“We make sure that it doesn’t circulate too much. » An argument for the end of the race written by the candidate for the position of co-spokesperson of the Quebec Solidaire Ruba Ghazal had to remain among the volunteers of her team. The email obtained by Radio-Canada gives them ammunition against the candidacy of Émilise Lessard-Therrien. A strategy that is not unanimous.
Communication lines have been set up for volunteers to make “crazy” calls to convince party members to support their candidate for the vote, which will take place Friday through Sunday at the Quebec Solidaire Congress in Gatineau.
In the 19 arguments presented by Ruba Ghazal we find almost no substantive idea or statement. Most of the lines are aimed at the candidate Émilise Lessard-Therrien.
She will be forgotten, writes Ruba Ghazal about her opponent, who was defeated in the last parliamentary elections after winning a mandate as a member of parliament. An extra-parliamentary speaker would be evacuated from the media room.
The place of women in our party is at stake. This is a feminist issue. This would leave all room for Gabriel.
Arguments are also made against Émilise Lessard-Therrien’s program and in relation to her age, 31 years: We need to move away from our image as a youth party and Émilise would push us even further into that image. Ruba Ghazal is 46 years old.
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Emilise Lessard-Therrien and Ruba Ghazal during a debate
Photo: Radio-Canada / Guillaume Croteau-Langevin
Ruba Ghazal had promised a positive election campaign
There will be no division, Ruba Ghazal warned in an Aug. 24 interview with Radio-Canada. I am sure that at Québec Solidaire we have the maturity to run this race in a respectful manner. […] I will do everything to keep our group together. I take it as a personal responsibility.
According to multiple sources within the party who had access to the email, the exact opposite happened with the candidate’s instructions to her members.
Émilise Lessard-Therrien did not respond to our request to comment on the content of the argument in question, but her supporters are disturbed by the document. A person close to him concludes that it is a real negative campaign. The former member for Rouyn-Noranda-Témiscamingue’s team ensures that his arguments present ideas in favor of his candidate and not against others.
There is no such thing on our side, assures Christine Labrie, the third candidate in the race. People calling on my behalf have been asked to explain the reasons why they support me, let alone other candidates.
For me, running a positive, constructive and respectful campaign towards others means speaking about what I have to offer […] and I expect the same from my colleagues.
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Christine Labrie, Émilise Lessard-Therrien and Ruba Ghazal hope to succeed Manon Massé as female spokesperson for Québec Solidaire.
Photo: The Canadian Press / Jacques Boissinot
Ruba Ghazal takes responsibility for everything
“I’m not ashamed of anything it says,” answers Ruba Ghazal in an interview with Radio-Canada. She claims that her written arguments are comparative advantages that she has already discussed publicly.
The candidate claims that this happens in other teams and that her team has documents to prove it. However, she refuses to share them because it doesn’t benefit anyone to do so.
It’s a race, and a race is a debate. […] I am convinced that I will run a clean election campaign.
Christine and Émilise are my friends, I love them, she says, and I never denigrate them. She reminds us that we all need to work together after this.
Why are his arguments directed almost exclusively against Émilise Lessard-Therrien? “It’s a coincidence,” Ruba Ghazal replies. I didn’t expect. Based on the discussions and debates that exist, this is how it came out.
For them, it is a fact that an unelected co-speaker will cost the party more because the other candidates already have their salaries and travel paid for by the National Assembly.
“An extra-parliamentary session, that worries me,” she said, “because Québec Solidaire’s finances are not going very well and having to release a sum of money will be an additional challenge.”
We had fewer votes, so we had less money. “We are faced with the challenge of collecting more donations,” remembers Ruba Ghazal.
Radio-Canada has also learned the party will lay off three employees from its office in December. The announcement has already been made internally.
On Sunday, co-speaker Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, who is still in office, will face a chairmanship in Congress because he has no opponent. Within the party, the event is seen as a vote of confidence at a difficult time, a few days after the publication of a very critical book by former MP Catherine Dorion.