Ghazal, who describes herself as a child of Bill 101, is expected to be appointed on Saturday afternoon or evening.
Québec solidaire (QS) delegates will officially designate Ruba Ghazal as the party’s female co-spokesperson during a special online congress this weekend.
Ghazal, who describes herself as a child of Bill 101, is expected to be appointed on Saturday afternoon or evening.
She will enter the arena just as Nadeau-Dubois takes a three-month parental leave, so she will be responsible for questioning Premier François Legault in the National Assembly during question period.
Of Palestinian origin and born in Lebanon, Ruba Ghazal is a founding member of QS. She was elected MNA for Mercier in 2018, then re-elected in 2022. She is currently the QS critic on issues related to education, the French language and the status of women.
On Friday evening, she addressed delegates, saying: “I want QS to embody a unifying, modern and inclusive nationalist discourse. As the only left-wing party, we have the responsibility to do that.”
The congress is expected to review the party’s statutes, in particular to make one of the two spokespersons the leader of QS within the meaning of the electoral law. Currently, it is the general secretary of QS who has this legal status of “leader.”
The change would, among other things, allow those running for office to run “real” races and collect donations for their campaigns. The party stresses this would not change the role of the co-spokespersons, or would the “leader” of the party automatically be made parliamentary leader.
Nadeau-Dubois is the parliamentary leader of QS, so it’s his role to ask questions of the premier in the legislature and participate in the leaders’ debates during election periods.
“We are keeping our functioning of equal and democratic co-leadership, which is our strength,” said QS press secretary Charles Castonguay.
“And if the reform of the statutes passes the congress, the Director General of Elections of Quebec (DGEQ) will allow us to run races with more financing and participation from members,” he added.
In addition, delegates will vote on proposals aimed specifically at electing co-spokespersons by universal suffrage and allowing internal referendums.
Across the province, QS has apparently been losing ground over the past two years. The party is fourth behind the Parti Québécois (PQ), the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) and the Liberal Party of Quebec (PLQ) in voting intentions, according to the poll aggregator Qc125.
If a general election took place today, QS would only win nine seats, three fewer than in 2022, according to Qc125.