The founder of the political group Anglophones for Quebec Independence is announcing Monday that she will run for the Parti Quebecois in the next provincial election.
Jennifer Drouin plans to run in the Montreal riding of Sainte-Marie-Saint-Jacques, The Canadian Press is reporting.
Drouin, 40, is a native of Nova Scotia and has been an active PQ supporter for nearly 20 years.
The anglophone described herself as an "immigrant from a neighbouring country, Canada" in a speech at her party's pre-session caucus two weeks ago.
A former professor of English literature at American universities and a visiting scholar at McGill University, Drouin’s website states she wants to bring together all Quebecers, regardless of their native tongue or ethnic origin, around the goal of independence.
If she runs as a PQ candidate next October, Drouin would run up against Quebec Solidaire spokesperson Manon Massé in the next general election.
Drouin, who is gay, would run in the riding that encompasses the Village, and said that LGBT issues are central to her teaching and academic research. She also said she intends to address issues of social housing, homelessness and crime head on.
In the 2014 election, Massé unseated the PQ’s Daniel Breton, whose party had ruled the riding since its creation in 1988. In the most recent election, Quebec Solidaire won by a nose, with 30.6 per cent of the votes; the Liberals’ Anna Klisko had 30.3 (with a margin of fewer than 100 votes), and Breton came third with 27.6 per cent of the vote.
