(Saint-Hyacinthe ) Quebec solidaire faces the real risk of “capping” as an opposition party, recognizes Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois. The party will have to change by 2026 to avoid this fate, and is embarking on a tour of the regions to “brainstorm ideas”.
“We are aware of the risk of capping. We don’t live in a world of unicorns. […] Québec solidaire will have to change, ”launched the parliamentary leader of Québec solidaire on Saturday at a press briefing as part of the National Council of his party, which is held during the weekend in Saint-Hyacinthe.
Mr. Nadeau-Dubois, accompanied by co-spokesperson Manon Massé, announced a major tour of the regions. Its objective: to meet activists, but also people, groups and companies who do not vote for the party, and to do some introspection.
He sees like everyone else that it is the Parti Québécois that benefits, in recent polls, from the decline of the Coalition avenir Québec. A recent Léger poll commissioned by Quebecor, conducted from June 9 to 12, gave 37% of the CAQ’s voting intentions, 23% to the PQ, 16% to Québec solidaire, 13% to the Liberal Party and 9% to the Conservative Party.
“Since the last election, we see that QS is stable. The optimistic reading: our support is solid and the victory in Saint-Henri–Sainte-Anne is proof of that. The pessimistic reading: this is the risk of a ceiling. Both are true. We have work to do to avoid this risk,” added Mr. Nadeau-Dubois.
Avoid the echo chamber
The party’s elected officials will therefore be on the road all fall and part of the winter. The first stops: Outaouais, Bas-Saint-Laurent and Mauricie, where they will talk about social services, mining claims, agriculture and help for the elderly, in particular.
“The goal is to get out of our comfort zone, think outside the box and avoid the echo chamber. The goal of the tour is to push ourselves to come back stronger in 2026,” he explained.
Concretely, the party does not want to renounce its “values” and its compass “is not out of whack”. For example, for the environment, QS “will not become a pro-oil party”, but Mr. Nadeau-Dubois wants to know “how to make our proposals more unifying”.
After the tour, the next big step will be the National Council in May 2024. The parliamentary leader indicates that everything will be on the table: the party’s program, its electoral platform, the communications department, the party’s organization: everything can be modified according to the results of the regional tour.