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On March 27, Quebec City's parliament, Quebec Solidaire leader Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois questions the government during question period.Jacques Boissino/Canadian Press
Quebecers first fell in love with Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois at Maple Spring in 2012, when the then history undergraduate led a student strike that paralyzed the province and government for weeks. It was when he appeared as a star spokesperson.
Well beyond his 21 years, poised, sophisticated, confident and charismatic, Mr. Nadeau-Dubois seemed destined for a career in politics. It was always a problem for him to identify the political vehicle that suited his unique talents.
Nadeau-Dubois, who earned a master's degree in sociology in 2017, was surprised to win a parliamentary seat in Montreal's by-election as a candidate for Quebec Solidaire, a victorious upstart far-left group. There were very few people. In the last state election in 2014, he won three seats in Congress, giving him only 7 percent of the popular vote.
Nadeau Dubois, then known as “GND,” became co-spokesperson for QS with Manon Masset, a popular MNA from Montreal, under the party's constitution, which calls for a gender-equitable biarchy. . By championing environmental protection, feminism and social justice, QS became the first choice for Quebecers under 35, winning 10 seats and 16 per cent of the vote in the 2018 election.
For a time thereafter, it appeared that the QS would become the main opposition party to Avenir Québec Premier François Legault's coalition government. The sovereigntist Parti Québécois appeared to be defunct, and the Quebec Liberal Party, despite forming an official opposition party, was almost completely excluded from elections in the Francophone majority.
Nadeau-Dubois and QS led the fight against CAQ Bill 21, adopted in 2019, which bans some civil servants from wearing religious symbols. The GND attacked Legault's brand of conservative nationalism as a throwback to the days of Maurice Duplessis and accused the premier of denying the existence of systemic racism in Quebec society.
During the last election campaign, Mr. Legault spent most of his time attacking QS and his party's promise to impose higher taxes on gas-guzzling pickup trucks and SUVs, making the party a target for people who earn a living. He described them as a group of woke radicals who had nothing to do with it. Buttery concerns of the public. QS won just 11 seats in the 2022 elections, with its vote share decreasing from 2018.
Mr. Nadeau-Dubois has since proposed reversing some of his harder-line positions on the environment and the economy, trying to move the party closer to the center. The QS's current program, first adopted in 2006, calls for the “socialization of economic activity” and the nationalization of major industries. But the GND's vision of a more moderate QS faces a backlash from rank-and-file armed groups who accuse him of selling out. Earlier this month, when he called on QS to represent the “pragmatic left”, Nadeau-Dubois sparked an explosive debate that could lead to the collapse of the party.
The debate over the p-word (pragmatism) revolves around the Saguenay Declaration, a document aimed at transforming the QS into a “party of government”. It outlines a bland set of party principles and abandons the anti-capitalist rhetoric that previously dominated his QS platform. It advocates “cooperation” with local communities and industry in developing climate change countermeasures.
QS members are scheduled to vote on whether to formally adopt the Saguenay Declaration at next weekend's party conference. There is no doubt that it will be a make-or-break moment for GND.
“Where will this cowardly choice to adhere to the limits of 'realism' dictated by business and media elites lead us? Our ambitions are much greater than that,” Nadeau said. A group of 40 party members opposed to Dubois' proposal wrote an open letter to Le Devoir newspaper. “Of course we want to seize power. But we don't exercise it quietly by passing some bills that the ruling elites allow to pass. It's about taking it head on and giving back to the people.”
Nadeau-Dubois is not only facing resistance to his ideas within his own party. His leadership style has also been openly challenged by many within the party. Masse's successor as co-press secretary, Emilie Lesal Therrien, said she was being kept out by a “close-knit political staff around the male co-press secretary” and that they were “subject to the usual compromises, image calculations and polling.” He resigned last month, complaining that he was preoccupied with the issue. ”
All this infighting is taking a toll on the party's popularity. According to a Léger poll conducted in Le Journal de Montréal between May 10 and May 13, support for QS has slumped to just 12%, down 6 points from March. Among Quebecers' core voters aged 18 to 34, the QS leads the PQ by just three points (32% to 29%). Overall, PQ leads the state with his 32%, compared to Mr. Legault's CAQ with his 22%.
For GND, who turns 34 at the end of this month, Maple Springs must seem like a distant memory.
