MONTREAL -- Québec solidaire (QS) says it believes it can make gains in the next election and is already targetting five regions of interest.

The party's parliamentary leader, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, plans to travel to Rimouski, in the Bas-Saint-Laurent region, on Saturday to hold a meeting with activists.

The riding of Rimouski riding is currently represented by Harold LeBel, formerly with the Parti Québécois (PQ) but who became an independent following allegations of sexual assault.

QS says it also plans to hold assemblies with the theme "How to win" in Montreal, Capitale-Nationale, Mauricie and Abitibi-Témiscamingue.

The party says this will be followed by a second round of meetings later this fall.

The idea is to put QS activists in action and prepare the ground for the 2022 elections, explained Nadeau-Dubois in an interview.

He notes the party did the same thing in 2018 and managed to elect 10 MNAs to office.

"We're restarting the electoral machine at Québec solidaire," he said. "We are not in mode 'keep the same furniture,' we are in mode 'get more'... We want to make significant gains."

Nadeau-Dubois notes in Trois-Rivières, there is "a youth in movement" -- a places where there is "potential, appetite for Québec solidaire and a desire to mobilize," he said.

In Rimouski, he points out people are preoccupied with the hard-hitting housing crisis.

"There are mobilized student associations, housing committees, (...) there are people worried about the crisis in our public daycares," he insists. "These are places where (...) we have activists who are already active. What we want is to meet them in their regions, with deputies, to really restart the machine."

Nadeau-Dubois says he believes Quebecers want a different vision for the province than the one Premier François Legault's Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) is offering.

"I see a premier who, more and more, disrespects all the people in Quebec who do not think like him," he said. "We, at Québec solidaire, want to address all the people who have a different vision of Quebec than that of François Legault to tell them: 'There is something else.'"

The Quebec provincial election is slated for Oct. 3, 2022.

-- This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Oct. 1, 2021.