Manon Massé narrowly wins third seat for Québec Solidaire
New MNA for Ste-Marie–St-Jacques says Québec Solidaire has replaced PQ as the left's best option
Québec Solidaire gained a new seat last night in one of the tightest races run in the 2014 Quebec election.
After eking past her Liberal opponent with fewer than 100 votes between them, Manon Massé — the left-leaning party’s candidate in the downtown Montreal riding of Ste-Marie–St-Jacques — will join Françoise David and Amir Khadir in the National Assembly at the start of the new session.
We walked for a long time, and we’re still walking. Piece by piece, we’re going to have it.- Manon Massé, Québec Solidaire MNA
In a short interview with CBC Daybreak host Mike Finnerty Tuesday morning, Massé said she believed people on the left wing of Quebec’s political spectrum who may have voted for the Parti Québécois in the past now see a better option with Québec Solidaire.
“They want another voice in the National Assembly,” she said of her constituents.
Québec Solidaire is the product of the 2006 merging of two smaller left-wing parties, Union des forces progressistes and Option Citoyenne.
The success of the party has been incremental since Khadir was elected as its first MNA in the 2008 election, in the Plateau-Mont-Royal riding of Mercier. He was joined by David in 2012 in the neighbouring Gouin.
With the addition of the adjacent Ste-Marie–St-Jacques, Québec Solidaire now has a little orange block in a sea of mostly red (only four on-island ridings went to the PQ).
“We walked for a long time, and we’re still walking. Piece by piece, we’re going to have it,” Massé said.