Article content
QUEBEC CITY — The race to succeed Manon Massé as co-spokesperson of Québec solidaire isn’t over yet and already Christine Labrie says she is ready for the premier’s job in 2026.
Before entering the race to become QS co-spokesperson, Labrie says she asked herself if she was ready to be a candidate for premier in 2026, should party members so choose.
Article content
“The answer is yes; otherwise, I would not have entered this race,” she said in an interview with Presse Canadienne.
Article content
Labrie, 35, said she is confident she has what it takes to increase support for her party, which has plateaued since the last election. “Of the entire caucus, I’m the one whose approval rating has increased the most between 2018 and 2022,” she said.
According to the Elections Quebec website, Labrie received 12,315 votes in 2018 and 15,548 in 2022 — an increase of more than 3,000 votes.
Former Rouyn-Noranda–Témiscamingue MNA Émilise Lessard-Therrien and Ruba Ghazal, the QS MNA for the Mercier riding, are also in the race to replace Massé.
Ghazal received about 1,000 fewer votes in 2022 than in 2018, while Lessard-Therrien was defeated in 2022.
“The greatest challenge to the QS at this point is to get beyond its usual habit of capping at 15 to 16 per cent of voters,” Labrie said.
She said the typical QS voter is someone who is already engaged politically and who has a higher-than-average level of education.
“I want us to give ourselves the mandate to expand beyond that,” Labrie said. “That means going to talk to people who aren’t necessarily involved in social movements or civic struggles — people who face challenges in their family or professional lives who are perhaps too much in survival mode to be involved politically.”
Article content
Labrie said she believes her way of being in politics attracts people beyond QS circles.
“People who were in the habit of voting for another party before or who voted for the Coalition Avenir Québec in 2018 and trusted me in 2022, who appreciate my way or working with people, who appreciate the tone I bring to what I do,” she said.
If she is chosen to succeed Massé as party co-spokesperson, Labrie said she plans to become more prominent in her party. “I am not in this race to become a decorative accessory,” she said.
Party activists reproached the QS for having promoted Massé less than co-spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois in the previous election. Labrie said if elected, she would be at Nadeau-Dubois’s side on the bus during the next electoral campaign.
“Certainly, I want to take more space than was accorded to the party co-spokesperson who was not parliamentary leader,” Labrie said.
Nadeau-Dubois took over from Massé as QS parliamentary leader in 2021.
The race to succeed Massé began on Aug. 25. The party’s new co-spokesperson will be elected at the party’s congress of Nov. 24 to 26.
Québec solidaire chooses male candidate after debate over gender parity
Québec solidaire wants to stop ‘wild west’ commercial rent hikes
