Quebec solidaire MNAs come to defence of parliamentary leader after shock resignation

Quebec Solidaire co-spokes people Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois and Emilise Lessard-Therrien speak to the media after the party's caucus meeting Thursday, January 25, 2024 in Laval, Que.. (Ryan Remiorz, The Canadian Press)

Hit hard by the resignation of co-spokesperson Émilise Lessard-Therrien, Quebec solidaire (QS) MNA Vincent Marissal suggested on Tuesday that Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois must change the way he manages the party.

Nadeau-Dubois was absent from parliament on Tuesday, and QS indicated that he was shaken by the breakup of the party's two-headed leadership and needed a moment to himself.

Some members of his caucus came to his defence, however, claiming that the criticism levelled at him was unfair, but others avoided answering journalists' questions.

None of the MNAs dared go so far as to clearly question the singular model of two co-spokesmen, male and female.

In her resignation message posted on social media on Monday, Lessard-Therrien suggested that the party leadership was infiltrated by Nadeau-Dubois's entourage and that she had had difficulty finding her "space" within it. 

Does the co-spokesman need to change his leadership style?

"The short answer is yes," said Marissal in a news scrum before the caucus meeting, reiterating his confidence in him.

"The long answer is: what are we changing? We change every day. He adjusts every day. He's in a position that's not always easy."

"I think the criticisms levelled at him are unfair at the moment, and I have every confidence in him," said MNA Christine Labrie. "I think we need him for the future."

Labrie, who was Lessard-Therrien's opponent in the race for the co-spokesperson, would have preferred Lessard-Therrien, who was elected to her new position at the end of November, to stay on a little longer.

She recalled that she had a budget of several tens of thousands of dollars to pay for her travels and carry out her mandates.

"I find it regrettable that, in the current discussion, we're looking for someone to blame at all costs," continued her colleague Alexandre Leduc. 

For his part, Marissal, who was the only MNA to have publicly supported Lessard-Therrien in the race for the position of women's spokesperson last year, even felt guilty for not having supported her enough when she expressed her discomfort.

"It's a failure" for the party, he concluded, while his colleagues Leduc and Labrie spoke of the cumbersome nature of the party's bodies.

A number of MNAs rushed to their caucus meeting and refused to speak to the parliamentary press, including Sol Zanetti and Alejandra Zaga-Mendez.

Lessard-Therrien is the former MNA for Rouyn-Noranda-Témiscamingue who was defeated in the 2022 election. She was elected women's co-spokesperson by a narrow margin in the run-off against MNA Ruba Ghazal.

She made it her mission to root her party in the regions, given that the majority of QS seats are on the island of Montreal and that the party has plateaued well below 20 per cent in voting intentions, poll after poll.

In her letter of resignation, she said she wanted to "try to breathe new life into the party, or at least the life it had before," but that her vision had "collided with an organizational block."

At the end of March, she announced that she was taking a leave of absence for health reasons, and on Monday, she finally threw in the towel.

Of her experience, she writes: "I felt quite alone and found it hard to find my space. The different visions collided, and I found it difficult to reconcile them, and in the process, my deepest motivations for being co-spokesperson for Québec solidaire were undermined."

She also claims to have been reprimanded and not listened to.

"(....) I've been scolded or made to feel guilty for speaking out sincerely, giving opinions or following my intuition. I was invalidated when I named needs."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on April 30, 2024.