Étienne Grandmont is the new Québec Solidaire (QS) candidate in the Taschereau riding in Quebec City. He won the nomination on Saturday against Madeleine Cloutier and will try to succeed Catherine Dorion, who announced in April that she would not seek a new mandate.
Executive director and spokesperson for Accès transports viables, an organization that defends the rights of users of public and active transportation, since September 2012, Grandmont has made transportation, ecology and urban planning priorities of his campaign.
QS co-spokesperson Manon Masse approached Grandmont to run. Cloutier had the support of the outgoing MNA, Catherine Dorion.
"Quebec Solidarity will send Etienne Grandmont to the National Assembly," said QS co-spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois on Saturday night on Twitter. "He will unmask the CAQ's incompetence in public transportation. With him, the 3rd link project will not happen."
In addition to climate change, which Grandmont wants to address from the perspective of sustainable mobility and land use planning in particular, the candidate has the housing crisis in his sights.
"There are many renters in Taschereau; it is really a riding that is particularly affected by these issues. The phenomenon of renovations, the very large presence of Airbnb means that there is little housing for households," said Grandmont.
He would like to see more control of "renovictions" and a promotion of social housing.
QS, with Dorion, won with 42 per cent of the vote in 2018 and a comfortable majority of 8,511 votes over its closest CAQ opponent in the riding once considered a PQ bastion.
Grandmont believes that the way the nomination was conducted bodes well for the upcoming election campaign.
"The members of Québec Solidaire were numerous to vote. I think we had a very interesting and positive campaign. It allowed us to get many new members in Taschereau. Madeleine Cloutier and I went out and got 600 new members. We have reached 1500," he said.
In October, Grandmont will face the PQ candidate Jeanne Robin. She is the senior director of Vivre en ville, an urban planning and public transportation consulting organization, where Grandmont also worked.
Pascale St-Hilaire, a manager in the Quebec public service, is running for the CAQ, and the Conservative Party will be represented by Marie-Josée Hélie, who describes herself as an "expert in food autonomy." The Quebec Liberal Party (PLQ) has not announced a candidate in Taschereau.
-- This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on June 19, 2022.
