Three Liberal MNAs calling it quits

CTV Montreal: 3 Liberals call it quits Three Quebec Liberals say they won't run again in a future election. Maya Johnson reports.

Three members of the Liberal party have decided their current term in office is their last.

Yolande James, Pierre Marsan, and Danielle St-Amand all announced this week that they will not be running for re-election when the National Assembly is dissolved.

Premier Pauline Marois is expected to ask the Lieutenant Governor to call an election in the weeks to come.

Marsan, 65, has represented the West Island riding of Robert-Baldwin since 1994.

“After 20 years, after consultations with my wife and my two sons, I think it was the time to step down and give the opportunity to someone else,” he said.

James has been a groundbreaking MNA. She was elected in the neighbouring West Island riding of Nelligan in 2004 at only 26 years old, serving at the time as the youngest MNA in the National Assembly. She was the first female black MNA and the first black Cabinet member, gaining the role of family minister when she was 28 years old.

In her ten-year political career, she's endured four elections, and now says she's not prepared to go through another one, especially with a 10-month-old son.

James said she doesn’t want to miss moments with son Philippe.

“Especially since ‘la petite enfance’ -- when they're young like this -- it goes by really fast,” said James, now 36.

James said she typically spends at least three days per week in Quebec City.

“Fifty per cent of the time sleeping in another city and knowing that it would be someone else putting my son to sleep and waking up with him in the morning, it is not a sacrifice that I am willing to make at this time,” she said.

On the weekend at the federal Liberal convention people were saying, "Okay, well the baby will be a year and a half in 2015", so a lot of people would like to see her run federally with Justin Trudeau.

Forty-nine year-old St-Amand, who also said she won’t run again, was first elected in Trois-Rivieres in 2008.

The West Island ridings are considered Liberal strongholds, with Marsan winning his seat in the last election by more than 23,000 votes.

The Trois-Rivieres riding has frequently been contested by all major parties in Quebec.