Rep. Marwah Rizqy is already pregnant with a 14-month-old baby boy. If she hadn't focused on her family right now, the politician would be running for the Liberal leadership. The elected official isn't shying away from running for the leadership of her party when her children are older.
Fortune smiled on him for the second time. Fertility treatments have worked again for the Saint-Laurent MP, whose birth is scheduled for the end of June. “We are expecting a second baby!” she exclaims with a smile in an interview with our parliamentary office.
The politician makes no secret of the fact that in vitro fertilization to conceive is both physically and mentally strenuous. Failures are painful. “It’s a little mental marathon,” she explains. If it doesn't help, you can't cry for long because the next treatment will come quickly.
Stevens LeBlanc/JOURNAL DE QUEBEC
In a relationship with Liberal MP Gregory Kelley, Marwah Rizqy realizes that balancing politics and family is also a major challenge. Since they were not entitled to parental leave, the two elected officials often had to drag little Gabriel from Montreal to Quebec and take turns sitting in parliament, whether in the Blue Room or for hours in parliamentary committees. “When we finished last June, I was really exhausted,” she remembers.
Of course, the National Assembly's brand new daycare center, which has been open since the fall, is a great help for young children. The Liberals don't want to be the judge or party in this debate, but they still question the fact that there is no parental leave for provincial MPs, while elected local and federal representatives are entitled to it.
Especially in her constituency, Marwah Rizqy had to learn to say no and implement shorter working days. No more activities that end at eleven or midnight. From now on she warns the organizers that she must sit by her little one's bed before he falls into Morpheus' arms.
Constant pressure on the chiefdom
And even though she has already announced her colors for the PLQ leadership contest that will take place without her in 2025, Marwah Rizqy is still under pressure. When they're not columnists, people on the street stop him to encourage him to embark on the adventure.
“It always makes me smile a little when someone says to me: “We’ll keep your child!” The goal is not to keep him, but to raise him! And that’s my role!”
Photo Pierre Paul Poulin
She decided to focus on her family in the short term, but the politician admits she was tempted by the Liberal leadership. Without the pregnancy and little Gabriel, she would be in the running to succeed Dominique Anglade.
“I love my party, and I'm not detached from my party. I see the situation like everyone else, and I too just want to get things under control again… and I like challenges, so spontaneously, if someone asks me the question, the answer is certain: it's a yes! I felt ready.”
The PLQ is not going away
At the beginning of her first semester, she didn't even think she would have children. His meeting with Gregory Kelley changed the course of his life. She is also unable to project herself into the future. The 38-year-old takes on one political mandate in each case.
These children will still be too small for the next few years. But it doesn't close the door on the Liberals running for the throne when they're older. “If I always have something relevant to contribute,” she specifies.
And despite the poor polls, she is firmly convinced: “The PLQ will not disappear.”
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