Nadeau-Dubois “won’t seek re-election”
More election scuttle: Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois will finish his term as MNA for Gouin but is stepping down as party co‑spokesperson and won’t seek re-election.
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dhomas 15:13 on 2025-03-20 Permalink
It’s too bad he won’t be running again. Despite not always agreeing with his politics (especially re: Quebec separation), I found him to be a politician with integrity. My wife met him and found him to have a good grasp on the plight of the common man (me paraphrasing for brevity’s sake).
The “poor showing” in Terrebonne likely has little to do with his performance and more to do with people being fed up with the CAQ and not wanting to vote liberal. It’s much easier to switch votes from one separatist party (QS) to another (PQ), when you want to vote strategically to get an incumbent party out. The biggest loser here wasn’t QS, but the CAQ. They went from 49.44% of the vote in 2022 to 28.77% this week; an over 20% drop. Yowza!
walkerp 15:20 on 2025-03-20 Permalink
I was told by someone who pays attention to these things that one of the factors of him dropping out was that he was the principle supporter of moving QS to the center and that this strategy had failed badly, losing them much of their previous core support. The election loss was another factor as well as him having two kids.
Ian 15:33 on 2025-03-20 Permalink
Yeah he def pushed QS more right, and showing his colours as just another ethnonationalist didn’t help either. One of the big features of QS sovereignty was that it was supposedly inclusive.
Mark 17:06 on 2025-03-20 Permalink
yup same here, I know a few people on the inside at QS (either ran as candidates or are active members) and there have been two cliques for a few years now.
GND was pushing for a broader appeal as he felt that was necessary to get elected…and he believed that with the PQ dead in the water (at the time), the Libs missing any leadership and support for the CAQ starting to wane, there was a legitimate opportunity that QS could form the next gov. Others never accepted this and felt he gave up too many of QS’ core principles for this pursuit. Those folks believe it’s better to sit in opposition and be firm than to dilute the policies in the hopes of electoral success.
It will be interesting to see who steps up now, I’m not 100% sure the party will survive TBH, but I hope some alternative emerges. We have two ethno-nationalist right parties that are only distinguished by their approach to sovereignty (PQ and CAQ), and I don’t even know how to qualify the Liberals anymore.
Kate 18:23 on 2025-03-20 Permalink
A chronic problem in Quebec is that the political axis is federalist-nationalist (with the nationalism often being outright sovereignism) rather than right-left. It’s proven to be impossible here to have a party of the left that isn’t also sovereignist. This is why Quebec doesn’t have a provincial NDP.
The closest we’ve had is Québec solidaire, but it would never have even got as many votes as it does if it didn’t also have as a founding principle that it wants Quebec to secede. I vote QS and I know others who do, based on its lefty principles. If the party ever got closer to power I’d reconsider my options.
Joey 10:01 on 2025-03-21 Permalink
The PQ has been polling in first place, above 30%, since at December 2024. That’s more or less when QS’s numbers went about 17% to about 11%. The PQ has siphoned off a good chunk of both the CAQ’s and QS’s support (though some CAQ supporters have shifted to the Liberals, who are on a bit of an upswing even without a leader in place).
There are a lot of hypotheses to consider here, including those described in the previous comments. Given that the news is about GND, I suppose there are also lessons to be learned about the kind of charismatic leader who can take a party from ~20% to ~33% (PSSP) vs. the kind of charismatic leader who can’t crack 20% (GND). I posit that QS’s ‘co-spokesperson’ model isn’t really viable in our electoral system. As voters, we generally know what the parties stand for, but many of us base our votes on how the current leaders express their parties values and priorities. And Quebecers are done done done with GND.
Kevin 10:32 on 2025-03-21 Permalink
I know it’s just anecdotal, but I know a lot of people who would have voted QS but never did specifically because of their pro-separation stance.
QS chasing the separatist voter is like the federal Conservatives chasing the PPC voter.
But what do I know — I’m the guy who thinks that defining Quebec voting strategies based on separation-federalism is a massive misunderstanding.
jeather 11:40 on 2025-03-21 Permalink
For a while I wouldn’t vote for them because they had no English website. They now have one page and their old platform, but I guess I’ll see what happens during the election. I don’t expect a full translation of the entire website.
walkerp 16:43 on 2025-03-21 Permalink
Will be curious how much even the PQ are going to push independence in the current climate. Quebecers are already showing themselves to be more patriotic than the ROC.