'Listen to the youth of Quebec,' QS's Nadeau-Dubois urges Legault

"We all have a responsibility to listen to the generation that will have to live with the choices we make today," Québec solidaire co-spokesperson says.

Québec solidaire’s Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois says he and his team will fight on for the climate and for the future of Quebec after Monday night’s re-election of François Legault’s Coalition Avenir Québec.

“The climate change struggle cannot wait four years,” Nadeau-Dubois told his boisterous supporters, who packed the MTelus concert venue in downtown Montreal.

With ballots still being counted, he noted that with at least 10 elected MNAs — 11 in the end — QS was the only opposition party that did not see its seat total reduced by the wave of new members elected by the CAQ.

The QS co-spokesperson congratulated his rivals and had a few words of advice for premier-elect Legault: “Listen to the youth of Quebec,” he said. “Whatever our respective results tonight, we all have a responsibility to listen to the generation that will have to live with the choices we make today. It is not too late.”

He promised to fight Legault on any policy that QS considers to be harmful to the environment.

“Each time he makes a step toward protection of the environment, I will be his partner — and each time he takes a step backward on the environment, I will be his adversary,” Nadeau-Dubois said to thunderous applause.

He noted QS had a much stronger popular vote result (15 per cent) than is reflected in the number of MNAs elected, repeating his campaign message that the first-past-the-post political system is broken and must be changed.

The mood at the QS gathering was upbeat and energized from the moment the polls closed at 8 p.m. and it stayed that way, despite the early call of a decisive majority for the CAQ.

QS supporters crowded into the venue as soon as polls, chanting “On avance, on avance, on recule pas“ (“We advance, we advance, we won’t go back.”) The crowd grew larger and more joyous as the evening went on.

The room erupted when news first came that the party’s other spokesperson, Manon Massé, had won her third mandate as MNA for Sainte-Marie—Saint-Jacques, and again seconds later when it was declared Nadeau-Dubois had won his riding of Gouin.

“Québec solidaire is more than a political party, it is a movement, and you have made that possible,” Massé told the crowd as she took to the stage shortly after 9 p.m.

As she had in the 2018 election when she was the party’s candidate for premier, Massé won close to 50 per cent of the vote in her riding, leaving her closest opponents —  Liberal Christopher Baenninger, the CAQ’s Aurélie Diep, and the Parti Québécois’  Phoeby Laplante — far behind.

Nadeau-Dubois also cruised to victory, with final results showing he had 59 per cent of the votes in his riding of Gouin, well ahead of his closest rivals, the PQ’s Vincent Delorme and the CAQ’s Catherine Pelletier, who were almost tied in second place in that riding with 13 and 12 per cent, respectively, while Liberal Rita Ikhouane trailed at eight per cent. Nadeau-Dubois had won his first mandate with an almost identical percentage of the vote there.

Nadeau-Dubois had been hinting in the last days of the campaign that official opposition leader was probably the best he could hope for in this election, and was already talking to some voters about his hopes for “next time.”

Although fighting climate change was the main plank of the QS platform, Nadeau-Dubois ended the campaign focusing on controversial statements by Legault and his outgoing immigration minister, Jean Boulet.

In the last week of the campaign, Legault told the Montreal Chamber of Commerce that raising immigration levels beyond 50,000 a year, as QS wanted to do, would be “suicidal” for Quebec. Boulet had said at a candidates debate on Sept. 21 that “80 per cent of immigrants go to Montreal, do not work, do not speak French or do not adhere to the values of Quebec society.” Boulet apologized and said he did not actually believe what he’d said. Legault, on the other hand, claimed he was simply speaking up to defend the French language.

QS candidates were leading or declared elected in the same half dozen ridings they had won in the 2018 election.

In Mercier, incumbent Ruba Ghazal was elected with 54 per cent of votes cast there, cruising far ahead of her closest rivals, the PQ’s Sabrina Mercier-Ullhor and Liberal Catherine Boundjia, who were in a virtual tie for second place with 14.5 and 14 per cent, respectively. Ghazal had won almost 55 per cent of votes cast in that riding in 2018.

In Laurier-Dorion, incumbent Andrès Fontecilla also achieved a comfortable victory with close to 49 per cent, well ahead of Liberal Deepak Awasti and the CAQ’s Vicki Marcoux, among others. Last time, Fontecilla received 47 per cent of the votes in this riding.

In Rosemont, incumbent Vincent Marissal was re-elected with just over 37 per cent of the vote there, ahead of the CAQ’s Sandra O’Connor and the PQ’s Pierre-Luc Brilliant, who were at 23 and 21 per cent, respectively.

In Maurice-Richard, QS’s Haroun Bouazzi pulled off a victory with just under 35 per cent of the vote, ahead of the CAQ’s Audrey Murray, while Liberal Jonathan Marleau was in third place. In 2018, Liberal Marie Montpetit had scraped to a narrow victory. She was dropped from the Liberal caucus over allegations of psychological harassment and chose not to run this time.

Elsewhere, the north central ridings of Viau and Acadie went Liberal again, as they did in 2018.

In Viau, incumbent Frantz Benjamin won with 38 per cent, while QS’s Renée-Chantal Belinga was at 30 per cent. The CAQ’s Justine Savard was in third place with 15 per cent. In 2018, Benjamin had taken this riding handily with 47 per cent of votes cast, almost double the votes of his nearest rival, who was QS’s Sylvain Lafrenière.

In Acadie, Liberal André A. Morin trounced his closest challengers with 42 per cent of the vote there. QS’s Elyse Lévesque and the CAQ’s Rosmeri Otoya Celis were virtually tied, with 17.2 and 17.1 per cent of the vote, respectively, according to official Élections Québec numbers. Liberal Christine St-Pierre had easily won this riding in 2018 with almost 54 per cent of votes cast.

mlalonde@postmedia.com

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