Option Nationale members vote in favour of merger with Quebec Solidaire

Nadeau-Dubois on Quebec Solidaire merger Quebec Solidaire and Option National have agreed to merge. Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois of QS on what this means for left-wing sovereigntists.

Of the 200 Option Nationale members present at this weekend's conference in Sainte-Foy, 90.7 per cent voted in favour of ratifying a merger with Quebec Solidaire -- an agreement the two sovereignist parties reached earlier this year.

Earlier this month, Quebec Solidaire's membership approved the deal in a vote at their convention in Longueuil. Eighty per cent cast ballots in favour of merging with Option Nationale.

This means that the merger of Quebec's second and third largest sovereign parties will officially move forward.

At the time, Quebec Solidaire co-spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois called the result "a beautiful day for Quebec."

Quebec Solidaire currently holds three seats in the National Assembly, and received 7.6 per cent of the vote in the 2014 provincial election.

Option National, founded in 2011, only collected 0.7 per cent of the vote in that election. They do not currently hold any seats in the National Assembly.

"We have to go past the simple mathematics of the polls. Our merger is not only a way to do mathematics with electoral statistics and adding voters to voters. It's a symbolic message and that message is strong," Nadeau-Dubois said of the merger earlier this month. "The party that is able to regroup the forces of change in Quebec is Quebec Solidaire.

The vote comes in the wake of recent polls showing CAQ with a slight lead over the Liberals in provincial popularity. Those polls also have the Parti Quebecois lagging in a distant third.

Sol Zanetti, current leader of Option Nationale, called the deal “good for the left and the independence movement," and added that the PQ is a victim of a platform that put more focus on social issues than sovereignty.