform the voting system in Quebec. During the election campaign, he also claimed that the system was “broken”.
At the time of writing, Québec solidaire obtained 14.9% of the votes counted, ahead of the other opposition parties, and won 10 ridings. Éric Duhaime’s Conservative Party won 13.1% of the vote, without any elected MPs. Paul St-Pierre Plamondon’s Parti Québécois, which was elected in the Montreal riding of Camille-Laurin (formerly Bourget), won the race in three ridings and won 14.8% of the vote. Among the Liberals of Dominique Anglade, we obtained 23 seats and 14.4% of the votes cast across Quebec.
Quebec’s first-past-the-post political system does not award seats in Parliament based on popular vote. “François Legault must recognize the problem,” said Mr. Nadeau-Dubois. The Prime Minister of the Caquiste, for his part, affirmed during the election campaign that the reform of the voting system was not a priority.