On the eve of its tour of the regions, Quebec Solidaire (QS) is proposing the creation of a regional counterweight to counterbalance Christian Dubé's health reform.

And while the party says it wants to listen to voters outside Montreal, it also says it does not want to change its image.

"Our objective is to protect the regions as much as possible from the effects of the Dubé reform," said QS parliamentary leader Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois in an interview with The Canadian Press ahead of his party's national council meeting this weekend in Saint-Hyacinthe.

To this end, the Solidaire MNA responsible for the issue, Vincent Marissal, wants to convince the Minister of Health to amend his bill to include the creation of oversight committees.

According to QS, the purpose of these committees would be to act as a counterweight to Dubé's centralizing ambitions.

The committees would have no real powers; Marissal sees them more as communication centres that would be connected to Santé Québec -- the structure that the Minister of Health wants to create with his bill.

"If the community is mobilized with all the forces at work in a democratic institution like a monitoring committee, and if they send out every possible and imaginable signal, it's going to be pretty hard to get around them," he added.

QS knows that it must appeal to the regions if it wants to broaden its electoral base in the next election. The results of the last election were disappointing for Quebec Solidaire, particularly in the regions. Their campaign was weighed down by their proposal to tax polluting vehicles. The party will be launching its regional tour at its national council.

But while the left-wing party already has a ready-made health solution to propose to the regions, it is also in listening mode.

"The tour of the regions is not an opportunity for QS to promote its proposals. The objective is to listen to people. The 12 MNAs are going to show up with a lot of humility to listen to people and try to think with them," said Nadeau-Dubois.

NATIONALISM

While the latest Léger poll commissioned by the 'Journal de Québec' shows that it is the two parties with more identity-based nationalist positions -- the Coalition Avenir Quebec (37 per cent) and Parti Quebecois (23 per cent) -- that are ahead in voting intentions, QS (16 per cent) is betting that it can win over the regions with its version of nationalism.

"When you see 90 MNAs, you get the impression that all of Quebec is in the CAQ, but that's a distortion caused by our voting system. The majority of Quebecers did not vote for the CAQ in the last election," said Nadeau-Dubois. "François Legault's party won 41 per cent of the vote in the last election.

"For us, nationalism also means defending our territory. And we currently have a territory that is being coveted by mining speculators who are in the process of taking over Quebec's territory," he added.

QS is opposed to Bill 21 on the secular nature of the state.

"There are many Quebeckers in every region who are proud to be Quebeckers, but who are against Bill 21," said Nadeau-Dubois.

Also, although it supported Bill 96 on reform of the Charter of the French Language, the left-wing party wanted to amend it if it came to power. This support angered some of its supporter base.

During the previous election campaign, QS also proposed raising the thresholds for permanent immigration to between 60,000 and 80,000.

"The history of Quebec is the history of a nation that is enriched and grows by the contributions of people from elsewhere. That's our nationalism at QS. I think there's room for that vision in Quebec," said Nadeau-Dubois.

The QS parliamentary leader also said that all subjects will be addressed during their tour of the regions and that everyone will be able to be heard.

And while he asserts that QS is not a "static object," he adds in the same breath that he wants to prepare his party for the next election "without denaturing itself and without abandoning the heart of its core values."

"I'm convinced of one thing: after this tour, QS will have changed," said Nadeau-Dubois.

The parliamentary leader is also delighted that the tour of the regions is taking place at a time when the party is in a race to replace Manon Massé as spokesperson, because it will provide an opportunity to bounce ideas around. The three candidates in the race have also spoken out on the issue of independence.

Ruba Ghazal wants to put it at the heart of her political action. Émilise Lessard-Therrien wants to focus on sovereignty, that of the regions, cities and Indigenous communities. Finally, Christine Labrie does not want to make independence a priority, seeing it instead as a means of achieving her party's project.

According to Nadeau-Dubois, independence as promoted by QS can resonate in the regions.

"I think our independence project is synonymous with more power for the regions. There is a consensus on this at QS," he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on June 16, 2023.