MONTREAL

North African women to run for PQ in Liberal strongholds

CTV Montreal Published Friday, March 7, 2014 6:22PM EST

Evelyne Abitbol and Yasmina Chouakri are among the PQ candidates of North African origin trying their luck on April 7. (Images vimeo.com and toukimontreal.com)

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The Parti Quebecois has introduced three female candidates, all staunch supporters of the Quebec Charter of Values, to shoot for upsets in Liberal strongholds on April 7.

Yasmina Chouakri, a political scientist, will run in Anjou-Louis Riel, a riding which the Liberals won by 3,000 votes in the last election with MNA Lise Theriault.

Leila Mahiout, director of public relations at the Arab World Festival of Montreal, will try her luck in Bourassa-Sauvé, a seat won by Liberal Line Beauchamp by 7,000 votes in 2012.

And Evelyne Abitbol, a former director of government relations and public affairs at Concordia University, will run in Acadie, which Christine St-Pierre held for the Liberals with an 11,000 vote margin of victory in 2012.

Premier Pauline Marois described the three as having “chosen to live in Quebec where equality between men and women and secularism in the state are fundamental values,” she wrote in a press release.