Québec Solidaire Spokespeople:
Françoise David and Amir Khadir
CBC Online News | Updated March. 12, 2007
 (Canadian Press)
Québec Solidaire was created in February 2006 after the left-wing political
movements Union des Forces Progressistes and Option Citoyenne
merged to form a new party.
Founded on principles of sovereignty, feminism, social equality, pluralism and
ecology, Québec Solidaire wants to position itself as a viable left-wing
alternative to the Parti Québécois.
The party does not have a leader, but rules by consensus and has two spokespeople,
a woman and a man: Françoise David and Amir Khadir.
In the 2007 Quebec election, David is assuming most of the duties as spokesperson
and is considered the party's de facto leader.
Québec Solidaire's 2007 election campaign is built on five key elements:
the environment, family, sovereignty, a social democratic economy and fighting
poverty. It hopes to appeal to environmentalists and left-wing voters opposed
to neo-liberalism and poses a vote-splitting threat to the Parti Québécois.
The party's slogan, "Let's be lucid, let's vote Solidaire," is a play on the widely
debated 2005 manifesto, "For a Clear-Eyed Vision of Quebec." It called for radical
changes to Quebec's tax system and debt management and was signed by dozens of
prominent Quebecers, including former PQ premier Lucien Bouchard.
"Lucidity is not only the domain of one ideology. For us, lucidity means facing questions like the environment and the growing gap between the rich and poor.
We are completely lucid, just on the left," David said recently.
The party supports sovereignty, the nationalization of wind energy, higher corporate
taxes and massive investment in public transit, among other policies.
Québec Solidaire also supports electoral reform, including proportional representation, which would grant seats at the National Assembly according to the popular vote.
The party will target the Quebec Liberals on the issues of the environment and
poverty, as well as campaigning against tuition deregulation.
Québec Solidaire is running candidates in all provincial ridings.
David led largest provincial women's group
David is a prominent Quebec feminist born in Montreal in 1948. She studied community
organization at the University of Montreal and worked at Montreal's Social Services
Centre until 1987.
David is best-known for her time as president of the Fédération
des femmes du Québec (the province's largest women's organization),
which she oversaw from 1994 to 2001. She was made a knight of the National Order
of Quebec in 1999.
David helped found the feminist political movement Option Citoyenne (Citizen
Option) before assisting in the creation of Québec Solidaire in 2006. She's
running in the Montreal riding of Gouin in the 2007 election.
Khadir: activist doctor, former Bloc candidate
Khadir is an Iranian-Canadian doctor specialized in infectious diseases at the
Pierre Le-Gardeur hospital in the Lachenaie suburb of Terrebonne in southwestern
Quebec.
He's been involved in several humanitarian organizations, including Médecins
du Monde (Doctors of the World), and has worked on projects in Afghanistan,
Iraq, Nicaragua, Zimbabwe and India.
He's also a member of the Coalition of Doctors for Social Justice in Quebec, which
opposes health-care privatization.
Khadir is a familiar figure in Quebec politics, having run unsuccessfully as a
Bloc Québécois candidate in Outremont in 2000. After helping found the
Union des Forces Progressistes in 2002, Khadir ran in the 2003 election
under its banner in the riding of Mercier, where he garnered 18 per cent of the
popular vote.
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Québec
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