(Quebec) Émilise Lessard-Therrien invites Québec Solidaire (QS) delegates, who will elect the party’s next co-spokesperson in November, to “try something different.”
Posted at 12:53 p.m.
Caroline Plante The Canadian Press
“We’ve reached a ceiling there, so we need to try something different, and I think the rurality map is what it allows for,” the former Abitibian MP and speaker candidate argued in an interview.
“One of my strengths is that I have a different background with different standards in a remote region. […] This is where we have to start, QS, in order to continue to grow,” she emphasizes.
The mother and failed candidate in Rouyn-Noranda-Témiscamingue makes food sovereignty her priority, with which she wants to “bring back dreams” to Quebecers, as the hydroelectric nationalization project did. -Electricity.
“It should give Quebec room for maneuver, but also bring the people who lived at the back of the ranks out of the darkness. Me, that’s what I want, […] Bring a little light back where it’s much harder. »
To promote a “dynamic occupation of territory” – and combat climate change – it would invest in local agriculture and guarantee a market for small producers, for example by ensuring access to public slaughterhouses.
It would also create a national school feeding program, as recommended by the Institute for Socioeconomic Research and Information (IRIS). And it would protect agricultural land from land speculation.
Failing to address these issues head-on would be tantamount to condemning Quebec’s regions to “remain places conducive to extraction,” said the former QS agriculture spokesman.
She criticizes the Legault government’s decision to focus on the battery sector. “We will extract natural resources without necessarily having all the benefits in the regions where the resources are extracted,” she says.
“The Coalition Avenir Québec is the social project it has to offer Quebecers. But Quebecers, we can’t figure it out. Who benefits from this project? Again to the multinational corporations that come and get rich on our backs. »
Conversely, agriculture is a “structuring” sector, argues Ms Lessard-Therrien, because it cannot “relocate” and “feeds us three times a day”. “It’s good for people in the city, for people in the country, it’s good for everyone,” she adds.
Extra-parliamentary
While the race for speaker is in full swing, Émilise Lessard-Therrien still realizes that she doesn’t have the same advantages as the others.
“I am not in the same position as Christine (Labrie) or Ruba (Ghazal), who remain in the National Assembly, have a lot of access to the media and still have files with them,” she said.
Ms Lessard-Therrien continues to benefit from the support of Solidarity MP for Rosemont, Vincent Marissal, while Ms Ghazal is supported by MPs for Jean-Lesage and Laurier-Dorion, Sol Zanetti and Andrés Fontecilla.
For her part, Christine Labrie received the support of four deputies, namely Alexandre Leduc (Hochelaga-Maisonneuve), Haroun Bouazzi (Maurice-Richard), Étienne Grandmont (Anzeigereau) and Guillaume Cliche-Rivard (Saint-Henri–Sainte-Ann). .
Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, Manon Massé and QS chief Alejandra Zaga Mendez said they would remain neutral until the vote, which will take place in Gatineau at the end of November.
It is a great advantage to choose an extra-parliamentary co-speaker, argues Ms. Lessard-Therrien in an interview, who wants to devote more time to the “field”.
“To be together with the people, the members of the QS, the associations, the social movements, to properly embody this party at the ballot boxes, on the streets and in the ranks, […] As I am not in the parliamentary bubble, I see several advantages.
“It will add that beautiful complementarity that QS already had in the time of Amir Khadir and Françoise David,” she says.
Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, QS’s male spokesman since 2017, is seeking a new mandate. The new speaker will replace Manon Massé, who remains MP for Sainte-Marie-Saint-Jacques.