| Description | Québec solidaire is a democratic socialist political party in Quebec, Canada, that was created on 4 February 2006 in Montreal. It was formed by the merger of the left-wing party Union des forces progressistes (UFP) and the altermondialist political movement Option Citoyenne, led by Françoise David.
The party advocates sovereignty for Quebec. It also hopes to appeal to environmentalists, feminists and socialists. It hopes to cut into the support of the Parti Québécois, the main political vehicle for Quebec sovereigntists.
Françoise David and Amir Khadir are the two spokespersons. Régent Séguin is the secretary general and will act as party leader for the purposes of the Loi électorale du Québec. Alexa Conradi was elected president. However, as with its predecessors, Option Citoyenne and the Union de Forces Progressistes, there is no "party leader" in this new party. Instead, the duties generally entrusted to the leader are instead divided among the president, secretary general and male and female spokespeople.
Like the UFP before it, QS includes activists drawn from the Rassemblement pour l'alternative progressiste (RAP), the Parti de la démocratie socialiste (PDS), the Parti communiste du Québec (PCQ), and the Quebec-based membership of the International Socialists, as well as anarchist, radical and pacifist tendencies.
The aim of QS is in part to widen the appeal and organizational structure of the UFP, and to give a formal political voice to altermondialist movements like Option Citoyenne. As such, QS aims to bring together progressive forces across the broad left wing of the Quebec political spectrum.
The party's declaration of principles does not specifically endorse social democracy, socialism or communism, although it includes certain activists and tendencies that do.
Quebec's Green Party, the Parti vert du Québec, had tried to avoid running candidates in ridings where there was a UFP candidate, although it reserved the right to run anywhere it wants to (even ridings with a UFP candidate). However, such an arrangement will not be renewed since the Green Party has taken a new direction.
QS presents itself as an alternative to the main three parties in Quebec: the Parti Québécois, the Parti libéral du Québec, and the conservative Action démocratique du Québec, saying that all three are but different faces of the same right-wing ideology called neoliberalism. It also holds that its view of an independent Quebec is a completely different project than that of the PQ. Rather than working for independence for its own sake, QS works for an internationalist independentism - an independence based on principles of social justice. Independentism is, for QS, a means to an end, not an end in itself.
For several months after the party's formation, it had no official colour or logo. After more than an hour of discussion on the subject, the founding congress decided to postpone the vote on these questions until later, with a probable delay until the party's first National Council meeting 3 months later. An official logo was subsequently adopted, along with the colour blue. |
