Québec Solidaire running 70 women among its 125 candidates

Why there’s an exodus of women in Que. politics Concordia political science professor Kimberley Manning on why Quebec women are leaving political life at a higher rate than men.

Québec Solidaire (QS) has officially completed its team for this fall's provincial election. Among the candidates, there are 70 women and 55 men, "a point of pride" for Québec Solidaire co-spokesperson Manon Massé.

The party has a candidate in every riding in Quebec, and Massé said the task of finding the 125 candidates was not particularly difficult.

She said the candidates are ready to "jump in" on Sunday, when the provincial election is called in Quebec.

Although historically, there have always been fewer women in the National Assembly - the record being 42 per cent elected in the 2018 election - Massé does not believe that having more women candidates is a disadvantage in the electoral race.

On the contrary, she said that it is with these "strong women" that QS will succeed in having more seats in the Salon Bleu.

"I think it's quite unique in the history of Quebec to have a political party that wants to make gains in the next election and that has more women than men," said Massé.

No objective was set to have more women, but the politician points out that QS has always made an effort in this direction.

In particular, Québec Solidaire has a policy that obliges the party to present at least 50 per cent women among its candidates.

The spokesperson believes that seeing more female faces in Quebec politics over the past four years has probably encouraged some women to become candidates.

"They see that being a woman in the National Assembly is necessary to carry the ideas of Québec Solidaire. I imagine that this has convinced some of them," said Massé.

The average age of QS candidates is 39. This is the first time the political party has calculated the average age of its candidates.

It is therefore not known if more young candidates ran for QS this year. Massé said, however, that "at a glance," there seem to be several young people who have decided to enter the electoral race under the Solidaire banner.

Another highlight is that 21 people of colour and six Indigenous candidates are among those who will try to be elected under the Solidaire banner on Oct. 3.

"We have made (approaches) to several Indigenous people, and there are six who have accepted the challenge," said Massé. She believes that Maïté Labrecque-Saganash has a good chance of being elected in the riding of Ungava, which would make her the first Indigenous woman to sit in the National Assembly.

Among the other "high profile" candidates who have decided to wear orange during the election campaign, Massé noted Dr. Mélissa Généreux, the candidate in Saint-François and public health physician, who has an interest in mental health issues.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Aug. 27, 2022.