The PQ MP for Joliette, Véronique Hivon, announced Thursday morning that she will leave politics at the end of her current mandate, in the fall.
The elected official will not seek a new mandate in October 2022, thus putting an end to 14 years of active politics. After Sylvain Gaudreault and Lorraine Richard, the MP becomes the third of the seven members of the PQ caucus to announce her departure.
His announcement came the same day as the release of a Léger-The Journal of Quebecwhich places the Parti Québécois in fifth position in terms of voting intentions, with the support of 9% of voters.
In front of activists gathered in Joliette, Ms. Hivon warned those who would like to establish a link between her departure and the difficulties of her party. “Polls have never scared me,” she said.
She said she left politics “after a long and deep reflection”, motivated by “a need for freedom and normality”, even if “the flame and the combativeness are always present”.
Noteworthy transpartisan approaches
Véronique Hivon was Minister Delegate for Social Services, Public Health and Youth Protection between 2012 and 2014, in the government of Pauline Marois.
The member was particularly noted for the central role she played, from 2009, in the debates surrounding the question of the right to die with dignity. In 2013, it tabled the bill concerning end-of-life care. This law was finally adopted in 2014, under a Liberal government, after a rare “transpartisan” process in the National Assembly.
Ms. Hivon also participated in the transpartisan committee that led to the tabling, in 2020, of the report rebuild trust support for victims of sexual assault and domestic violence.
Further details will follow.